Phone: 503.334.4239 Email: kstclair@karenstclairpdx.com
Copyright © 2013 Karen St.Clair. All rights reserved.
Many of us know ourselves to be survivors of addiction and trauma, and have spent significant time trying to minimize the negative impact that these experiences have had on ourselves. We often self-describe as being “in a process of recovery” with the hope that we will move beyond simply surviving those experiences. At times, we have participated in individual counseling, treatment programs, or attended self-help groups and support groups all to that end. These approaches can be extremely useful in moving us toward a greater ability to tolerate and live with life “on life’s terms”.
I offer an additional service to accomplish the same purpose: advanced recovery psychotherapeutic group work in which the participants use a group process in a similar manner to individual counseling. In this setting, the group is closed to a limited number of participants. Each individual commits to working with the same group members for at least six months. This setting allows the client to look at him or herself in a group setting at a significantly more personal and deeper manner than is likely to occur in other group settings. Trust is built over time with the result that the client may be challenged to voice those longstanding patterns of negative behavior that remain actively connected to the past, and thereby, move beyond them.
These groups require that all participants can tolerate feelings of pain and of joy. Given their more intensive nature, the ideal group candidate will have had some experience with counseling already. Frequently, there is a co-existing individual process occurring and the individual therapist will support the addition of group work in this manner.
Finally, if this applies to you, please bear in mind that interested individuals would do well to have at least two years of clean and sober time. Please contact me to discuss the appropriateness of the group for you as well as availability, or waitlist status.
Advanced Recovery Group Work
