Irony

One of the best experiences I have had at Samaritan Inns occurred last week. I was facilitating a group on "criminal or addictive thinking" with a focus on aggressive coping mechanisms. During this group, because my life is sublimely ironic, a heated argument erupted between two clients who had exchanged words before the group had started (unbeknown to me).

One of the most useful techniques and formulations I had learned in my social work placements was Life Space Interviews. When I was working with emotionally disordered children, life space interviews were employed after a crisis to process the events and highlight areas where the client could have chosen differently. Once I had calmed both of the parties in the argument down, I was able to chain the behaviors they were expressing on the whiteboard in the group. I could tell that the clients were building insight because they were able to identify their own behaviors in the chain. Also, they were able to suggest alternative behaviors.

After the behaviors were chained, they were able to speak to each other about the root of the problem. One client thought the other had overheard her speaking about her HIV status (not true). Later, that same client confronted the other about "her disease"-- referring to the disease of addiction-- and the other client thought she was talking about HIV. Independent of my own prompting, the clients were able to use "I" statements to express their feelings and found the truth at the center of the conflict.

Once the clients had expressed themselves in a more positive manner, I validated them for their effort to resolve the conflict. Then, in a writing assignment, I asked all members of the group to identify their aggressive strategies. Although I did not get to see the two clients' responses, I hope that they gained insight from their actions; especially, what they gained from these techniques and how they could have addressed the situation differently.