The Group Counseling and Group Work core area requires counselors to know the advantages and limitations of using groups in various settings, including career counseling.

One commonly noted limitation is that:

Group members often have a wide range of individual needs, interests, and career concerns.

A group format can make it challenging for the leader to tailor content, activities, and feedback to each person’s unique interests and decision-making stage.

This is exactly what option D describes: the leader may struggle to address the full variety of individual interests in a group setting.

Why the others are not best:

A: It is possible (and common) to assess members’ occupational functioning through intakes, assessments, and individual check-ins, even in group programs.

B: Psychological functioning can be assessed in a group setting; group counselors are trained to observe behavior, collect histories, and use assessment tools.

C: All formats (individual, group, family) have limitations; stating there are none is inconsistent with CACREP’s emphasis on critical evaluation of methods.

Thus, a major limitation in career groups is that the leader can find it difficult to meet the wide range of individual interests, making D the correct answer.