Reflection On Celebrate Recovery

The group prayed after reviewing the guidelines. Then, a participant of the group proceeded to read the “how it works” from the AA book. Afterwards, another member read the 12 traditions. Two participants shared their experience with Alcoholism while others provided reflections and support. The facilitator informed me that each meeting two participants share. After the two participants shared, the AA meeting ended with another prayer. This paper will talk about my observations and reactions attending the AA meeting, and how attending the meeting will inform my future work as a clinician. The purpose of this paper is to present my personal experience of an AA meeting, and how I plan to grow as a therapist from that

The support group I attended was on October 19th, 2012 at 12pm at Wesley Church located on Barstow Avenue. It was in the Winterburg Education Building in room 3. A gentleman by the name of Andy was leading the group. He first said a prayer and then asked if there were any new members. There were none so he asked if there were visitors. I introduced myself and said I was a Fresno State nursing student. He then said today they were going to talk about Step 12, which was about service. Service was about introducing AA to people that could benefit from the program. Before you were expected to complete step 12, they wanted you to complete steps 1-11 first.

The purpose of this research paper was to attend two support group meetings and share my experiences. The meetings that were to be attended were an Alcoholics Anonymous

The focus of the meeting was Step #2 –humility. There were a few AA birthdays and in general the meeting consisted out of birthday-people reliving their stories and some talking about humility.

Lastly, the chairperson recounted her own personal story with addiction. I was surprised how the group handled her story in a positive way. I noticed at times members laughed and even smiled and others making brief supporting comments. Rather than judge the events of her life, the group members seemed to connect in a personal way. I liked how the meeting was honest and open. Afterwards different members of the meeting read brief AA literature, "How it Works," the "Twelve Traditions" and "The Promises." I listened to each of them very closely

For this assignment, I attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Ala-Anon meeting, Narcotics Anonymous meeting, and a Nar-Anon meeting. The Alcoholics Anonymous meeting was in Greensboro titled “Back to Reality”. It was located at a fellowship club. The Ala-Anon meeting was located at Centertary United Methodist Church in Greensboro. The Narcotics Anonymous meeting was located at Saint James Presbyterian Church and the Nar-Anon meeting was held at Saint Johns United Methodist Church which was in Greensboro as well.

Preparing for the event was very nerve-racking and I felt extremely anxious and apprehensive. The church attendance was all African Americans and mostly low-income with a mix of young and old. The church itself is very old, established in 1787, and sits in one of Carbondale’s poorer neighborhoods. I have been to this church before though, for work purposes to do a homeless count at the soup kitchen, so I was a little familiar with the church in general. Based on the soup kitchen experience the attendance of people in the church was pretty much as expected.

The program is conducted around shared experiences, strength and hope, through individuals who are recovering from their addictions.

Attending a local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting was a humbling and informative experience. To be completely honest, I had no idea what to expect going into the meeting. Right before I walked in, I felt somewhat uncomfortable and embarrassed. I felt as if I was intruding on someone’s personal life with my presence, even though I knew I was welcomed since the meeting was listed as “open”. Alcohol abuse is a very sensitive topic to me, as someone quite close to me is an alcoholic: my Uncle. I know that he is a recovering alcoholic, but I never quite know what is going on with him because I don’t ask questions and he never shares what he is feeling with me. When I was younger, I remember that he was always the life of my family parties, but I know now it was because he was drunk. When I see him now, he isn’t as energetic as he used to be and often avoids situations where alcohol is involved. Although my Uncle did not personally tell me, my father has shared with me that he attends AA meetings at a church in my hometown. I never understood what AA meetings really entail and didn’t grasp how they helped alcoholics recover. Attending this local AA meeting helped shed light on what my Uncle feels, and I am more understanding to his addiction. I am thankful for this assignment because I know that my Uncle is not alone; the AA community is so supportive and the members all have the best intentions of getting

When I walked into the meeting, I was a little apprehensive. It was only a small group of about ten people, which was held at a local hospital. Knowing that I had to explain I was there to observe as a student studying social work, I was worried that the participants would hold back from their real behaviors in the group and that they would be cold to me. However, that assumption could not have been farther from the truth. All my apprehension flew out the window, as the members of the small group all welcomed me with open arms. Apparently, these were regulars. Most in the group attended every meeting, and continued to use the support of the group to deal with the continuous chaos and trauma of living with an addict. I was welcomed to sit and observe the behavior of the individual members of the group express their grief, fear, and

The meeting began with a prayer and a reading of the twelve steps, which I did, and preceded into a 25-minute meditation session. Following the meditation session, the floor was opened up for persons to reflect on their meditation. It was quiet for sometime, but eventually persons began to talk. Each person that spoke introduced himself or herself as, “Hi I am XXXX and I am an alcoholic” in which the rest of us responded with a hello. The discussion each person brought to the circle often revolved around what they had been experiencing in the last week, and ended with a positive-spin that reflected back on their journey with sobriety. One gentleman talked about his spring break on Orca Island with his kids, another discussed a speaker he was arranging to have visit Spokane, and another woman talked about an “essay reading party” she went to in which wine was being drank by the majority of participants. The meeting ended with the serenity prayer, something the girls at Daybreak say before lunch, and simple discussion between some of the participants. During this time I talked with the woman who had told me where to find the AA meeting. She talked with me about the need to find the proper AA meeting for myself, encouraging me to explore multiple

For my site visit for this course I decided to attend a bereavement support group. The meeting I went to was called Hope and Healing After an Addiction Death. I attended this meeting on Wednesday, June 21, 2017. This group meets on the first and third Wednesday of each month at 7:30pm. The meetings are held at the Calvary Lutheran Church in Allendale, New Jersey. At the beginning of the meeting a topic is chosen and that is what the focus of the being of the meeting is about. The topic of this meeting had to do with one the death of our loved ones has taught us. After the topic was selected, we began the meeting by all sitting together around the tables. During this time, everyone went around the circle took turns introducing themselves and

I observed Fusion youth group at Shepherdstown United Methodist Church with Shawn Gray. His phone number is (574) 460-8132. Roughly twenty-five kids attended along with two leaders. The youth group consisted of the normal range of ages from 12 to 18. Primarily younger students attended, with more girls present. Majority of the youth appeared enthusiastic to participate and seemed to know each other well. They eagerly engaged in everything planned.

There is a Church in Plainfield's community that has a group Celebrate Recovery that most people think is a Drug Abuse recovery group when in realistic this group is for everyone, because it is a recovery group that helps with your hurts, habits and hang-ups. Just like most other community's, Plainfield has all types of people and with that also comes with people with all types of problems. There are people that have been hurt, whether it is emotional or physical everyone has a hurt. There are also people that have habits, whether they gamble or have abandonment issues. Some people have hang-ups and these can consist of anger, depression and many more.

There was an evident uneasiness among the group as they assembled, but as the sessions progressed, the participants were able to reflect on their own experiences of parish life over against my own. I approached the issue with genuine honesty and openness, and it was not long before the group was openly sharing their successes and failures in balancing time schedules and providing adequate self-care for themselves. The group was made up of an equal balance of