Group Proposal Paper

For this assignment, I observed an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting held at The Meeting Place on Wednesday, September 28, 2016. There were 15 members in attendance, 12 men and 3 women not counting myself. The group leaders were both women and sat at the front of the room. For confidentiality of the group member names will not be included. The meeting began with the group leaders reminding the attendees of the rules of AA and the process of the meeting. Several of the attendees read the declaration of AA and the documents associated with the meeting structure. After the introduction, several of the members gave their testimony regarding their own experience with drinking. Following the short declarations, a passage of the big book was

Deborah F. is a 53-year-old female who had been admitted to the Chemical Dependency Rehabilitation Program at Sharp Mesa Vista for the treatment of alcohol dependence and pain disorder. Her history includes several disorders that are a cause of her pain including lupus, fibromyalgia, spinal arthritis, interstitial cystitis, shoulder pain, and multiple foot surgeries. According to her chart, she had been drinking two bottles of wine daily for almost two weeks in attempt to forget about her increasing pain. She is currently on voluntary detoxification and is considered a high fall risk. Her plan of care includes a series of medications that are prescribed for her pain and medical problems. Along with her treatment, Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital implements a treatment plan for all patients in the CDRP, which is referred to the 12-step treatment. One of the main activities that are included in this treatment is regular participation at group meetings that are conducted each day. The concern with Deborah is that she has been continuously refusing to attend the groups during her three-day stay at the hospital. She believed that attendance would not help her with her drinking issues and believed that even groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous would not benefit her. Based on the nurses ' report, it seems that she will not be discharged in the near future. One way that she will be able to progress in her recovery

By being in a group, we can be exposed to other perspectives on our problems that we may have never considered. Group therapy is very effective to bring about changes in the member’s.

One Thursday night, I ventured out to into the warm early autumn night. I headed to a local hospital, where I knew there was Al-Anon meetings held once every two weeks. I believed that this would be a prime opportunity to witness a self-help group that was geared towards helping the relatives and loved ones of addicts deal with the terror of living with, or without, the addict in question. Addiction is a disease which impacts so many more lives than just the addict themselves. Al-Anon meetings are meant to help support the efforts of those loved ones as they face very different issues associated with addiction.

For people that abuse alcohol, there is a group meeting called alcoholics anonymous, which is a twelve-step program to support and help alcoholics everywhere. The location I attended was the AA meeting on 202 W. Broadway, Anaheim. The group session that I attended called their meeting “happy hour.” What I gathered to be the purpose of this organization is to help people with drinking problems or people with past drinking problems help cope with one another and recover in a safe environment without judgment. According to OC-AA, it is an association to “share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. Their primary purpose is to stay sober and help

Robert Holbrook and Bill Wilson (Kelch, 2014). The concepts behind the group’s inception are that alcoholics can assist one another based on their problematic experiences with alcohol and their ensuing recovery. Kelch (2014) described the formation of AA as “being founded on the principle that only someone with the combined experience of alcoholism could assist another alcoholic in the recovery process” (p. 223). Additionally, attending meetings helps individuals built social support systems that are unable to be attained through professional treatment. These social support systems are key in making an individual feel comfortable. Many times they result in “friendship, emotional support, experiential knowledge, identity, meaningful roles, and a sense of belonging” (Kelch, 2014, p. 223). A primary reason why AA continues to be a popular choice of support for individual seeking recovery from substance abuse is because of these benefits. According to Schmidt, Carns, and Chandler (2001), from the time that AA has been created, it has remained one of the most utilized self-help support groups for individuals with substance abuse problems. Nevertheless, there is ongoing researching surrounding the AA and other self-help groups to determine their

Jacobs, E. E., Masson, R. L., Harvill, R. L., & Schimmel, C. J. (2012). Group counseling: Strategies and skills (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Looking for new and more effective ways to treat the issues of their clients, counselors and therapists may often begin to consider leading a group therapy session. Group therapy is a form of therapy in which a therapist either treats or provides psychoeducational skills to a small, carefully planned target group of individuals in an effort to ameliorate the issues and dysfunctions of each individual in that particular group of patients together (Scheidlinger, 2004). In this group, therapists often utilize some of the psychotherapy theories such as Gestalt, transactional analysis, psychotherapy or psychodrama which they often use to treat clients individually.

Children with ADHD are in need of a group that will help to improve their academic functioning. This group would be important for children with ADHD because those with ADHD have significant impairment in multiple domains of functioning. “The most problematic is academic impairments because children with ADHD will most likely be retained, placed in special education, and drop out of school

The process of running a group therapy session is a unique time to tests a person’s skills abilities when it comes to facilitating that group. This paper will mainly look at ways when it comes to my learning's of this class that I took ways; I will also show examples and skills to run a good group therapy session. This whole paper is a reflection of the many things that I took was on being an active group counselor facilitator.

Purpose of the group counseling varies from group to group. It can be therapeutic, educational, or helping people to make fundamental changes in their way of thinking, feeling and behaving (Corey, 2004, p. 7). Group counseling/therapy has the advantage of being more effective than individual therapy because, it more closely stimulates social interactions and interpersonal communication patterns than does individual counseling (Kottler, 2004, p. 260). The techniques and strategies use in group counseling are to help resolve members’ interpersonal conflict, promote greater self-awareness and insight, and help them work to eliminate their self-defeating

The experience is humbling, and I appreciate community groups that provide this type of support for members with substance use issues, as I see this as strength-based. I felt a strong sense of bonding and great empathy towards one another. A Counter transference existed when the facilitators emotional and relapse experiences influenced an assertive reaction to strongly encourage NA attendance on members that decide to quit. The facilitator reported that quitting NA group, because he "felt better," led him to relapse, therefore, he wants to prevent others from making the same mistake.

At one point in a person life, they will participated in a group whether it is part of a specific committee, therapy, or social group. In recent years, there has been a rise in counseling within a group forum veering from the tradition individual counseling. Therapists, physiologist, and counselors believe that form of counseling is beneficial to both counselor and client. This allows the counselor to help several clients at once rather than one at a time decreasing their strenuous workload and demanding work hours. This form of counseling integrate individual that share similar issues, struggles, and experiences into one forum. This not only allows the clients to learn from the therapist but from their fellow group members. The group experience

Today, one out of every thirteen adults abuse alcohol or are alcoholics. That means nearly thirteen million Americans have a drinking problem. (www.niaaa.nih.gov) This topic offers a broad range of ideas to be researched within the psychological field. For this particular project, the topic of alcoholism and the psychological effects on people best fit the criteria. Alcoholism is defined as a disorder characterized by the excessive consumption of and dependence on alcoholic beverages, leading to physical and psychological harm and impaired social and vocational functioning. (www.dictionary.com) Through this project, the most important information regarding personal experiences

Group counseling may be adverted to as a course of counseling, which takes a group of people coming together under one or more trained therapists, who simultaneously facilitate them and promote them to help one another to overcome their challenges. The group members are usually peers who may not necessarily face the same problem, but their problems may be linked. According to Jacobs, Masson, Harvill and Schimmel (2012), all members in a counseling group wish and desire personal growth. This kind of therapy has been employed over the years and it has produced excellent results in the lives of the group members.