how to start, enhance, and maintain a support group
DESCRIPTION
Focused on starting an ANAD support group for people with eating disorders and their familiesTRANSCRIPT
Building a Healthy Support
GroupKarla Steingraber, Psy.D. & Ann Harriman, MA
Aprioris Psychological Health Services
666 Dundee Rd., Suite 502, Northbrook IL
Who are you?
Current Support Group Leaders
Future Support Group Leaders
Therapists
Lay People
Issues Faced / Fears
What are you interested in hearing today?
Question 1:
What is the #1 Most Important Attribute of a
Healthy Support Group
Question 1:What is the #1 Most
Important Attribute of a Healthy Support GroupNo Trigger Talk
Support
Listening
Leaving judgments at the door
Time limits/the frame
No monopolizing
Confidentiality
Safety
Why a Support Group
What makes a support group
effective? Relationship Skills
Increase Motivation
Connection
Cost & Time Efficiency
...more and more, Bill discovered that new adherents could get sober by believing in each other and in the strength of this group. Men who had proven over and over again, by extremely painful experience, that they could not get sober on their own had somehow become more powerful when two or three of them worked on their common problem. This, then—whatever it was that occurred among them—was what they could accept as a power greater than themselves.
--AA Historian, Ernest Kurtz
What is a support group?
ANAD’s 8 Steps1. Admit to ourselves that we have an eating disorder. 2. Recognize that “food” and “weight” are not the real issues,
but that other underlying problems in our lives have led to our obsessions with food, eating, and weight
3. Make an honest attempt to identify the problems underlying our eating disorder.
4. Acknowledge that self-starvation and/or binge-purging are not offering a healthy or satisfactory solution to these problems.
5. Accept the responsibility for changing our own lives and applying more appropriate methods of coping with problems.
6. Realize that we do not have to struggle alone to overcome our problems. We can accept the caring support of others and the guidance of spiritual strength.
7. Establish small individual goals aimed at changing our unhealthy attitudes and behaviors and begin working seriously toward their achievement.
8. Reinforce and sustain our personal growth process by reaching out and helping others struggling with eating disorders.
If You Build It, They Will Come
Building your Support Group Group facilitator Place Time Membership requirements Group Rules Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself Getting the word out
Breakout Session #1
Sketches 1, 2, 5
1. Split into groups
2. Read over sketches together and
3. Fill in your thoughts and interventions
Question 2:
What leads to facilitator burnout ?
We have a group!
Leader vs. Facilitator
“Peer” Facilitator vs. “Professionally Trained” Facilitator
BoundariesBehavior
Meeting outside group
Friendliness vs. Friends
Involvement in Personal Lives
Self Awareness
Motivations
Own Issues
Self-Disclosure
Facilitator or Co-Facilitator
Sharing the Load
New Dynamic
Group RoutineHow do you feel right now
What is something positive about your recovery
Did you reach your goal
Will you be speaking in depth later
Random Question for fun
Meaningful goals
Checking in with Co-leader
Notes, log
Long-Term Goals/Strategies
Preventing Burnout
Group Growth
Guest Speakers
Emailing
Interactive Experiences
Maintaining a Healthy Dynamic
Open Minded
Humble/Modest
Small Goals
When to Change Direction
Feedback
Surveys
Stay Positive
Friends & Family Night
Breakout Session 2
Sketches 3 & 4
1. Identify mistakes group leaders may have made, improve upon it
2. Identify where the group leader did something right
Recognizing the Dynamic
With all 5 sketches, match the sketch to the issue
___ Boundaries
___ Safety
___ Aggression
___ Scape-goating
___ Trigger Talk
Contact Information
Dr. Karla Steingraber Ann Harriman, MA
666 Dundee Rd., Ste 502 Northbrook IL 60062
847-778-3997
Dr. Karla Steingraber
Ann Harriman, MA