How to lead
A Process Group
Group Therapy for Beginners
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group therapy for beginners why do you
say that the greatest benefit for
addicts of all kinds is in group therapy
because in ideal circumstances they're
supported and challenged by each other
they learn from each other why can't
they learn from a doctor or from a
counselor and a one-to-one session they
can but it won't give them the full
benefit of group work why not
because any addict ought to be able to
outwit any individual other than another
addict how do you mean I used to be able
to change sides in the middle of a
discussion and my wife wouldn't even
notice what is that achieve it meant
that I could go on proving the black is
white and get away with behavior that
should have been confronted why did you
do that because that's what addicts do
it's like asking someone with the pen
situs why he or she is in pain how do
you mean addicts played psychological
games we justify and rationalize our
behavior we emotionally it often
factually dishonest
we did see distort diverts and delude we
evade and denies simple truths
cassius a mouthful anything else lots
more we blame our childhood upbringing
and our present social or professional
circumstances for all our problems
annual oh yes plentiful we channel our
energy and resources into irrational a
destructive beam but why for heaven's
sake because there happens that's what
addicts doomed by Nature you're insane
yes yes
in this respect I'm insane I do things
that damage me and other people and I
don't see that I'm doing them why don't
you just stop because I made that way
possibly genetically and I have to learn
how to counter that drive how addictive
substances and processes make me feel
good artificially but I've learned how
to survive without them when things
don't go the way I want but why did you
feel bad in the first place oh I can
blame all sorts of people in places and
things for my feelings and for the
behavior they drive me towards
I doesn't make any sense to me it
wouldn't if you're not an addict but it
makes perfect sense to me and to any
other edit but putting you all into a
group together would be disastrous it
can be catastrophic when the person
running the group isn't an addict this
is going worse and worse it gets better
and better you can't a
bullshitter you won't get any of that
self-pity and blaming cramp past me
nowadays I've heard it all before
and done most of in myself 10 you're the
last person I should be running a group
well maybe when other addicts trust me
they know that I'm not going to point
the finger at them blaming them and
shaming them for being like me if other
people in a group therapy session might
be uncomfortable working alongside
addicts and it often happens that the
strongest critics of addicts of any kind
are people who don't want to face up to
their own addictive nature or they may
be angry with an addict in their family
or in their community hard work but
addicts will benefit from hearing those
concerns and criticism they hear them
all the time
but it doesn't change their behavior
so what does turn them around being in a
group only with other addicts of any
kind they would listen to our Eddie's
putting them in a mixed group of people
with other mental health problems such
as superior or hypomania won't help
anyone but surely being with other
addicts will make them worse or better
huh
addicts can learn from each other in
both directions to get worse or get
better in a group therapy session only
with other addicts they learn from each
other how to get better how they can see
each other's denial and they confront
each other's justifications and
rationalizations and all the other
psychological games so you just sit
there and do nothing
well I suppose my job is to guide the
traffic to keep the group moving
constructively how do you do that by not
looking at the person who's speaking i
watch the rest of it that I know where
to go next
now Jemaine I can see from someone's
body language when he or she agrees or
disagrees or is interested or bored or
angry or upset or anything then I can
bring that person in by name or by
indicating in some other way in this way
I can keep it bleep moving even when I
say very little can they run their own
group without needing you at all
analytical psychotherapy groups work on
that principle intend to defend a Devi
silences in some way patients were meant
to develop deeper meaningful significant
insights into themselves a flamer for
some people but I tried it for six
months and it didn't work for me
why not it was too analytical there was
too much $1 G of Terry Pratchett cause I
find the same thing covers the
behavioral therapy it's a mind game
well surely addicts need to see where
their source and beliefs are mistaken
that's true but we acted on their
feelings they're all over the place
which is why we get into so many
difficulties Wow
get off sabbatical sort yourself out get
a job get on in life I fully agree
that's exactly what I say but there's a
lot more that I have to say and do or
better still other addicts in the group
could say do before new Andes then the
group will be able to take those angels
but how can the group know more than you
know as a professional I may know more
than any of them individually but put
together they know more than I do about
lots of things but they wouldn't know
how to guide each other sensibly then
there be anarchy and mayhem I suppose
the one thing I do know better Lord is
how to get clean and sober and stay
clean and sober and happy created and
enthusiastic in the long term but there
must be more to running improvements
simply being a bouncy ball v there is
I've done a huge amount of training all
over the world and I watched other
people run groups in all sorts of ways
and I've learned from them so what else
have you learned and how firstly and
then by making repeated mistakes I try
something out and if it doesn't work I
try something else so what do you finish
up with I find that my own total
abstinence from all mood-altering
substances is essential to enable me to
do this work I have to be an emotionally
empty vest able to resonate so the bank
intense feelings about the people wiser
because addicts have a feeling
not a disorder of form process even
though we can have what AAA calls
stinking thinking what's the difference
we think clearly enough but in some of
our thoughts when completely misguided
we may convince ourselves of something
that simply isn't true such as this icky
addict of any kind are determined to
prove that we don't have problems with
the pictures substances and persistence
whatever else can see that we obviously
do well that is pretty devastating so
how can you say the addicts think
clearly enough our reasoning protesters
are clear but they are directed towards
foreclosed denial not seeing our posters
we really are is our basic
psychopathology but if as it can't seem
straight in that way it surely means
they don't think clearly enough yes
that's the catch and it's the whole
purpose of group therapy through our
denial like a personal fog we don't see
ourselves clearly but we can still see
other people and dare deny their
personal calls
how is our help by seeing the denial of
other addicts and recognizing that we're
like them we can deduce that we must
have similar denial we then come to see
our own justifications and
rationalizations can't individual
counselors if they're addicts themselves
shoulder to other addicts yes they can
but it's less convincing but when a
whole room full of other addicts all say
the same thing so what else happens in a
group that is restaurant to happen
in a one-to-one session a group is more
likely to be able to draw the things of
isolation secrecy than arrogance ice a
tall order yes it is but remember the
Native American saying a single twig
breaks easily but a bundle of twigs is
strong
so how do you achieve that by getting
the group to do the work the instrument
of change is the group itself not the
counselor running it how do you mean a
successfully functioning group is not a
series of one-to-one sessions done in a
group setting after all the whole
purpose of 12-step treatment is to
prepare people the commitment to the
anonymous fellowships the group as a
bundle as a combined power and inside of
alone
so how do you get that to work trainee
pastor's have to learn how to make the
group work how to get everyone involved
and interacting that's the real skill of
a group though if the counselor is doing
the work
it isn't group therapy so what is it
self-indulgence on the part of the couch
for that reason trainees should learn
their basic skills in group before bed
and one-to-one skills so what's the
secret the counselor has to stay
unpredictable there is a Content bury
the place bury the purpose very the
emotional intensity Wow all that yes and
a lot more this is why I don't let
trainee counselors contribute to the
group but their first three months it's
very severe hmm
precisely why not they would get too
tied up in the content and failed to
observe the process they get stuck
looking at the speaker rather than
seeing how what is being said it takes
other members of the group one after
them or some skills such as knowing how
to be enthusiastic and love people in
all their individual quirkiness a
possibly innate if counselors haven't
got those skills they should do
something else now other skills have to
be learned such as dealing with
difficult issues straight away rather
than letting them fester to have the
group session otherwise a few people the
troublemakers can dominate the whole
group now how do you prevent that by
learning how to interrupt politely not
by saying something myself but by
calling the name of one of the other
members of the group that's what keeps
the whole group process moving along why
is that so vital because time is limited
and I have to get everybody involved
everyone has to feel part of the group
by contributing something but that must
be very challenging in a large group of
twenty or more people yes it is that's
why I often use psychodrama techniques
getting people on their feet and
actively involved and playing roles for
each other why is that so important it
brings the whole group to life otherwise
the Jack Nicholson said to a morose
group in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
this is as good as it gets
