Offers some insight and understanding of the stress-producing components of counseling practice. Discusses some of the physical symptoms of burnout and examines why the syndrome is prevalent in the human services. Proposes the development of mutual aid groups as one solution to prevent or minimize burnout. (Author/RC)

The college and university counseling center traditionally employs standard techniques in helping students, faculty, and staff in overcoming problems of mental stress (Berman, 1972). A technique suitable to both individual and group sessions, but rarely utilized is Re-Evaluation Co-Counseling or R.C. For the past twenty years, R.C. has gained an…

"Parent to Parent" is a telephone-contact self-help group for families of special needs children. Support parents are recruited and trained to provide counseling to other parents. Professionals lead the training course, which focuses on listening, understanding, and action planning. Parents carry out the support group's administrative…

The development of a program of self-help support groups for teachers experiencing stress in Chicago public schools is described. These support groups attempted to alleviate stress-related illness by reducing teacher isolation and by enabling teachers to help each other cope with problems and fears. The support groups were led by teachers who…

This paper describes the Elder Program, a 3 year Model Demonstration Program designed to strengthen neighborhood support systems for older persons through an educational program emphasizing information, resources, and skill development. A discussion of basic assumptions and the theoretical background of the model focuses on the principles of…

The thesis of this paper is that, although the concept of teacher support groups is well accepted, their implementation is haphazard at best. Three reasons are cited: (1) Professional literature often mandates conditions for establishing support groups that are unrealistic for most schools; (2) Teachers sometimes see the support group as another…