Assignment: Group Treatment and Substance Abuse
Overview
Group counseling is one of the central components of substance abuse treatment. While group counseling has many of same dynamics across issues and populations, the process with substance abusers does have some distinct differences. Understanding the curative factors, dynamics, stages, and structure will help you to become an effective substance abuse counselor. In addition to understanding these elements, you will also need to know how group treatment fits within the continuum of care and the pragmatics of group treatment.
This assignment will help you to understand how group counseling works with the substance abuse population.
As part of this assignment, you will reflect on the reading material, videos, and information from the Pearson Lab - You should complete all of the activities associated with this topic.
Learning Outcomes
1. Analyze and discuss ethical issues inherent in substance abuse counseling
2. Analyze and apply the main techniques, strategies, or approaches of common treatment options for substance addiction.
3. Evaluate the different types of relapse prevention models/programs along with their associated pros and cons.
Directions
Read your textbook chapters and additional resources. Also, complete all of the related material in MyCounselingLab. Reflect on the following as part of this assignment (two or three pages).
1. Analyze the vignette related to a Group Counseling Experience in 7.3. Be sure to identify the legal and ethical issues related to Alonso's group (1-2 paragraphs).
2. Discuss the curative factors in group counseling and how these might be impacted in the vignette (1-2 paragraphs).
3. Identify key group dynamics that might be important in the vignette (1-2 paragraphs).
4. Discuss the stages of group development and how they might be different in a psycho-educational group (1-2 paragraphs).
5. Identify key structural considerations when planning group counseling for substance abuse. Identify some problems that may occur related to structure in the vignette (1-2 paragraphs).