Constructive professional relationship in youth group counseling: an empirical study in a Beijing high school

As school social work booming in China, group counseling is also recommended by the community in order to improve students’ well-being. As a key factor to achieve the initial group goal, professional relationship in group counseling should be discussed by the academics and practitioners in China. Aiming to improve well-being of participants in a group counseling in a Beijing high school, 11 school social workers served as the tutors in the group as well as the research objects in this study.
The data consisted of transcripts and field notes from in-depth, repeated qualitative interviews with the 11 school social workers, the author connoted how emotion and instrumental counseling influence the constructive professional relationship in practice. Constructive professional relationship, a dynamic, reciprocal, autonomic and multidirectional mixed-relation, tended to create a truly full of "love" scenario where students' authentic needs and the inherent potential of well-being can be released.