• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.456-477
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to provide basic data on practical intervention strategies that many people with disabilities can empower in the future by analyzing the experiences in which people with disabilities were empowered through Encounter group counseling program focusing on people with physical disabilities and brain lesions, who account for 50% of all people with disabilities. The research questions were: First, did people with disabilities get empowerment experiences through an Encounter group counseling program? Second, what kind of empowerment experiences did people with disabilities begin to have through the program? In this study, a focus group interview was conducted with the participants of the program to qualitatively evaluate the empowerment experiences from the Encounter group program. The participants were people with physical disabilities and brain lesions experiencing Encounter group counseling programs at the self-reliance center in Seoul from 2015 to 2019. As a result of the analysis, 7 components, and 17 sub-components were derived, which were grouped into three themes: 1) restoring self relationship 2) forming new relationship with others, and 3) realizing a sense of solidarity with society. The research results were discussed considering the impact of the Encounter program on personal, interpersonal, and social empowerment of people with disabilities and finally, limitations of the study and suggestions for follow-up studies were presented.