Group Counseling
Group approach to relapse prevention is often more effective than one-on-one counseling, by providing opportunities for clients to develop communication skills and participate in socialization experiences.
Our program uses open-ended heterogeneous groups that provide our counselors the flexibility of assigning new clients to ongoing groups. Members of open-ended heterogeneous groups have varying degrees of recognition and acceptance of their problems, and those on the road to recovery offer hope to those just beginning. Although it may seem desirable to keep clients in the same group as they progress through the treatment process, experience has shown that this is seldom possible (or desirable) because individuals have different responses to treatment and progress toward recovery at different rates, and as mentioned before those with greater experience in recovery can (and often do) provide guidance for those beginning the process.
Path to Recovery programs are organized as homogeneous groups based on a therapeutically relevant issue for a subset of clients or based on demographic commonalities among clients. Therapeutically relevant issues that might call for single-issue groups include single parenting, gender issues, drug of choice, or histories of physical violence and sexual abuse. Special groups based on demographic similarities include those for women, men, elderly persons, members of minority populations, clients with common socioeconomic or legal statuses, or clients who have particular professions or are unemployed. Clients in these homogeneous groups can use their common perspective as a basis for working together.
Path to Recovery programs assess the needs of each individual to make sure the groups treatment orientation and relapse prevention materials are appropriate. Each group focuses on an issue of particular significance to, and sensitivity for, group members. The issues include gender issues, sexual orientation, criminal offense, and histories of physical and sexual abuse. Family or couples groups. These groups assist clients’ relatives and other significant individuals in learning about the detrimental effects of substance use on relationships and how these effects can be made better or resolved. Clients are assigned to a separate, pretreatment group in which counselors raise the clients’ awareness about substance use disorders through education and motivating interviews.
