Co-Dependents Anonymous Meeting Experience

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and reflect on my experience attending an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting. Alcoholic anonymous (AA) was created to help individuals effected by Alcohol collaborate and support each other during their time of need. All AA meetings are structured differently. However, there are only two types of meetings: opened and closed meetings. During my experience, I attended an open meeting where anyone can come regardless of a diagnosed alcohol problem or the level of experience one had with participating in such meetings.

Jamal is a 32-year-old, homosexual, African American male. Jamal started experimenting with drugs at the age of sixteen. Jamal drank alcohol each weekend and smoked marijuana on a periodic basis throughout his adolescent years. By twenty Jamal started drinking massively and exploring with Ecstasy. By twenty-three Jamal preceded toward methamphetamine. Jamal continued initially smoking it several times weekly. Three years ago, he set about injecting. Within several months, Jamal became a loyal user. Jamal is currently injecting methamphetamine several times daily.

In my experience of observing Alcoholics Anonymous group, it was a great experience. In my experience, I notice a lot of things in the Alcoholic Anonymous group. The first thing I notice while observing the group session is they have Alcoholics Anonymous bible that read a section every session. They read the same passage that discuss that how important it is to keep all information that is said in the group confidential. They were vey clear with that information. In my first session, the group started with a silent prayer, and read Alcoholic announcement. Next, the reader introduced the group leader. The group leader stated that goals that needs to be accomplish in this group which is stay sober day by day. The group leader also discuss in the group session about alcoholism. The group leader stated that alcoholism is a disease, and alcoholism progress and a chronic disorder. It affects the individual physical and mentally. Alcoholism is incurable and fatal. The group leader was very humorous and stated that many people who are nonalcoholic called alcoholics weak, crazy, and a sinner.

I attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at a church in Henderson. Going to the recovery meeting was a very interesting experience. I have heard good things about Alcoholics Anonymous because my mom used to be an alcoholic. She has been sober for more than 15 years now and has said that Alcoholics Anonymous was very helpful step in her recovery. The meeting was different than I expected. I expected a small group of people sitting in a circle and telling their stories and it was very different from that. It was an extremely positive place. There were people ranging in ages and people ranging on length of sobriety. Some people there have been sober for over 25 years and some people had less than a week

I attended an open AA meeting at the NABA Club located in Atlanta. Upon observation, I noticed that majority of the people attending were in their early forties to late fifties consisting mostly of men. As I walked in, I felt so welcomed at the meeting because of the positive energy surrounding the room. This is one of those places where everyone is and will always be welcome, regardless of their race, religion, or background.

The community group I visited was Beaches Unity Group, which was located at 322 Penman Road. This was an Alcoholics Anonymous group that provided open discussion for people who were both struggling with alcohol abuse, as well as addiction. It gave the participants an opportunity to introduce themselves, and tell their background story. There where also opportunities to offer advice to the other members. I decided to sit in an AA group because there is history of alcoholism in my family, and so I was curious to hear the stories of other people, and how they are coping with their disorder. I chose this particular group because it was an open meeting and they welcomed anyone. The man running the group, was a member himself, and was very welcoming.

The NA meeting had a guest speaker named Adam, the most surprising thing about meeting were candor and humor evoked by the speaker. Adam acknowledged that he has been addicted to drugs for seventeen years, and this behavior started when he was in the 7th grade. Adam was genuinely outspoken and humorously shared being in and out of treatment facilities over 28 times costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. The group really identified with the speakers story, and this was exhibited by laughter and comments from the crowd.

We know we should support our friends, but sometimes, things happen, and although we know we should, we don’t do it nearly enough. I understand we don’t think or talk about this is because it is not an easy subject to bring forward. Support comes in many different forms, and not just the one I tried to implement in my speech. By talking about my experiences, I hope to help my audience discover that people have many dimensions to themselves and are not just the image they project and seem to be. Appearances can be deceiving, so we should not assume we know what another person is going through based off of our own expectations. By talking about support, I hope to reinforce that idea that any form of support, whether it be a big gesture or just listening, is important and valuable to both parties in order to connect further and imagine people

counseling, where the co-leader can take a few minutes work on some better communication methods so that the client can learn some new and healthier methods to communicate. When the co-leader does not have a client to work with, the co-counselor can be part of the counseling process with the leader of the group.

Elements of Yalom’s therapeutic factors were apparent over the course of the semester while experiencing and conducting our breakout groups. Yalom refers to 11 therapeutic factors in the practice of successful group therapy with them being: installation of hope, universality, imparting information, altruism, corrective recapitulation of primary family, development of socializing techniques, imitative behavior, interpersonal learning, group cohesiveness, catharsis, existential factors. Below, will be a reflection of my experience in the group over the course of the semester.

The support group I am interested in using for my Support Group Paper is a support group called Narcotics Anonymous. Narcotics Anonymous is a nonprofit organization that assists individuals to recovery from their addiction of using drugs. This type of organization has support groups that express their experiences of using drugs, how it affects the user and those closest to them, and supports each member in the support group to keep from using drugs again, as done in its support group.

Group one was led by Alicia Jemison, the session was a psychoeducational group regarding molesters, portrayed in a prison like setting. The group session was focused on changing their behavior and attitude regarding the negative outcome of their situation. Each group member wrote a letter to their victim expressing empathy and sorrow. The group members read aloud their letter, and Alicia provided appropriate feedback and support to the group for being open to sharing the letters. Alicia appeared to be using the democratic type leadership, which are group centered and less directive in their approach. Skills used by Alicia were goal setting, summarizing, questions, facilitating, giving feedback, and supporting. Alicia also used skills of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) during this session. CBT was used throughout the session, to assist the group members in changing their negative thoughts and attitudes regarding their situation. At the closing of the group, Alicia assigned further homework to the group members to

In essence, teamwork can be defined as a group of people working in the same direction and for a common purpose. Teamwork requires individuals be a team player and to be able to work well with others; after all, there is no “I” in “Team”!

My small group experience was back in Secondary School where I was part of my school’s National Police Cadet Corps (NPCC) Cadet Leaders’ committee. The group lasted for approximately two years. Within the two years, we have meetings every fortnightly. This committee is a task group in which all members worked together to carry out activities for the school’s NPCC unit. The Cadet Leaders’ committee comprises of 10 members. The membership composition includes, chairperson, deputy chairperson, Head of training, Head of administration and the rest were members. I was the deputy chairperson and my role includes co-facilitating meetings, planning along with organising camps and training.

As they communicate in a group and meet new people they will be able to reach out to other who face similar situations and instead of receiving feedback from the therapist alone, they will be able to listen out to a number of people and develop new skill to relate themselves to other. Secondly, it helps the client create a wide perspective towards their perspective. As human beings, it might be tough for one to independently look at their situation from more than one perspective. From the feedbacks of the group members, he or she would not only realize that there are other people who face same or similar situations, but that there is more than one way to view and handle their situation. This gives one a sense of hope; a common feeling for the human condition that they are “on the same boat”. This is the most important aspect of any group counseling, for the clients to know that they are not alone. Specifically, group therapy is a instrumental in mending all passionate and mental battles individuals experience: despondency, nervousness, annoyance, apprehension, disgrace, and so forth. People expand fearlessness through uncovering their inner part lives to others. Parts feel less alone on the planet through understanding other individuals' lives. Furthermore, understanding other individuals' issues, objectives, and arrangements helps parts better comprehend themselves. We can likewise try different things with distinctive parts and methods for being in gathering that advise and change our lives outside of gathering. Bunch help gives chances to rising above our life battles through encountering our normal humanness with