The personal development group plays a key part in counselling and psychotherapy training, and this book offers an insight into how it works and how to make best use of it. Taking the perspective of the student, it charts the course of the group through various stages, dealing with fundamental themes such as conflict, authority, difference and defences.The Personal Development Group has a dual focus upon individual experience and group process that provides the student with a valuable resource in understanding and making better use of their own PD group. This fully updated new edition contains discussion of socio-political, economic and cultural considerations, including diversity and equality, and looks at the challenges of the online group and social media. It includes examples and exercises throughout to enhance learning.The Personal Development Group will encourage students of counselling and psychotherapy to engage with their own development in a proactive and informed manner and invite them to challenge attitudes and assumptions in a thoughtful self-reflexive style. It will be essential reading for students of any course with a PD group, irrespective of theoretical model.