This is called a process group, a place where men and women can process their issues related to the changes recently brought into their lives by the Coronavirus. All participants set goals for themselves, and share them with the group, so they can get help from me and often each other, to work through their current situations and make progress toward their goals. There will be no set curriculum, but I will share resources during group, if I believe they can help more than one group member. Each group will begin by members sharing how their week has gone and how it has affected them in about a five-minute summary. This ends with what they might want to work on in group today, and roughly how much time they may need, if it is available.
This is called a process group, a place where men can process their issues with their habits, emotions, and relationships. All participants set goals for themselves, and share them with the group, so they can get help from me and often each other to work through their current situations and make progress toward their goals. There will be no set curriculum, but I will share resources during group, if I have reason to believe they can help more than one group member. Each group will begin by men sharing how their week has gone, and what issues it leaves them with, in about a five-minute summary. This ends with what they might want to work on in group today, and roughly how much time they may need, if it is available.
This is called a process group, a place where women can process their issues with their habits, emotions, and relationships. All participants set goals for themselves, and share them with the group, so they can get help from me and often each other to work through their current situations and make progress toward their goals. There will be no set curriculum, but I will share resources during group, if I have reason to believe they can help more than one group member. Each group will begin by women sharing how their week has gone in about a five-minute summary, ending with what they might want to work on in group today, how urgent it feels, and roughly how much time they ask the group to take on their issues, if it is available.
These are somewhat 12-step recovery groups, an accountability group, and a class teaching insights and techniques about recovery from sex addiction. But they are also therapy groups, designed to guide and empower each man's program of recovery from sex addiction. They must have been diagnosed previously with the Sexual Dependency Inventory, and discussed their history and test results with me individually to establish their relationship with me, and to prove they are ready for the group. Their goals must include doing devotional and recovery reading each week, going to meetings, checking in with other guys in recovery, and working through the 12 steps with a home group and a sponsor. Men will also work a 4-circle sobriety plan, and progress through the standard stages of recovery. Regarding their partners and families, they will learn to make a weekly recovery report to their partners, and encourage them to get professional and girlfriend support and guidance. Men will make amends by scheduling three events in a timely manner: full disclosure, impact statement, and emotional restitution. Doing all these may result in some men digging deeply into buried memories and emotions they likely would never been able to face up to and learn from, without the guidance and support of this group.
This group is very similar to one above for male sex addicts. The main difference is in how they are screened. I will use other diagnostic methods, but I will still go over what tests and previous treatment may have identified as work they still need to do.
This group is for anyone in a loving relationship with an active or recently substance-abusing man, including male alcoholics. Participants will qualify and prepare for group by taking one or two personality tests of their choice, and discussing their results with me. This will help them set realistic goals for themselves in this group. Each group will begin with women sharing how their week has impacted them in about a five-minute summary, ending with what they might want to work on in group today, and roughly how much time they ask the group to take on their issues, if it is available. The group will study the pros and cons of various models and communities for their healing and recovery: trauma recovery, 12-step wisdom, grief recovery, Christian faith, and breaking the betrayal bond. Participants may believe in more than one of these healing traditions, and they will do whatever they believe is best for their recovery. A key skill to develop is setting healthy boundaries and learning how to honor them, so they participants learn to hold themselves and other family members responsible for their own emotions and behaviors, and for nobody else's. Women will learn to keep themselves feeling safe, significant, and beautiful, disengaging with mutual love and respect when necessary from anyone including their partners who jeopardize any of that, such as through betrayal, traumatizing, lies, and gaslighting. They will learn to focus less on their partner's past problems and more on their own future solutions.
This group works very much like the previous one above for partners of sex addicts. But these women have partners who aren't sex addicts. These women have partners who are addicted not to sex, but partners addicted to other behaviors (such as gambling, work, video games), substances (alcohol and drugs), and to people (they idolize or are attached to in unhealthy ways, like their mamas, old girlfriends, male role models, or even their partners who are in this group).
Dr. Paul Schmidt is a psychologist life coach you can reach at [email protected], (502) 633-2860.