Recovery and Support Groups

Although there are support group meetings offered online, these are not acceptable for this assignment.

You need to see the structure and experience the support group process if you intend to refer your clients to these types of meetings. If you need assistance finding a meeting, please use your favorite search engine and look for AA meetings in your area. You can also choose to attend Celebrate Recovery (a Christian/scripture-based 12 step meeting), NA, GA, or another 12 step (anonymous) meeting and report on the process you observed. I will accept any 12-step meeting including Cocaine Anonymous, Heroin Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Al-Anon, etc. Do NOT attend a clinical therapy group for this assignment.

The second part of the paper is reporting on the major concepts used by the group you observed, such as prayer, sponsorship, and the 12 steps, for example. Explain the purpose of each concept, and how the group members complete the process described. Finally, define the following concepts from AA: closed, meeting, open meeting, steps, sponsor, and home group. Review the directions provided and make sure you hit all the definitions listed on the assignment requirements. Feel free to use the template provided to you in Instructor Add-Ons (as a guide) as this paper must be in the APA format.

Please be aware, that 12 step meetings are NOT clinical. They are NOT a level of therapy. They are their own entity. Their “leaders” (trusted servants) do not govern. If someone in attendance is a professional, they are not there in a professional capacity. The main premise is that addicts/alcoholics can help other addicts/alcoholics. While professionals often require or recommend that a client attend meetings, those meetings are NOT professional. Sometimes, SUD treatment agencies will hold a 12-step meeting in-house. These are 12 step meetings and are not therapy, clinical, psychoeducation, or the like. They are run according to 12 Step guidelines and are their own entity. Some agencies use the 12-step facilitation theoretical foundation. This means they incorporate 12 step concepts (admitting powerlessness, working the steps, getting a 12-step sponsor, etc.) but are not 12 step agencies as there is no such thing as a 12-step agency.

Professionals who consider themselves 12 step members because they are in recovery for their own substance abuse issue must remember to keep the two (professional and 12 step involvement) very separate in their minds. Boundaries with clients will be more visible when clients attend their meetings. Professional counselors who attend 12 step meetings themselves must be careful not to “preach” the 12 steps at work and should be careful to understand the difference between clinical interventions and doing a 12-step call.

Feel free to check out the rubric in upper right-hand corner of the assignment to see exactly how I’ll be grading the assignment. As always, use APA formatting and please use headings. Remember there are two parts of this assignment and there are 4 pieces of each part. Headings will be useful for you to be certain you have hit on all required aspects and it admittedly much it much easier to grade!

Remember, it’s not about your opinion of the meetings as much as it is about understanding the process, so you can give clients an educated idea of what to expect. Likely, many of them will be extremely anxious about their first meeting so hearing what is expected of them will likely calm their nerves some. Also, 12 step meetings do save some lives. They provide a safe place for people to feel welcome: a place for them to belong. It doesn't cost them a penny, unless they have money and they can throw a buck in the basket. At meetings they will make friends, share their burdens, help others and find purpose, and find hope again. A higher power may be sought and found in their recovery process, but it is not a requirement in 12 step programs.

Meetings may be run in “popcorn” or “parliament” fashion. In popcorn fashion, people talk in any order and in parliament they go around the room. If you feel the need to say something, you can say, “I pass”, “I’m __________ and I’ll pass”, “I’m _________________ and I am just here for educational purposes. Thanks for letting me be here.” Or something to that extent. Besides that, try to enjoy! 12 step meetings are not for everyone, but for some it may be the only saving grace they find. Keep this in mind and be respectful.

Important: Do not take notes in the meetings! Also, in the assignments do not use last names and you are welcome to use pseudonyms for first names. Anonymity must be respected.

Feel free to purchase AA’s Big Book and other literature such as the Daily Reflections or the 12 & 12. Especially if you are going into the addictions field, you will want to know what goes on in clients outside support groups, so you can best align treatment to their new values and the step they are working on.

Besides the assignment, our discussion forum touch on confidentiality in groups in treatment. Again, remember it is important to differentiate between therapy groups in treatment and self- or (more appropriately) mutual-help groups such as AA, NA, Celebrate Recovery, etc. “Anonymity” is important in support groups; Confidentiality is important in clinical therapy.

Recovery & Support Groups

NAME

Grand Canyon University

PCN-501: Introduction to Addictions &

Substance Use Disorders

DATE

Recovery and Support Groups

Introduction

[Type a comprehensive introduction paragraph. Finish with thesis statement. Thesis statement makes the purpose of the paper clear.]

Part One: Attending the Meeting

[Essay expertly describes summarizes the non-clinical meeting attended, and description is comprehensive and insightful with relevant evidence to support claims. Essay provides extra details of the Part One required particulars, such as general atmosphere of the meeting place, feeling for general attitudes of attendees, titles (if known) of key speakers. Provides introspection of how the contents of the attended meeting relate to general recovery/support philosophy, including references from the text and/or outside scholarly references. Essay demonstrates an exceptional understanding of the topic.]

Part Two: Exploring the Group Experience

The Impact of Substance Use

[Essay expertly describes the impact of a substance use disorders on a member’s/ participant’s life problems, and description is comprehensive and insightful with relevant evidence to support claims. Essay demonstrates an exceptional understanding of the topic.]

Recovery Goal Examples

[Essay expertly describes two examples of how members/participants were engaged in their recovery goals, and description is comprehensive and insightful with relevant evidence to support claims. Essay demonstrates an exceptional understanding of the topic.]

Specific Counselor Actions

[Essay expertly describes two actions a counselor can take during the therapy session and related follow-up that can help someone with a substance use disorder to be successful, and description is comprehensive and insightful with relevant support by observation. Essay demonstrates an exceptional understanding of the topic.]

Addressing Self-Defeating Behaviors in Recovery

[Essay expertly describes one specific example of actions a counselor can take to help someone with a substance use disorder address self-defeating behaviors toward their recovery process, and description is comprehensive and insightful with relevant support by observation. Essay demonstrates an exceptional understanding of the topic.]

Conclusion

[Conclude the paper and all topics. Write in paragraph format and connect your content from the other sections back to the completed purpose of the paper.]

References

Use journal articles to complete this list of references. There is no specific target for number of references, but you should have scholarly support for every section of this writing assignment.

The textbook does not count as one, but you can use it to support your responses in the above research paper. The same rule applies to web-resources, videos, psychological opinion articles designed for lay audiences etc. You may use them, but make sure to have three resources of high scholarship value.

Author, I. N. (Year). Title of the article. Title of the Journal or Periodical, volume(Issue), pp-pp.

Last, F. M. (Year Published) Book. City, State: Publisher.