Assignment 2: Written Assignment (Reaction Paper – Self Help Meeting) – 15% • The student will attend a traditional 12-step meeting or other non-traditional self-help arena. Please do not attend a group that is led by a professional facilitator. One place to locate 12-step meetings is by looking on the Internet. Papers where only a video of a meeting is watched will not be accepted. • Be sure to attend an OPEN meeting where visitors are welcome. Those who are able to honestly identify as having been in the process of addiction are welcome to go to a CLOSED meeting. • Provide a brief history and current context of your area of interest, using professional/academic literature and/or official websites. (The PowerPoint stack, Changing Focus: The Right to Treatment of Serious Mental Illness, can be used, as well as the references listed on the last slide.) • Explain how you suggest to successfully implement each value/bullet point under the Focus Area. List each bullet point as a separate heading. o Focus number § list heading § How will you suggest to successfully implement this value/bulletpoint? § list heading § How will you suggest to successfully implement this value/bulletpoint? § list heading § How will you suggest to successfully implement this value/bulletpoint? • What barriers are you aware of that would impede your implementation and how would you suggest managing this barrier? o list heading § What are the barriers of this value/bulletpoint? o list heading § What are the barriers of this value/bulletpoint? o list heading § What are the barriers of this value/bulletpoint? • Briefly share your final thoughts about what you have learned in this research. Try to go alone. If you do find the need to carpool, do not sit in the meeting with your friend. Be aware of how you are feeling, your thoughts, and the dynamics of the group. Please do not take notes or write during the meeting as anonymity is a strong value within self-help meetings and is adhered to by participants. • Compare at least 5 academic references and class content to your experience and throughout the paper to make academic sense of your observations.

The student will write a 5-page (not counting cover and reference pages) (or more if needed) paper that addresses the following issues.

PLEASE USE ALL HEADINGS AS LISTED BELOW. •

1) Briefly describe the meeting, including location, time of day, and composition of the group (including sociocultural aspects such as gender, class, race, etc.)

2) Describe a story that was told at the meeting. Organize the story with all the headings of the Jelinek chart, using both the downward spiral and the process of recovery. (Sometimes people are not comprehensive about all the stages. It is up to you to meet this requirement. Sometimes people talk with the person afterwards. Sometimes people make up the missing parts.) Explain the hallmarks of each phase and support your explanation with academic information.

3) From a theoretical point of view, how do the 12 steps communities work as a therapeutic modality?

4) In a paragraph or three, describe your personal experience of the meeting. What dynamics resonated with you? What dynamics discouraged you? What is your personal opinion about the usefulness of 12 step groups for people with addictions? And give a rationale for your opinion.

Please use following references:

Required Textbooks Maté, Gabor. (2010). In the realm of the hungry ghost: Close encounters with addiction. North Atlantic Books. 2

McNeece, C. A. & DiNitto, D. (2012). Chemical dependency: A systems approach. (4th Ed.) Allyn & Bacon.

Walant, K. B. (1995). Creating the capacity for attachment: Treating addictions and the alienated self. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (classic). Chapters 1, 4 and 6.`1

Sanders, J. M. (2011). Feminist perspectives on 12-step recovery: A comparative descriptive analysis of women in alcoholics anonymous and narcotics anonymous. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 29(4), 357-378.

Khantzian, E. J., & Albanese, M. J. (2008). Understanding addiction as self-medication. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Chapters 3 & 4. XSX