Characteristics of Korean Master Group Counselors 1

The purpose of this study was to explore and understand Korean master group counselors’ personal and professional characteristics and also factors that facilitate and hinder the developmental process. Through peer nomination and snowball sampling, five group counseling experts were nominated as the best group counselors in Korea. The interview data were analyzed based on the grounded theory approach. The major results of the analysis were summarized as 65 concepts, 28 subcategories, and 13 categories. The interview data were categorized through an open-coding process. Analysis of the relationship among the categories revealed the following nine main themes regarding master group counselors’ characteristics: reasons to choose group counseling, phenomenon of being immersed in group counseling, mentors, frustrations and coping, contributions of pain, deficiency and anxiety, strategies for growth, personal characteristics, and professional characteristics.