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What Is the Greatest Challenge of a Facilitator of a Recovery Group?

Facilitators of recovery groups provide a great service; they assume the responsibility of leadership for a group of individuals dealing with physical and emotional difficulty due to various traumas of their minds, souls and bodies. Facilitating recovery groups in a manner that generates genuine healing can be difficult for facilitators, both personally and professionally. Assuming this role comes with several challenges.

  1. Getting People to Open Up

    • Individuals recovering from trauma, whether it's drug or alcohol abuse, co-dependency, physical assault or domestic violence, inevitably arrive at a point in their recovery where they can continue no further until they open up and discuss their trauma. Getting people to open up and discuss their pain, which often brings up feelings of guilt or shame, is one of the greatest challenges recovery group facilitators face. They have to break through the recovery group's wall of silence and help everyone to see the importance of getting their issues off their chest, no matter how painful. Once everyone opens up, they will see that other members in the group are carrying similar burdens.

    Creating a Safe Space

    • It is a challenge for recovery group facilitators to create a safe space for individuals to speak aloud and share their personal history and trauma. Members must feel their recovery group is a place where they can let down the guard that masks their hurt from the rest of the world. It's imperative they know that group is a place where they don't have to pretend to be okay and can express their confusion, fear, anger, sadness and frustration without fear of judgment or ridicule.

    Maintain Group Equilibrium

    • Once group facilitators face the challenge of creating a safe space for group members, they face an additional challenge of making sure everyone in the group feels equally acknowledged and heard. After members become comfortable sharing and expressing their pain, they may become addicted to the attention and reassurance their sharing brings. This might cause members with outgoing personalities to dominate the conversation with their issues, leaving the more timid members feeling as if they don't receive an adequate opportunity to express their emotions. Group facilitators must find a way to both firmly and gently let dominant members know that everyone must have an equal turn to speak.

    Maintain Their Own Recovery

    • Another great challenge of recovery group facilitators is to maintain their own recovery while simultaneously dealing with the heaviness of group members' pain and struggle. Most group facilitators are required to have experienced whatever experience their group members are dealing with, so they can be not only sympathetic, but empathetic as well. A key to maintaining a successful recovery is for facilitators to remember that they will never be cured, but always recovering. They should also attend meetings where they are a member rather than facilitator, so that they have the same opportunity for emotional release that they provide to the group they facilitate.

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