Reflection On Alternative Clinical Experience
Alternate Clinical Experience:
A.A. Meeting
The meeting I attended took place at 8 pm Sunday night at Holy Name Church in Pompton Plains. It was an open meeting and held in the basement of the church. Upon entering I was introduced, greeted warmly and was offered coffee and cake. To my surprise, I ran into two members that I knew in the past. There were 16 attendees excluding me and another student. Among the attendees there were fourteen males and only two females with their ages being approximately forty to sixty five. Before the meeting began the main speaker offered me more cake and coffee. He did so as more a way to segway into explaining the night’s theme as being a celebration. The meeting was of celebration of members anniversaries …show more content…
They were to be given a commemorative coin embossed with their years of sobriety as a reminder. Interestingly enough, three of the four celebrants asked a fellow member to speak on their behalf. The first to speak as a guest speaker explained of how he originally did not believe in the program, and believed he can defeat his”demons” on his own. It was not until his wife left him and he started thinking he was really doing nothing positive as a father of two children, a husband, brother or son that he realized he needed help. He reached out to friend who was himself a recovering alcoholic and a member of the local A.A. group. His friend is the person that sponsored him and also asked him to speak on his behalf. He spoke of his changes within himself since being sober for a year and on half. He was proud of his “new high” that comes from helping new members and speaking at functions and proud to belong to this community of friends that come from all walks of life. He openly admitted that although he enjoys seeing the love and the compassion that the others enjoy through their connection to God, he is “not quite there yet with the God thing!”
The other three speakers all spoke of similar stories of their daily struggles to stay sober. They told of how they lied to others and lied to themselves, that there was no problem with
A.A. Meeting
The meeting I attended took place at 8 pm Sunday night at Holy Name Church in Pompton Plains. It was an open meeting and held in the basement of the church. Upon entering I was introduced, greeted warmly and was offered coffee and cake. To my surprise, I ran into two members that I knew in the past. There were 16 attendees excluding me and another student. Among the attendees there were fourteen males and only two females with their ages being approximately forty to sixty five. Before the meeting began the main speaker offered me more cake and coffee. He did so as more a way to segway into explaining the night’s theme as being a celebration. The meeting was of celebration of members anniversaries …show more content…
They were to be given a commemorative coin embossed with their years of sobriety as a reminder. Interestingly enough, three of the four celebrants asked a fellow member to speak on their behalf. The first to speak as a guest speaker explained of how he originally did not believe in the program, and believed he can defeat his”demons” on his own. It was not until his wife left him and he started thinking he was really doing nothing positive as a father of two children, a husband, brother or son that he realized he needed help. He reached out to friend who was himself a recovering alcoholic and a member of the local A.A. group. His friend is the person that sponsored him and also asked him to speak on his behalf. He spoke of his changes within himself since being sober for a year and on half. He was proud of his “new high” that comes from helping new members and speaking at functions and proud to belong to this community of friends that come from all walks of life. He openly admitted that although he enjoys seeing the love and the compassion that the others enjoy through their connection to God, he is “not quite there yet with the God thing!”
The other three speakers all spoke of similar stories of their daily struggles to stay sober. They told of how they lied to others and lied to themselves, that there was no problem with