Al-Anon Meeting Summary Social Sciences Assignment

Al-Anon Meeting Summary
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Al-Anon Meeting Summary
Part One: Summary of the Meeting
The Al-Anon Closed Family Group Meeting held at St Paul's Episcopal Church 2747 Fairmount Blvd Cleveland OH 44106 on Saturday 8 July 2017 from 10:00 am to 11:20 am.
The meeting took a discussion meeting formats since the clients wanted to share out their experience and were confident of the protection of their anonymities. It was a round table and each client was given time to share. In addition, there was a leader who introduced the theme and the direction for discussion with a few comments and ensured that the meeting remained closed (Lewis, Dana & Blevins, 2014). The meeting format was channeled in a chronological way where after a serenity prayer the leader mentioned his name and indicated to be part of the group followed by sharing his part of the story for 10 minutes a formal group discussion based on the main theme followed. The leader then recognized those who had the desire to share on the topic by raising their hands. These people then introduced themselves by indicating their names and their status such as "I am an alcoholic." The sharing was based on the topic mentioned earlier or even an additional moment of the previous speeches. However, the speakers were not restricted to the topic since some shared their views that were not related to the topic. This allowed them to share their hard times especially when thinking a lot about their conditions (Lewis, Dana & Blevins, 2014).
The meeting commenced with a serenity prayer after the group members joined their hands in a circle followed by a reminder of the principle of anonymity. Besides, the leader spelled out the content of the meeting which was guided by some conventions and format. All the discussions were based on the objectives which were to maintain the anonymity of others in the meeting hence they can communicate openly and honestly about their situations. These members were aware that everybody within the room has experienced similar problems due to the same situation (Lewis, Dana & Blevins, 2014). Secondly, they desired to stop drinking and to help the families of alcoholics through the practice of twelve steps beside providing comfort to the families of alcoholics as well as understanding and offering encouragement to the alcoholic. On a separate note, emphasis was also on change of behavior and attitude by ensuring adoption of relevant characteristic study by working on one's own experience and inventory of the flaws in characters (Lewis, Dana & Blevins, 2014). These were guided by a question "Can I advise my colleague who is an alcoholic without caring about them?"Therefore, the conventions included allocation of two minutes for every who wanted to share with others; the speeches were to be centered on personal experience, their struggles, feelings, theories and opinions; avoidance of cross talking and direct advice; relation to alcohol; identification and show of empathy with the others' experiences; and the twelve steps and it was to be a single share without repetition. Thus, the group meeting helps them gain a new perspective on life after gaining sobriety and share such experience with others (Lewis, ...