Posted by sunny10 on February 9, 2005, at 12:01:11
In reply to Re: I don't know where I am any more, posted by sunny10 on February 8, 2005, at 16:31:06
sorry I was so rushed before- I didn't have much time, but didn't want to ignore your question.
We had about three or four long sessions a day (with lunch in between). The "specialized" groups were art and music. (Although for the two weeks I was there, the music groups weren't coming up in the rotation because the musically inclined therapist was on maternity leave or something- the art gruop leader played cd's during art, though).
There were groups more designed towards psychodynamic therapy, there were groups more designed towards CBT, and there were groups purely designed to "open up" or "respond to" the one who had opened up. There was group at the end of day "sign-out" where we had to rate our feelings for the day, give examples of what we were going to do that evening (or weekend, on Friday). For some it was AA or NA, for some it was "see a friend" (for those of us who tend to closet ourselves and hide), there was what's for dinner (for anorexics,bulimics), anger management classes, et cetera. Depending on what the person is having problems with, the "homework" consisted of small babysteps towards doing things which are more "healthy" for that person as an individual.
Morning group consisted of rating your feelings for the day and discussing what each person did the night before in keeping with their personal "goal" of that evening from the day before.
Best case scenarios were those where it took a while for a person to open up and truly tell the others why they were there and allow us to validate their feelings (or them mine!), but the saddest thing I think I ever had to go through was watching this one girl who was so belligerent and mocking of everyone who waited until 20 minutes before she left the whole program (three weeks she was there- longer than usually allowed) to tell us her horror story. And it was too late to help, her insurance had run out.
I learned an awful lot there. That one girl enabled me to go back through her words (the few she spoke) and the WHEN of her speaking (what other people had been discussing at the time) and I was astounded at how much she really HAD been saying, and how little we had heard. I learned to listen to others and myself a little better through that experience, too. And listening to myself better certainly helps with my therapy.
Hope this more detailed answer helps.
-sunny10
poster:sunny10
thread:453016
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050206/msgs/455414.html