MIRRORING FUNCTIONS IN GROUP COUNSELLING: HOW DO MEMBERS OF THE GROUP SUPPORT SELF CHANGE?

Group counselling is one of the approaches that has been shown to be an effective form of treatment for underachieving students (Burlingame et al. 2004). Due to the mirroring functions (Foulkes, 1975; Pines, 1983) of members of a group, the subjects can learn from each other, normalize their experiences and produce change about themselves (Yalom & Leszcz, 2005). This is a pilot study that analyzes the mirroring functions of members of a group counselling in fostering self change, by adopting the perspective of the Innovative Moments Coding System (IMCS) (Gonçalves et al., 2011), a reliable method for studying change by tracking narrative innovations along the intervention. We analyzed the transcripts of seven sessions of one group counselling for 7 underachieving economics students (F=5; M=2; Mean Age=27.86; SD=7.06) who participated in "Imparare ad Imparare" group counselling of the SInAPSi Center (University of Naples Federico II). Three categories of Innovative Moments (IMs) were coded with different saliencies: a) Self-IMs (e.g. Subjects produce narrative innovations about themselves) (79%), b) Other-IMs (e.g. Subjects produce narrative innovations about another member of the group) (12%), c) Group-IMs (e.g. Subjects produce narrative innovations about the group conceived as a whole) (9%). Moreover, we analyzed the narrative sequences where Self, Other and Group IMs were inserted and if Other and Group IMs, by preceding or following Self IMs, allowed the subjects to produce narrative innovations about self change (Self-IMs). The findings suggested that Other and Group IMs were inserted in the 88% and 92% in sequences and contributed in promoting self change (Self IMs) by assuming three mirroring functions: a) reinforcing change, b) interpreting change, and c) connecting the Self and the Group in the change process. The implications of these results for studying mirroring functions and self change in group counselling in Higher Education are discussed