Welcome to the course! My name is Deborah James, and I will be your instructor. I am a Wife, Mother, Certified Probation Officer, Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a LPC-I Certificate. I hold two Masters Degrees; Masters of Arts in Psychology and Master of Arts in Counseling (Professional Counseling).

For 12 years I was the Administrator/ Lead Counselor of an Adolescent Drug Treatment Center, and for the past 8 years I have been working with adults in an outpatient setting in the criminal justice field. I am looking forward to this class and am excited to be getting started.

The purpose of this course is an introduction to the patterns and dynamics of group interactions across the life span. Focus includes group therapy, structure, types, states, development, leadership, therapeutic factors, the impact of groups on the individual, group growth, and behavior. Effective group facilitation skills and techniques used to address special population issues and needs are covered.

This course is taught using team-based collaborative learning, which means that you will be responsible to work together in groups to learn.

This course requires that you already have admittance to the DAAC program.

The things that I feel are most important for you to recognize in this course are reading the material prior to class will be most helpful and remember that Diversity of thought and experience does not hinder a learning community; the learning community will really benefit from the variety of experiences of each group member.
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If you have any questions or concerns during the course, please know that I want to see you succeed. The preferred method for sharing your concerns and questions is to email me at Deborah.James@texarkanacollege.edu

I hope that you will enjoy this course, and I look forward to having you in the class.

Sincerely,

Deborah James, MA, LCDC