Twelve-Step Model: An Open Group Analysis

For this assignment, I was prompted to locate a human service organization with Twelve-step model, so I attended an Alcoholic Anonymous “Big Book” open meeting (AA). This meeting was held at New Life Christian Church in Chantilly on Tuesday at noon. I got there fifteen minutes prior to the beginning of the meeting and informed the group facilitators that I was a student Observer, they kindly welcomed me. They were getting ready to arrange tables, so I quickly jumped in to help arrange tables for the people that would arrive shortly. I was nervous as I did not know what to expect from this meeting. Once people began to arrive I observed comradery between some of the group attendants as they laughed and wanted to sit next to each other. This
Open meetings are for anyone who are interested in joining a support group. The benefit of an Open group is that every person struggling with addiction can join. I noticed that almost every member of this group knew each other well, as they talked amongst each other about what had happened over the weekend. One member was told, “We missed you last week”. The benefit of an open group is that you can share as much as you choose and not return if you dislike the dynamic of the group however this group was cohesive. There were 16 people in attendance mostly older adults in their late fifties. There was an equal amount of male and females, I noticed that there were two younger members possibly in their thirties. They were all Caucasian, the group was not diverse they seemed surprised to see me there as I was the only minority in the group. The group is composed of recovering Alcoholics. There were two facilitators who sat in different tables, as people were sharing stories both facilitators were comfortable with silence in the room as they did not push anyone to participate. Both facilitators shared challenges they had experienced during the previous week. The female facilitator was more open to sharing her life experiences. The process of the group was to talk about day to day struggles in everyday life. Every person stated that it is a struggle to wake up every day and stay away from alcohol. In addition to how life stress causes them to want to resort to alcohol. There was a spirit of friendship and community among certain members of the group. There were two subgroups one composed of 4 females and the other of 6 males. The females talked about what happened with kids, husband, and family whereas males talked about activities and things they had accomplished during the week. The subgroup composed of the females was lively and chatty as they all sat next to each other. Although everyone