Life of an OT Student

I attended an Al-anon 12 step meeting in the Memphis community on February 25 at 7 pm, the meeting lasted about one hour. Al-anon is a support group for family members of alcoholics, and I grew up with an alcoholic father so the dynamic of this group was interest to me.  The role the facilitator played in this meeting was authoritarian as this was not an open discussion session and there was a guest speaker there to share her experience in how al-anon has been beneficial for her. The facilitator did however give a brief opportunity for other members of the group to share how the group has affected their lives. When no one shared the facilitator briefly talked about her past and what lead her to this support group.  I attended the meeting with a classmate and she and I were by far the youngest one there, the meeting was held in a church and a potluck of food was provided. They were kind and offered food but we both admitted we expected there to be more people closer to our age s

Reflection Using worksheet 1-3 as a guide it allowed me to mentally break down the group session in my head and reflect on how the session went and what I could improve on next time. At the beginning of our session we had the group introduce themselves and provided them with a warm up activity to have them talk about those they love/admire to allow each member an opportunity to speak in front of the group. When beginning to discuss our second activity instead of asking for someone to volunteer to begin speaking I singled out a member and asked them if they would like to begin. I'm not really sure what the protocol would be on this as we always say people can choose if they would like to share. I suppose he has the opportunity to turn down the offer. When providing feedback to the group it's difficult not to try to relate to them and share your own similar experiences. As a therapist you need to find that fine line between being relatable and sharing too much. I felt all me