Hi! My name is Sarah.

"Hi! My name is ______" is the way each group member introduced themselves, allowing for fellow group members to first see them as a person, instead of just an addiction.

I attended an alcoholics anonymous meeting with Sarah Caitlin Wheat and Camille Vaughn on Friday, October 23. Walking into this group I was slightly nervous not about meeting people for a different background but about making those people comfortable and making them understand that I am not judging them for their situation. 

The role of the facilitator in this session was directive and facilitative. He started the session with readings, which they start every meeting. During this time, I felt very out of place and like the session was not going to be beneficial. I felt this way because people were just reading off of paper and out of a book, rather than connecting with each other. Throughout the reading time, the facilitator would help different group members with the words that they could not pronounce. Initially that bothered me because he was not giving the group members the chance to read the words that they could not automatically pronounce, but as he explained later he did that because he did not want the man who could not read all the words to be embarrassed or ashamed of himself. The facilitator also explained that there were many people who came to group for an extended period of time who had never picked up the book to try to read and that he applauded the man for having the courage to try with the reading. The group leader was also more directive because he gave the group the what to talk about and reminded them to stay on the topic of alcohol; when the leader felt the need to redirect, he would by simply reminding the group to stay on the topic of alcoholism and how it impacted their lives.

After reading ended, the facilitator wanted to go around the room for each person to introduce themselves and tell a little about themselves. There were 8 people total in the session, other than the three of us students. He left the amount that each person shared about themselves up to the individual and didn’t ask any questions in order to elicit further information from the ones who didn’t share many details about themselves or their situation. The first couple of people did not take very much time to talk about themselves but then that changed. The 3rd person decided to tell more of his story. This man, we will call him Sam, had been trying to become sober. Sam actually had admitted himself into the hospital the day before because how intoxicated he was and had been released that day. I really appreciated the things that he had to say because he was not somebody who had been sober for years and had been establishing his sobriety for a long period of time. He was struggling with making the transition but made himself vulnerable by coming to group and sharing his experience. As the group continued to go around and share their stories, many of the other group members used their stories to build up Sam and to show Sam that there are benefits to becoming sober. The group facilitator even took a turn at telling about himself and addressing Sam. I realized as the group went that Sam was the one who opened the group up with a reading out of the “blue book”. I think this was because he was the newest and they were wanting him to embrace the commitment and the reasoning behind the commitment to the group.  The facilitator also took his turn to not only tell his story but to also thank the other group members for telling their story and/or embracing Sam. 

As I said earlier in this post, I initially thought that this group session would not be beneficial because each member was just reading from a book. When the members started sharing their different experiences, I still thought that the group was going to be fairly unproductive and not very therapeutic, but as the group started supporting the Sam I realized that I was terribly wrong. It was not the therapeutic experience that I expected to see or the way that I expected the group to go, but I could see Sam growing more and more confident as the group session progressed and that the different men gave him the confidence, through their stories, to pursue his dream of sobriety. There was a man there who had been sober since 2012. who had spoken with many different groups about his sobriety, as he spoke I could see Sam’s posture change from a posture covered in embarrassment and shame to a posture embracing the hope of his future. 

At the end of the group, the group came together holding hands to say The Lord’s Prayer. During the session, the purpose behind the goal of sobriety being God and His plan was mentioned many times. I think that them all coming together, grasping hands, and joining in prayer with those that were in the same situation that they had/are in was a way for each of the group members to feel like they were a part of a bigger group and a bigger thing than themselves. Each group member has struggled/is struggling with becoming sober and can feel alone out in the world surrounded by people who demean them and makes them feel like less than human, but within the group they are a part of hopeful and supportive community. Embracing each other through holding hands and making a complete circle, I felt like was showing that those in the group made a community, they were to there to help the group members abstain from alcohol, and to make each person aware of their place within the community.

Going to this meeting really made me embrace the fact that a meeting may not go the way you expect or the way that you have planned, but that it can still be therapeutic and beneficial. I left this group feeling empowered and ready to embrace the struggles of the world, even though I am not an alcoholic. I can only imagine how empowering this group would have been for person struggling within the group.

I think this group was a group based more on the behavior cognitive approach. I feel this way because of how the group encouraged each other and supported one another. I feel like the manner they did this was helping the other group members to change the way that they think, which will effect the way that they live their life. A person who feels alone, helpless, and unworthy of love, is more apt to embrace the feeling of failure and fall back into the patterns that they once embraced as their normal. Having others going through the same thing as you, or having successfully overcome your struggles, gives you hope and allows you to see more than just the here and now of your life.

Group facilitation: Grocery shopping

            For my second group leadership experience, I did my group session on grocery shopping. I chose this because it is something that I feel like I sometimes struggle with doing efficiently. Throughout the process of designing this group protocol, I changed and reorganized the details of the group many times. I feel like having to redo or change my initial protocol helped me to think through the session more fully and helped me to embrace how a group structure can be easily altered. 

            For my warm up activity, I chose to ask each group member to draw their favorite food and then had the other group members guess what their favorite food is. This portion of the group was to warm up the group and to get the interactions flowing. I initially thought that seeing what people’s guesses were would be interesting and that they would probably be incorrect. I was wrong. All the pictures were guessed within a few moments of seeing them. There was one picture that if everyone had not already known her favorite food would have taken a few minutes to guess. 

            The next part of my activity was handing out the individual meals that each person was going to identify the ingredients of and find the coupons/ads to go along with. I did not give the group members all the instructions for the activity in the beginning because I wanted their lists to be comprehensive and how they would make it rather than using the items in the ads to determine the ingredients that they would choose. Once each of the group members were done doing making their list and removing their coupons, I asked them to go around, tell their food and read the different items that they said would be necessary. I explained the purpose behind only focusing on the ingredients for one meal at a time. The purpose behind this was to depict how this activity would be done with someone with a cognitive deficit. This would provide the clients with a small, measurable, and attainable goal. 

            After going over the different meal’s ingredients, I asked the group to come together and to make a large list of the meals for the “week”. This was simulating someone with cognitive issues combining their individual meal list into their grocery shopping. I did not get the group instructions on how to combine the list because I wanted to see how they would decide to organize the list naturally. The group decided to go around and reread the things that were on their list and for when something was said once for them to mark off the items on the following member’s list. Once all the items were listed, I asked to see the paper and looked at the order of the list. I mentioned to the group how the randomly ordered list could be confusing and cause distress to someone with a cognitive difficulty, seeing as how it even makes shopping difficult for those of us without a cognitive impairment. 

            I handed the paper back and asked the group to categorize the groups by things that would be found together, not necessarily in order but just together. The group started out trying to figure out how the items would be found from the entrance of the store. I had not intended to step in or give any advice/input in this part of the activity, but for someone with cognitive difficulties I felt like going through the grocery store mentally could be a difficult task. I reminded them that they did not have to be in any order, just categories. The group decided to have one member marking the items that would be together while the others were giving their input. Once this was done, I asked for the list back and asked the group which of the lists that they would rather go to the store with. Each person said that they would rather go with the list that was grouped by location that the list that was in a random order. 

            Throughout each portion of the group session, I was taking notes on the group member that I had decided to write my S.O.A.P. note on and other notes on how the group session was progressing. I feel like the group went very well and was structured just the right amount. I allowed for there to be some flexibility and freedom during the tasks, while also having control and keeping them focused on the task at hand. I felt like this was appropriate for this group population because it allowed for there to be social interaction, trust to be gained, and for the group members to work together. Coming into the group, I was nervous because I did not have a precedent for how the individually lead group sessions would go. I was also nervous for fear of forgetting something that was essential to the flow of the group or saying something that I should not say. Through the entire process of individually leading a group, I have learned something about myself. I have learned that I need to be more assertive and more confident in my knowledge and experiences.

Leadership Summit

For my leadership summit experience, I met with Sarah Caldwell, Kiera Crutcher, and Ellen Bermudez. Since we were the first group to go for the individual rounds, a lot of our discussion centered around building each other up and making sure that we were all prepared for our session. All four of us were somewhat nervous since we didn’t have a basis for the individual leadership portion or model for running the group on our own. One of the members of our leadership summit, was asked to change her warm up activity. Due to her initial warm up activity needing to be changed, she was unsure what she would do and asked us for ideas. It was neat to hear the different ideas that each person had and to experience the collaboration of the different minds working together for a cause that wasn't there own. Other than that situation, we all had an idea of our game plan and really just shared our plan with the other three members of our leadership summit. I felt like knowing what the other people were doing and their plans, made me more confident about my own plan. I felt this way because I could see that we were all on the same page with our sessions, even though they were not leading on the same topic. I think this portion of the activity gave me a new perspective of collaborating with other therapists who are not necessarily working towards the same goal as I am. 

Group facilitation: Collaboration

In the preparation for our group session, my partners and I spoke openly and gave input on what we thought we should do for our activities and the questions that we should ask. I tried very hard to think through each of the activities that were mentioned and collaborate with my team members on the setup for our group session. I feel like during the process of the written group plan, our group was able to plan out our session and make sure that it flowed together. During this time, I worked to help fill in different parts of the plan while other group members were also answering other questions. Also, this was the time where we divided up who would cover each of the different sections, allowing there to be an equal amount of leading time for each of the co-facilitators, Alicia, Sarah Caitlin, and myself.

During our introduction activity, I introduced myself. Alicia was the one designated to do the introduction and the ice breaker activity. During this time, she introduced the group, explained why we were there, communicated how the group would run, and had each of the group members go around and say their names. Once the initial introductions were done, she facilitated the first activity by having the group members pair off with who they were sitting beside. During the ice breaker game, I used the time to take notes on the group member that I was writing my S.O.A.P. note on and observe the interactions of the other group members. Alicia did a good job starting the group, talking about what the group was to expect, and facilitating the group activity.

Our main activity was the island activity. I was designated to lead this portion of the session. I started out the activity by giving them the scenario and different details about the situation. Then I asked them to individually write 8 things that they would take then. During the time that they were writing, I was observing how quickly they wrote down their items and how hard they seemed to be thinking. Once everyone was done writing I proceeded to have them all read their different items out loud, as I wrote down the different items that each member said they would bring. During the time that people were reading their list, some of the comments made were funny and some of the people agreed, even though they did not write the items on their own list. When all of the group members had read their items, I proceeded to ask them to get together as a group and combine their list to just 12 items that they would take with them. This part of the activity got interesting because of the different reactions and opinions on the things that they should take. There were times when the group unanimously agreed on items that were going to be on their list and there were times when there was a discussion about the differing opinions. There was one time that I did step in and make a time limit for the group because the group was starting to step away from their task.

I was also designated to cover the sharing part of the group session. In this session, I asked which of the group activities they preferred, which they found to be more stressful, and how it made them feel when their ideas were both accepted or set aside by the group. This time was very interesting because to my surprise, and my co-facilitator’s surprise, the group liked the one-on-one group activity better than the larger group. During this time, we also covered the processing portion of the Cole’s Seven Steps.

Sarah Caitlin was the leader for finishing the processing, generalizing, and application portion. She asked the group to consider who the different people are that we, as OTs, have to collaborate with and in what ways collaboration comes into our daily lives. She also wrapped up the group by providing a summary of what we talked about, having each of the participants write one way that the things they learned could help them in the following week, and told them when the next meeting would be. I felt like Sarah Caitlin did very well with the language that she used, connecting with the different group members, and eliciting conversations from the group. During this time, I was taking notes of the different things that the group members said and observing their actions.

Other than the one time that I stepped in to redirect the group toward the activity, I feel like the group was ran good and stayed on task and focus. While this has a lot to do with the group members, I feel like the leading of the group helped in facilitating the correct actions from the group members. Our activities allowed for the group members to take the lead and direct the way the group ran. I felt like in this particular group this was a good way for the group to be ran and also helped to encourage the topic of collaboration. I was initially nervous about how the group would work and how smoothly it would go. Once the group started, I became much more comfortable and felt at ease with the process of leading the group. Looking back, I do think that we may have allowed the off-topic conversations to go on a little too long and should have reined it back in earlier, but other than that I think that the group went very well and was successful. One thing that I learned through this process is that no matter how much you plan for how the group is going to go and the things that are going to be said, you can not predict how the conversation will progress or what things will happen within the group.