PS521 Unit 5 Group Session Plan Example

Week Eight, Tuesday, 6:00 to 9:00: A PS521 Unit 5 Session Plan for a Relapse Prevention Group in an Intensive Outpatient Program

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

PS521: Group Counseling

Unit 5 Group Session Plan

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The writer, the program, the group members and every detail of the session are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.

Group and Context

The evening cohort has nine members, seven from the original group and two who joined in week seven. Members are between two and nine weeks sober. Thanksgiving is nine days away, and four members have said they dread family gatherings where drinking is expected. The session runs from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., led by the senior counselor and me as co-facilitator.

Session Goals

By the end of the session, each member will name at least two high-risk situations they expect over the holiday, identify one coping response for each and tell the group one person they will contact if they feel at risk. The group will also practice responding to a drink offer, and the two newer members will take an active part.

Theory Behind the Session

Witkiewitz and Marlatt (2004) picture a return to drinking that grows out of several moving parts at once, the risky setting, the skills and confidence a person brings to it, the strength of the urge and what the person expects a drink will do, and a single slip can snowball when the person reads it as total failure. Holiday gatherings concentrate many high-risk elements: family conflict, social pressure, old drinking rituals and disrupted routines. For relapse prevention, the federal protocol favors skills-focused sessions that mix a short lesson, rehearsal and talk among members (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2005).

Timeline

6:00 to 6:20, check-in. Each member gets one minute: days sober, the week's worst craving as a number out of ten and a single word for how they feel tonight. Leaders note anyone above seven on cravings for follow-up.

6:20 to 6:45, brief teaching. The senior counselor explains, with a whiteboard sketch, how high-risk situations, coping and confidence interact, using a holiday example the group suggests. I hand out a one-page worksheet with three columns: situation, coping response and person to call.

6:45 to 7:30, small groups. Members split into three groups of three, with each newer member placed with two longer-standing members. Each person fills in the worksheet with help from the other two. Leaders move between groups.

7:30 to 7:40, break.

7:40 to 8:20, practice. Volunteers role-play a drink offer from a relative, chosen from the worksheets. One member plays the relative and another practices a response. The group gives feedback on what worked. Each practice is short, about four minutes.

8:20 to 8:50, processing. The senior counselor invites the group to talk about what came up during the practice, attending to here-and-now reactions, such as a member who seemed shaken after playing a pushy uncle. Yalom and Leszcz (2020) emphasize that the learning in a group often comes from reflecting on what happened among members, not only from the exercise itself.

8:50 to 9:00, closing. Each member names one person they will call over the holiday. Leaders remind members of the after-hours line and the holiday schedule.

The plan gives processing as much time as practice, because the drink-offer role-plays are where old family feelings will surface.

Leader Roles

The senior counselor leads the teaching and processing. I run the check-in, the worksheets and the timing, and I watch for members who withdraw. We meet for ten minutes before and after the session.

Fallback Plans

If a member arrives intoxicated, I will meet them privately before the session starts, check their safety and transportation, ask them not to join the session that night and schedule a call for the next morning. The group will be told only that the member could not attend.

If a member discloses a crisis, such as thoughts of suicide or a relapse that night, the senior counselor will acknowledge it in the group, and I will meet with the member privately during the break or after the session to assess safety and follow the program's crisis protocol.

If one member monopolizes, likely Ty given the pattern described in Unit 3, the leader will thank him, summarize his point and invite responses from others. If the pattern persists, the leader will name it for the group, as we did in week six.

If the role-plays become too intense, we will stop, move to a grounding exercise and shorten the practice segment.

Evaluation

At the end of the session, members complete a two-question card rating how useful the session was and how ready they feel for the holiday, each marked from one to ten. In the session after Thanksgiving, the check-in will ask members whether they used their coping response and whether they called their named person.

Conclusion

This plan combines brief teaching from Witkiewitz and Marlatt's relapse model, structured practice and generous processing time, as the treatment protocol and Yalom and Leszcz recommend. Its fallbacks prepare the leaders for the most likely disruptions, and its evaluation checks whether the plans made in the room were used at the holiday table.

References

Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (2005). Substance abuse treatment: Group therapy (Treatment Improvement Protocol Series, No. 41; HHS Publication No. SMA 05-3991). Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Witkiewitz, K., & Marlatt, G. A. (2004). Relapse prevention for alcohol and drug problems: That was Zen, this is Tao. American Psychologist, 59(4), 224-235. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.4.224

Yalom, I. D., & Leszcz, M. (2020). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (6th ed.). Basic Books.