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SMART Recovery® Groups, How
to keep them Going
How to keep SMART Recovery® Groups Going
When You Don't Really Want To Be Obligated To Run a Meeting Every Week
By Michler Bishop, Member, SMART Recovery® Board of Directors
Many recovering members as well as professionals have hesitated to
start a SMART Recovery® group, because they do not feel they
know how to run a group, and because they do not want to be responsible
for running a group every week. As a result, it has been very difficult
to find new, potential Facilitators for SMART Recovery® and
very difficult to get new meetings started.
In a very few areas of the country, many groups have been started, but
this is almost always the result of a few very dedicated individuals.
Joe and Barbara Gerstein in Massachusetts are the most remarkable in
this regard. However, outside of isolated places, SMART Recovery's
growth has been slow. In addition, even when a number of groups start
in an area that hardly guarantees that they will be there a few years
later. This is especially true of SMART, because we do not explicitly
tell our members that they had better attend our meetings for the rest
of their lives. At one time in Manhattan, we had five groups running,
but then three Facilitators started new careers and decided to stop
coordinating. Their groups collapsed, and no one filled their shoes or
kept the groups running.
What's the solution to this problem? One solution is to alternate, or
rotate, Facilitators. Having different people run meetings week to week
has many distinct advantages:
1. No single Facilitator is identified with any one group. So, no one
can say (as occurred in the past in NYC), "I really like Francine's
group. But I don't like the way Bob runs his group." When such a
statement could be made, Francine's group grew in membership and
popularity and Bob's dwindled. Often, Bob got discouraged and
disappeared, and SMART Recovery lost a person willing to volunteer time
and energy.
2. SMART Recovery meetings become less like free group therapy meetings
run by skilled Facilitators, and more like self-help discussion groups.
3. Group members usually take more responsibility for how a meeting
goes. They cannot rely on a particular leader to run an effective
meeting.
4. On-the-job-training occurs on a continuous basis. In addition, I
suspect that those members who are going to coordinate in the following
weeks pay close attention to what works and what doesn't as they think
about and prepare for the meeting they are going to run.
5. If a leader relapses or goes on to some other activity in his or her
life, the group can continue without interruption.
6. No one person is obligated to run a meeting every week. In New York,
one member, let's say Jennifer, a schedule that is going to coordinate
each meeting for the next two months. If someone has to be away or has
another obligation that evening or is ill, Jennifer finds someone to
fill in.
7. "Understudy" Facilitators have fewer worries about stepping in and
volunteering to lead a group. When they feel ready, they can try out
their skills for one meeting without making a more extensive
commitment. As well, such "understudies" usually will have a more
seasoned Facilitator (perhaps more than one) at the meeting ready and
willing to pitch in.
Ironically, this is the way the first Rational Recovery®
meeting in New York started and was run in the early nineties. Peter,
one of the members of that group and the backbone of the current
organization, started to alternate Facilitators when I was away for a
month last summer. AA, as many of you know, uses a similar system with
good success.
How can you start this process?
First, don't be too good a Facilitator! SMART Recovery®
meetings should not be free group therapy meetings with a talented
group leader. Primarily, your role as a Facilitator is to keep the ball
rolling. I always say that you can tell if you are doing a good job if
you can feel your upper lip touching your bottom lip! Some (many?)
Facilitators work too hard and talk too much. Ideally, a meeting
provides a place where people feel welcome and supported and, in
addition to support, learn and practice SMART Recovery® tools.
Everyone in New York is encouraged to try to do at least one exercises
each meeting, and to have something else ready in case the meeting
really does need a jump-start.
Second, once you have a meeting going, indicate that you do not want to
coordinate the meeting every week and that you would like some other
members to do so. Speak to one or two people after the meeting and ask
them if they would consider helping out. In New York, a core group of
five or six people started to meet once a month to talk about running
groups, to get some additional suggestions from me, and to discuss ways
to help SMART Recovery® grow in the Big Apple. That group now
numbers twelve people.
Third, accept that on average, for every 100 people who come through
the door, only 10 to
20 will remain. As it may take a long time for 100 people to show up,
it may take quite a while to get a core group going. But I believe that
alternating Facilitators will help people become more involved faster.
No one has to commit to very much (just running a meeting) and you will
be there to help new people on their maiden voyages. As more people
become used to coordinating, you can fade a little further into the
woodwork--and start another group! Eventually, you may find that
members will start groups on their own, as happened in New York.
If SMART Recovery® wants to grow, many of us have recognized
that we had to solve the problem of starting more groups and of keeping
them going. From our experience in New York, alternating Facilitators
looks like a good solution to this particular organizational problem.
SMART Recovery® is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization, and
we depend on and welcome donations.
updated
4-13-06
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