Mirror effects: Curative factors of group counseling in tertiary education

This study aims to investigate student-centered experiential learning in group counseling education. To create a two-way knowledge transfer medium, mirror techniques are adopted to facilitate the learning and teaching process. Thirty undergraduate part time in-service social work students who enrolled in a group counseling course are purposively invited to participate in the semi-structured interviews individually. The interviews are collected, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. The field observation notes were triangulated with the interview data to supplement the thematic analysis. Categorizing by Yalom and Leszcz’s model of therapeutic factors, the results indicate four curative factors are attributable to two-way experience, including universality, catharsis, imparting or sharing of information, and modeling that facilitate knowledge transfer of counseling skills through either participating or merely witnessing the real case demonstration. Results showed that the employment of mirroring in the learning and teaching of counseling helped students to ventilate their own emotion, learn and experience psychotherapy through enactment, and improve human relationships in their daily lives. The implications of this study are discussed the use of mirror techniques to promote positive well-being, deepen students' understanding of how the knowledge maybe valued in their own lives, and apply the skills in ways that support or enhance their current situation where they are now in.