Optimism

After the first weeks at my field placement, I am very optimistic about my position at Samaritan Inns. They started me out by observing group therapy and training me to do intakes over the phone. Although I am not taking part in any of the treatment, they are eager to integrate me into the program.
The staff is in flux because on alternating weeks, people have been going on vacation so I'm working with the night faculty covering shifts during the day. My coworkers themselves are interesting in that they are almost all former addicts who have successfully recovered. In addition to the skewed demographics of the clients, this alienates me from most of the people in the program. This works to my advantage, however, in that none of the staff in the Intensive Recovery Program have any psychology knowledge beyond addiction counseling. They are coming to me with questions on dual-diagnosis cases and psychological treatment histories. It's a little embarrassing because I don't feel qualified to give an opinion.
Unfortunately, since I'm essentially waiting for people to call for intakes, I have a lot of free time. To occupy my time, I have begun to read the Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous literature in the office. I didn't know that the program used a strict 12-step method of treatment. My only previous exposure to the 12 steps was through a Penn & Teller: Bullshit! episode that was highly critical on psychological and religious grounds. Then again, they did a Bullshit! Episode on global warming that was pretty false, so it's possible they're just being myopic. This is going to be interesting.