Process Recording week 8
Seth Backer
Walden University
Socw 6510
Dr. Colvin
The first section is for introducing the client. Please include the following information:
Agency Information Fort Vancouver Highschool, Highschool within the Vancouver school district. Within the school we are the prevention and
intervention specialist. We Provide the Drug and Alcohol education for at risk students, crisis support, and intervention for mental health and
substance abuse issues within the school or students who are affected by these issues at home.
Client information (confidentiality of course) Process group “Blue Group” this is an affected others group for students who have parents who
suffer from substance abuse issues. There are 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders in this group, and we have anywhere from 6 to 9 group members at
a time, depending on student attendance that will dictate the number of kids that are in the group week to week.
Session Number 5
Date 4/7/22
Presenting Issue (reason for referral) The main presenting issue for this group is that they must have a direct family member who has substance
abuse issues. We have both self-referrals and faculty referrals for this group.
Relevant Information This group is a process group with a range of students in it. There are 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders in it. We change the
topic week to week and have a check in where we address name, pronouns, stress level, current feeling, and then we have an ice breaker
question that changes each week. This is a 12-week group at which point we reset and add new referrals and allow students who want to stop to
exit the group. We create a safe space for the students to address issues that are happening at home and to build relationships with other
students who are dealing with the same thing. This is the first meeting of blue group for the new round of students
Goal of Session
1. Client Goal- The main goal that we have for this session is to work on expressing emotions in a healthy way, dealing with stress can be
hard for students we want to provide a safe place for this expression to happen.
2. Your Goal- To provide a safe space and engage the students in thoughtful discussion on issues surrounding weekly topics about SUD
education and mental health issues.
Dialogue
Please group dialogue together.
Seth- Hey guys lets settle down quick we
want everyone one to get a chance to share.
Today were going to talk about emotions,
good and the bad. We deal with different
emotions in different ways, dealing with them
in a healthy manner is the way we don’t let
them run our lives. So, for today’s check in
were going to say our name, pronouns, stress
level and why, and one positive and one
negative emotion you felt since we last met.
John- My name is john I go by he/him my
stress level is at like a 6, I’m behind in some
classes and its starting to stress me out. I
guess the emotions I felt were sad and happy.
I’m sad that my mom still is drinking it really
sucks that she won’t stop. I was happy when I
talked to a girl I like, and she knew who I was.
Seth- thanks for sharing john, that’s a high
stress level for you, have you talked to you
teachers about how to make up the work and
get back on track?
John- yea they said they would put something
together, I guess.
Identify (for each
section)
1. Theory
2. Tools
3. Skills
Healthy coping skills
and addressing both
positive and negative
emotions. This is
where we start to
look at what the kids
are feeling
surrounding their
parent’s addiction, we
can see if there are
issues in emotional
regulation and then
we can adjust course
and talk with the
student to help
develop those skills.
Analysis/assessment of dialogue
What was going on? What were the
patient's reactions to your
feedback? How did the client respond
verbally (quality of voice, tone, did the
respond better to closed or openended questions?) How did the client
respond non-verbally (how did you
know they were listening? were they
distracted? Did they welcome your
feedback?)
This is where the kids all sat down,
they were a little rowdy today so had
to remind them to take a spot and
settle down. We had been having
some issues with people missing
school and being gone, we knew that
some of the kids were dealing with a
lot of stuff as we had met with some
of them individually, so we wanted to
use this time to talk about some of the
hard emotions they were dealing with.
You could see in johns body language
that he was ashamed of his moms’
actions, whenever he talks about it his
head turns down towards the ground
and his body almost collapses in on
itself.
Personal reactions and selfreflection to the interaction
What were you
thinking? How do you feel the
session went? What could
you have done better? What
will you do differently/the
same next time?
I knew that this was going to
be a heavy group before we
started. I think that overall, it
went ok, I still have a hard
time connecting with a lot of
the students as I’m not used
to working with kids, I find it
easier to talk to adults. I think
that this can get better with
time if I were to stay in this
area for a while.
Seth- oh ok that’s good, that’s a tough one
about your mom, it’s hard to watch people do
things that hurt us, and as much as we want
to control everything and everyone we can’t.
Just remember those boundaries we talked
about last week, I know it’s hard.
John- yea I know it just sucks I don’t see her
much when she is drinking, she misses her
visits and she never answers my calls or texts,
I just hope she get it together soon.
Seth- Judy why don’t you share, we missed
you last week.
Judy- My name is Judy I go by they/them, my
stress level is at a 10, my parents kicked me
out last week after I told them I was
nonbinary and that I had a girlfriend. I’ve felt
a lot of emotions this last week, the biggest
was angry, and empty, alone, sad, all of them.
My girlfriend tried to cheer me up, but I guess
it’ll just take time.
Seth- oh man that’s a lot of heavy stuff Judy,
where are you staying now?
Judy- I’m at my girlfriends for right now.
Seth- I’m sorry your parents had that reaction
to you telling them about who you are,
sometimes it takes people time to adjust to
what they had in their mind especially
parents. But I’m glad you are choosing to live
your life as your authentic self, that takes a
lot of courage. Those emotions you are
feeling are 100% valid, and you get to feel
them even the not so good ones, how are you
processing them or are you?
Address the idea of
control and what that
looks like in his
environment, talked
about the idea of not
being able to control
others and their
actions only
ourselves.
I noticed that Judy
was gone last week,
and I wanted her to
know that I noticed.
Making sure the kids
know that we pay
attention to them,
and their Prescence is
crucial.
This is where I try and
convey some
empathy and use my
active listening skills
to show Judy that she
has all my attention.
This is where I
validate their choice
to come out and be
their authentic self,
this is important to
them to know they
I wanted to redirect him to idea of
control and controlling others actions,
that the only thing we have control
over is ourselves and the way in which
we respond to situations.
I wanted to let Judy know that I
Noticed she was gone last week,
showing that I pay attention. Judy had
come to us previously in the week and
talked about the issue of being kicked
out. She was strong all things
considered, she acted like it was no big
deal when she first told us, but you
could see the hurt when she shared it
with the class.
Wanted to take this time to let Judy
know that time is her best friend right
now, once again we cannot control
others and their reactions only ours,
she was presenting in almost a
nonchalant kind of way, being the
tough kid, but we all knew she was
hurting and talking about time was a
way to let her know nothing is final
right now.
This is the hard part when you
can see the sadness in the
kid’s eyes, and you know that
unless the parent wants to
stop, they are not going to.
I knew this was going to come
up in this group as Judy had
talked to us before earlier in
the week. We had some good
conversations with her about
it. I think the hardest part was
making sure that it didn’t
become a bash the parents
fest with the other students. It
has happened in the past and
it makes the rest of the group
hard to keep on track, luckily
this did not happen, and we
were able to stay on track for
what we needed to talk about.
I feel that I was able to show
empathy well and let her
know that this is not final,
things can change with time.
Judy- I’ve been journaling a lot, listening to
music, and talking to my girlfriend and her
family, they accept us.
Seth- I’m glad you can express those
emotions and not bottle them up, that’s
when we can get into some trouble. In my
experience when people have problems with
stuff like this all we can do is give them time
and space to process it, when they decide to
reach out, we can just be there to educate
them and not allow them to change the
expectations we have for those relationships.
We can’t control other people’s actions and
reactions as much as we want to.
Seth- Seems like a lot of you guys have had
some tough weeks lately, and this idea of
control keeps coming up. What are your guy’s
thoughts on control, and controlling others or
the outcomes we want?
Jason- I wish I could control my dad and his
drinking it would make it so much easier on
our family. I don’t understand why he won’t
stop when we keep telling him he needs to.
Seth- yes Jason that can be frustrating, as
hard as it is you only have control over
yourself and the behaviors that you allow in
your life. You can set boundaries with people
when they do things you don’t like. But
controlling other people just doesn’t work
and honestly its exhausting trying to do it all
the time.
Jason- I guess still feel like it would just fix the
problem.
are supported here.
We also address the
healthy coping skills
they are using to get
through this tough
time.
I redirect the
conversation at this
point cause a
reoccurring topic
keeps coming up with
different kids check
in. this also shows
them that I’m
listening to what they
are saying and that
we can adjust the
conversation to the
needs that they have
at the time.
This is where we could see some of
our work paying off, when situations
like this happens and the kids are
already using coping skills.
The group had gotten heavy at this
point you could see it in all the kids
body language and the anxiety some
of them were displaying. They were
having a hard time sitting still and
focusing. We wanted to talk about this
idea of control cause a lot of them had
talked about it and what that looked
like within their environment.
This is also where we can see some of
the kid’s reactions to addiction and the
disease that it is, they want to make
the changes for their parents. It’s a
tough concept to get across to kids
who just want their parents to stop
drinking or using drugs.
Was glad the Judy was able to
share with the group that she
does have some healthy
coping skills that she is using
showing them that they can
apply what we have been
learning n group in a real-life
situation.
After hearing about control
from a lot of the kids I made
the decision to redirect what
we were talking about to this.
I think that with addiction it’s
important to not develop into
a codependent type of living.
Talking about the idea of
control and what that looks
like also I feel shows the kids
that its nothing that they are
doing. If we constantly talk
about the parents and how it’s
their choice and not the kids
then we redirect the fault
from the kids back to the
parents.
Seth- initially yes, but then he wouldn’t be
the one making the choice to stop you would,
and with time he would go back to drinking.
Being able to stop must be the persons choice
or nothing has really changed we just
removed the substance.
John- well what if we just need to make them
stop the one time then they can get it on
their own? I mean there’s gotta be some way.
Seth- john I hear what you’re saying, the
want them to stop is so great for you, but
they need to get to that point as well.
John- ugh this is so dumb they just need to
stop.
Seth- hopefully with time they will find
recovery, in the meantime how can we
manage our emotions? Deal with some of the
emotions that addiction within families
create. We can use our healthy coping skills
that we talked about a few weeks ago. Using
those skills that you already have and using
them to process emotions both positive and
negative ones can allow you the space and
time to work through a lot of what you guys
are feeling right now.
Redirect them to stay
on topic and discuss
the idea of control
and what it can and
cannot do within our
environment, this is
also a way that we
talk about systems
theory so that they
can understand it as
well.
Ending, I had to end
the conversation
because I felt it was
just going to keep
looping around.
You could see the want in johns face,
that he just wanted his mom to stop
and the idea that there was nothing he
could do to make that happen was
breaking him. His body language was
very defeated, and low. Normally we
don’t like to end group on this kind of
note.
I feel that this is also where I
lost control of the group a
little, I could have done a
better job of redirecting and
making sure that we stayed on
track with letting other group
members share and have a
chance to participate in the
discussion rather than just a
few of the kids taking over and
talking back and forth.
References
Turner, F. J. (Ed.). (2017). Social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.