Group Exercises for Addiction Counseling E-Book

Geri Miller

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 150

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

An indispensable collection of ready-to-use, proven exercises

Providing immediately useful group counseling suggestions and tips for addictions counselors, Group Exercises for Addiction Counseling offers powerful techniques that can be adapted to any clinical practice.

Written in the author's gentle yet purposeful voice, this reader-friendly resource is filled with guidance for developing an addictions counseling group; handling Stage 2 confrontations of the leader; and building group member awareness. In addition, the author helps counselors enhance client awareness of addiction-related stressors and how to cope with those stressors.

Group Exercises for Addiction Counseling contains valuable information on:

• Addiction recovery
• Family, relationships, and culture
• Feelings exploration
• Group community building
• Recovery skills
• Values
• Opening and closing each group session

Fostering care, respect, and honesty in the group counseling setting, the techniques found in Group Exercises for Addiction Counseling allow counselors to help their clients break out of dysfunctional interaction patterns and live better lives.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Introduction

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

MAIN SECTION POINTS

OVERVIEW

Chapter 2: Philosophy and Practice of Group Work

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

PHILOSOPHY OF GROUP THERAPY

WORDS TO THE WISE

REFERENCES

Chapter 3: Group Exercises

ICEBREAKERS

ADDICTION RECOVERY

FAMILY/RELATIONSHIPS/CULTURE

FEELINGS EXPLORATION

GROUP COMMUNITY BUILDING

SELF-ESTEEM

RECOVERY SKILLS: COMMUNICATION/MINDFULNESS/PROBLEM SOLVING

VALUES

OPENERS

CLOSERS

Chapter 4: Resources

READINGS

WORKBOOKS/EXERCISES

ICEBREAKER EXERCISES

WEBSITES

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Miller, Geraldine A., 1955– Group exercises for addiction counseling / Geri Miller. p. ; cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-470-90395-7 (pbk. : alk. paper); 978-1-118-22122-8 (e-bk.); 978-1-118-22879-1 (e-bk.); 978-1-118-22890-6 (e-bk.) I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Substance-Related Disorders—therapy. 2. Behavior, Addictive—therapy. 3. Counseling—methods. 4. Psychotherapy, Group—methods. WM 270] 616.860651—dc23 2011039261

This book is dedicated to Ron Hood, my husband and friend, who once again has been my steadfast partner through the writing of this book; to Gale, Abby, and Jason Miller, and Tom, Laura, Natalie, and Kate Prow—my family whom I treasure; to my personal counselors and fellow group members who years ago helped me learn how to live better in this world through their loving confrontation of me in a community of support; and to the clients I have had the honor of counseling in addiction groups.

Preface

This workbook evolved from a dinner conversation with an experienced addictions counselor years ago who said, “This is a book [a workbook on group counseling] that needs to be written for addiction counselors.” I remembered these words of Jane Albers, whom I respect and care for both personally and professionally. It felt like this book came full circle when she agreed to be a reviewer of it.

I have always drawn on my personal experiences, as a group member in group counseling, to remind me of the importance of a leader providing care, respect, and honesty to clients and creating an atmosphere in a group that is conducive to those factors. I was blessed to have those experiences as a client where group leaders and fellow group members helped me learn, in a supportive community, about my blind and hidden spots that were causing me problems in living.

Since I began working as a mental health professional in 1976, I have been involved in group work. As a counselor, I found it fascinating and powerful and have tried to incorporate it into every professional job I have had. In my Master’s degree program I studied group work beyond classroom assignments, and my doctoral internship was in a counseling center that emphasized group counseling. Much of my counseling in the addictions field has been in group counseling. I have been privileged both personally and professionally to witness the healing power of groups in all of the settings in which I have worked, and specifically, I have seen miracles of change in the lives of addicts and their loved ones as a result of group counseling.

This workbook of techniques has evolved from trainings I have conducted since 1999 with experienced addiction counselors—each participant described one favorite group counseling technique. I have chosen specific exercises from this body of techniques and described them in a concise, almost recipe-like format for the reader. The goal of this book became to have tried-and-true exercises readily available for busy clinicians.

The book is divided into four sections, and the following is a brief summary of each section:

Section 1, Introduction, provides an overview of the rationale of the workbook.Section 2, Philosophy and Practice of Group Work, is divided into two areas: an excerpt from my book, Learning the Language of Addiction Counseling, that provides my philosophy of group work with addicted clients and their loved ones; and four “Words to the Wise” sections that focus on core, critical areas of group counseling that are needed to encourage healing from addiction.Section 3, Group Exercises, provides specific techniques (separated into 10 categories) that can be used in group counseling: Icebreakers, Addiction Recovery, Family/Relationships/Culture, Feelings Exploration, Group Community Building, Self-Esteem, Recovery Skills: Communication/Mindfulness/Problem Solving, Values, Openers, and Closers.Section 4, Resources, lists readings, workbooks/exercises, icebreaker exercises, and websites.

Acknowledgments

I have had numerous excellent teachers in the counseling field who have been my mentors, supervisors, colleagues, and students. I am deeply grateful for the time and energy each one of you invested in teaching me about group counseling in the area of addictions. Through watching your practice of honesty, openness, and willingness, as you examined your strengths and weaknesses both personally and professionally, I learned and continue to learn how to be a better person in this world and how to be a part of the one human community to which we all belong.

I especially thank the addicted clients and their loved ones who I witnessed being brave in group counseling, daring to be different, and as a result, healing from and learning to live with the wounds of the storylines of their lives. Your courageous stories have taught me how to live and encouraged me to continue to believe in the amazing power of the human spirit and its capacity for change, especially in the context of a community of support. Your stories are the miracles I have witnessed that sustain me personally and professionally and are a wellspring of hope that I am able to pass on to others in my personal life and professional work.

I also want to thank my personal group counselors and fellow group members I crossed paths with years ago who helped me look at my blind and hidden spots as a human being and thereby invited me into a new way of living. Thank you for being a part of saving my life. We had quite an adventure together, and I am grateful to each of you for being my buddies on that journey.

I also want to thank the North Carolina Foundation for Alcohol and Drug Studies Board and its coordinator, Dr. Jim Edmundson, who invited me to be a trainer of group counseling skills, at their winter and summer schools, year after year. These opportunities allowed me to practice what I love (group counseling) with those I respect (addiction counselors), counselors who are working so hard to be a part of saving the lives of addicts and their loved ones who are suffering with the disease of addiction. A special thank you goes to Jane Albers, reviewer of this workbook, who currently serves on the board and kicked off the idea for this workbook over a dinner years ago.

Additionally, I want to thank the people at John Wiley & Sons, Inc., who helped me write this book in so many ways: Marquita Flemming, my editor, who has helped me be the best writer I could be on this book and on two previous books. Marquita’s knowledge, precision, enthusiasm, high expectations, and sustaining support have been gifts to me; I’d also like to thank Sherry Wasserman, Senior Editorial Assistant. There are numerous other employees behind the scenes at Wiley who helped me, and I thank each of you. A special thank you goes to two individuals: Judi Knott in Marketing and Kim Nir in Production. Judi is amazingly bright, hard-working, kind, and thoughtful, continually dedicated to what is best for me, the book, and the readers of the book. Kim is thorough, precise, and delightful to work with on the seemingly endless details that go into producing a book.

I also need to thank my computer teacher, George Dennis, who remains kind, smart, patient, and honest; and Leila Weinstein, another friend and colleague, who assisted me in the compilation of materials required in the writing of this book.

I also thank my friends: Susie Greene, Kathleen Kasprick, Alice Krueger, Pat Mitchell Anderson, Laurie Percival Oates, Rod and Marilou Steinmetz, and Sue Sweeting, each of whom showed me kindness, compassion, and support in the safe havens they provided for me in the writing of this book. I also thank my Saturday-morning coffee-drinking buddies, who continue to believe in me personally and professionally.

I thank the employees of the Paul H. Broyhill Wellness Center: Jodi Cash (director), Paul Moore (assistant director), Michael Darling (personal trainer), and all the rest of my friends who work there and work out there for being one of the special, significant communities in my life who are a wellspring of hope and laughter to me.

Thank you also to the owners of the Higher Ground Coffee Shoppe in Boone, North Carolina, Matt and Gloria Scott, who let George and I work on the book for hours in their shop and for sharing their delightful personalities and intelligence with me.

And an extra-special thank you to Ron Hood, my husband and best friend, who read every word of every draft of this book and gave up weekend and evening time with me so I could work on the book. In so many ways, I truly could not have written this book without you. My thank you remains the same as it has been in other books I have written: “Thank you, Ron, for being with me on this life path. I love you.”

1

Introduction

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

This book, Group Exercises for Addiction Counseling, has a lot of meaning for me personally as well as professionally. I believe that group therapy, as practiced by experienced, trained counselors, saved my life—which is why I am writing a book about it. In group therapy, I learned, in the moment when I was engaging in specific behaviors, exactly which behaviors were inhibiting my ability to connect effectively with others and to set up a community of support with others. That is a nice way of saying counselors and fellow clients confronted me on destructive behavior when I was doing it, and I could hear, see, and feel the impact of that behavior on others through their confrontation of me. I hated group therapy because I lived in fear of it. I was terrified of learning about my blind spots and hidden spots and having them pointed out in front of others. However, I also felt cared about in group therapy. Counselors and other clients cared enough about me to tell me hard things—hard things for them to say, hard things for me to hear. People took risks to tell me things that I did not want to hear and cared enough about me to extend their own vulnerability as expressed in their honesty. They also nurtured me and supported me after the confrontation and reminded me that progress, not perfection, is important in living.

I learned a lot about myself in group therapy that has helped me immeasurably to live and work with others in the world. I came out of the experience knowing my flaws as well as my strengths. I believe it is easier for me to live in the world and, hopefully, easier for others to live with me after the experience of group therapy. That is why I believe in the importance of this workbook. My hope is that counselors can find in these tried-and-true group exercises ways to help their clients understand themselves better, thereby offering them more choices about how they can live their lives and break out of dysfunctional interaction patterns with others. My simple hope is that the techniques may be used by counselors to help their clients live better.

MAIN SECTION POINTS

1. Addiction is a significant problem.

2. Treatment of addiction requires a biopsychosocial perspective and a balance of grassroots-based assistance and research findings.

3. This book, Group Exercises for Addiction Conseling, is a complementary book to Learning the Language of Addiction Counseling, containing exercises used by experienced addiction counselors.

4. Group therapy is commonly used in addiction treatment because it offers interpersonal learning, a community of support, cost effectiveness, and a history of effectiveness with addicted clients and their loved ones.

5. Counselors are encouraged to adapt these exercises to their own practice.

OVERVIEW

The addiction problem in the United States has reached alarming significance. This widespread problem of addiction results in many clients having an active or historical problem with addiction themselves or having family members who have struggled with addiction. If clients have not had to address addiction in themselves or their family members, they often are aware of someone in their daily lives (e.g., boss, friend, neighbor) whose addiction problem impacts their life. Because many clients are impacted by addiction, all counselors need to have the skills to work effectively with addiction issues. Counselors who work primarily in mental health settings need to be prepared to work with the issues of addiction that these clients bring to counseling, as well as addiction counselors who work directly with addicted individuals and their significant others.

Currently, it is almost impossible to effectively treat addiction issues as an isolated problem because of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and societal issues intertwining with the addiction. Intrapersonally, the addiction may be in response to a trauma experienced before the onset of addiction (e.g., physical abuse, sexual abuse, dysfunctional family dynamics). Also, the addiction in the individual may be in response to some other interpersonal (e.g., domestic violence) or societal (e.g., homelessness) problem. Counseling, then, requires a biopsychosocial perspective, where the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors in the individual and his or her significant others are examined. A biopsychosocial perspective can assist the counselor in addressing issues related to the maintenance of the addiction, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of treatment for the addiction.

Accurate, research-based knowledge of the dynamics of addiction is needed to provide effective addiction counseling. Currently, counselors may practice counseling on a continuum, where at one extreme is the grassroots (self-help) emphasis and at the other is the abstract research emphasis. In terms of the grassroots emphasis, the addiction counseling field essentially evolved out of a grassroots network that is still alive today through self-help groups based on abstinence. Because of this grassroots basis and a large body of self-help literature on addiction recovery, counselors may be exposed to myths about addiction that are not founded in any clinical research and then unknowingly apply such myths to their clinical practice. At the other extreme, counselors may be exposed to research findings on addiction but not know how to apply or integrate these findings into their clinical work.

These concerns regarding the training of counselors in the addictions field led to publishing my textbook with Wiley, Learning the Language of Addiction Counseling (3rd edition)in June 2010. This textbook is one of the few books attempting to find a balance between the grassroots emphasis and the abstract research emphasis, resulting in a research-based clinical application approach to addiction counseling. Counselors require practical guidelines and suggestions that stem from a theoretical and research-based knowledge base so that they do not inadvertently enable addicted individuals in an active addiction or enable their significant others to directly or indirectly facilitate the presence of the addiction. The third edition of Learning the Language of Addiction Counseling presents knowledge that is current, emerges from a biopsychosocial perspective, and is in a user-friendly, practical application format (case examples and exercises), facilitating the integration of knowledge into practice by counselors or counselors-in-training. The book, then, is being used by students and practitioners in the mental health field.

This book, Group Exercises for Addiction Counseling, is meant to complement