The group members are the siblings, and the group facilitator is in a parental role.Each of these factors has particular importance for clients with substance abuse disorders and can be used to help explain why a group works in a particular way for this client population.These curative factors are present in all group interventions and are listed below.
When individuals with this life view join a group of people struggling with similar problems, they have the remarkable opportunity of witnessing change in others while at the same time having their own small victories acknowledged and celebrated by group members. The energy of hope and the focused attention on this curative factor receive specific attention in the MIGP model. Clients can be asked to participate in a visualization exercise where they see themselves in a life without substance use, envisioning particularly how life would be different and better under such circumstances. As with all guided imagery exercises, the group leader must move with caution. Many substance-abusing clients may not have a picture of life without substances, and consequently such an exercise can be humiliating if not handled sensitively. If the client is unable to visualize, he once again perceives failure. To guard against such potential shaming, the group facilitator can take an active role in the creation of the image, monitoring it for issues of safety with all members of the group as the exercise develops. In a brief group experience, the clients encounter other individuals who have faced similar problems. They become aware that they are not alone in life and can feel tremendous satisfaction in this connection. The sense that their pain is not exclusive or unique and that others with similar problems are willing to support them can be profoundly healing. It helps clients move beyond their isolation, and it gives further energy to hope, which helps to fuel the change process. Particularly in conjunction with formal psychoeducational groups, MIGP affords group members the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned and at the same time apply that learning within the group setting. The information shared is personal and tends to be experienced as motivational. The client struggling with issues of substance abuse can hear from others how they have dealt with difficult concerns and how they have experienced success. This mutually shared success gives positive energy to the group and encourages change. Clients struggling with substance abuse disorders tend to be focused on their own difficulties and have a hard time reaching out to help those in need. Group therapy offers the members opportunities to provide assistance and insight to one another. Particularly within the model of MIGP, the facilitator pays great attention to altruistic moves on the part of members. As individuals recognize that they have something of value to give their fellow group members, their self-esteem rises as change and self-efficacy are supported. Recapitulation of the family group happens when a clientboth consciously and unconsciouslyrelates to another group member as if that person is a member of his family of origin with whom he has struggled in the past. This occurrence is clearly a projection, but it can be identified by the leader, and both group members involved can benefit as they investigate new ways of relating that break the old dysfunctional patterns of the family of origin.
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