This document provides guidance on building a healthy support group. It discusses that the #1 most important attribute of an effective support group is safety. It also notes that support groups are effective because they increase connection, motivation and provide a cost-efficient way to receive support. The document outlines steps for starting a support group, including identifying a facilitator, finding a meeting place/time, setting group rules and boundaries. It also discusses preventing facilitator burnout through sharing leadership duties and maintaining a positive group dynamic.

1. Building a Healthy Support GroupKarla Steingraber, Psy.D. & Ann Harriman, MAAprioris Psychological Health Services666 Dundee Rd., Suite 502, Northbrook IL

2. Who are you? Current Support Group LeadersFuture Support Group LeadersTherapistsLay People

3. Issues Faced / FearsWhat are you interested in hearing today?

4. Question 1:What is the #1 Most Important Attribute of a Healthy Support Group

5. Question 1:What is the #1 Most Important Attribute of a Healthy Support GroupNo Trigger TalkSupportListeningLeaving judgments at the doorTime limits/the frameNo monopolizingConfidentialitySafety

6. Why a Support Group

7. What makes a support group effective? Relationship Skills

8. Increase Motivation

9. Connection

10. Cost & Time Efficiency...more and more, Bill discovered that new adherents could get sober by believing in each other and in the strength of this group. Men who had proven over and over again, by extremely painful experience, that they could not get sober on their own had somehow become more powerful when two or three of them worked on their common problem. This, then—whatever it was that occurred among them—was what they could accept as a power greater than themselves. --AA Historian, Ernest Kurtz

11. What is a support group?

12. ANAD’s 8 StepsAdmit to ourselves that we have an eating disorder. Recognize that “food” and “weight” are not the real issues, but that other underlying problems in our lives have led to our obsessions with food, eating, and weightMake an honest attempt to identify the problems underlying our eating disorder. Acknowledge that self-starvation and/or binge-purging are not offering a healthy or satisfactory solution to these problems. Accept the responsibility for changing our own lives and applying more appropriate methods of coping with problems. Realize that we do not have to struggle alone to overcome our problems. We can accept the caring support of others and the guidance of spiritual strength. Establish small individual goals aimed at changing our unhealthy attitudes and behaviors and begin working seriously toward their achievement. Reinforce and sustain our personal growth process by reaching out and helping others struggling with eating disorders.

13. If You Build It, They Will ComeBuilding your Support Group Group facilitator

14. Place

15. Time

16. Membership requirements

17. Group Rules

18. Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

19. Getting the word outBreakout Session #1Sketches 1, 2, 51. Split into groups2. Read over sketches together and 3. Fill in your thoughts and interventions

20. Question 2:What leads to facilitator burnout ?

21. We have a group!Leader vs. Facilitator“Peer” Facilitator vs. “Professionally Trained” Facilitator

22. BoundariesBehaviorMeeting outside groupFriendliness vs. FriendsInvolvement in Personal LivesSelf AwarenessMotivationsOwn IssuesSelf-Disclosure

23. Facilitator or Co-FacilitatorSharing the LoadNew Dynamic

24. Group RoutineHow do you feel right nowWhat is something positive about your recoveryDid you reach your goalWill you be speaking in depth laterRandom Question for funMeaningful goalsChecking in with Co-leaderNotes, logLong-Term Goals/Strategies

25. Preventing Burnout

26. Group GrowthGuest SpeakersEmailingInteractive Experiences

27. Maintaining a Healthy DynamicOpen MindedHumble/ModestSmall GoalsWhen to Change DirectionFeedbackSurveysStay Positive

28. Friends & Family Night

29. Breakout Session 2 Sketches 3 & 4Identify mistakes group leaders may have made, improve upon itIdentify where the group leader did something right

30. Recognizing the Dynamic With all 5 sketches, match the sketch to the issue___ Boundaries___ Safety___ Aggression___ Scape-goating___ Trigger Talk

31. Contact Information Dr. Karla Steingraber Ann Harriman, MA666 Dundee Rd., Ste 502 Northbrook IL 60062 847-778-3997keas@aprioris.netaharriman@aprioris.netDr. Karla SteingraberAnn Harriman, MA