Clinician's Corner - Process Groups by Jerry DeBeau

During the Process Group, the clients interact with each other and share their "experience, strength and hope." The clients are amongst their peers with only a facilitator to guide the group when needed to ensure congruency. The Process Group offers support and its primary goal is to have clients discover how they feel and to learn how feelings translates into behavior. Then they can choose how they would prefer to behave and try it on for size. The emphasis is on the here and now and its function is to support abstinence and to identify the characteristic ways in which one sabotages oneself. There are only few guidelines in which the clients need to adhere to:

• Keep your sharing focused on your own thoughts and feelings, by using “I” statements
• There is no crosstalk. You may give feedback to others in the group if you are asked
• You are there to support one another, not to “fix" anyone
• Anonymity and confidentiality are essential -"what is shared in the group stays in the group"

My experience facilitating process groups is nothing short of a miracle at times, seeing a group transform into a nucleus of camaraderie. The dynamics are so overwhelming that upon conclusion the feeling lingers long after it has ended.

I have benefited from so many of these positive experiences I will share one story. A client had become frustrated with the treatment process and was going to check herself out of treatment and go home. She had done this before on a number of occasions and all had resulted in eventual relapse. After the group processed and it ended she called her mom and told her she had decided to stay. Now to a clinician like myself occurrences like this one are small miracles and the beauty of it all is that I started the meeting with “Good Morning” and ended it with “Have a nice rest of the day”