GROUPS, LECTURES, AND ASSIGNMENTS

Client's primary counselor will assign groups, lectures, reading, writing, and experiential exercises consistent with the issues identified as a result of the above assessment.

LECTURES

In order to individualize treatment and coordinate the timing with regard to addressing the client's particular therapeutic issues, the counselor may assign the client to attend any of the scheduled lectures.

ASSIGNMENTS

Assignments in Phase II are an integrated combination of reading, writing, and activities designed to correlate with clients' needs and status on a continuum known as the "stages of change." The assignments are designed to facilitate progress from one stage of change to the next. Assignments provide structured opportunities for clients to practice applying the knowledge learned in order to build and strengthen recovery skills. Phase II assignments include but are not limited to the following:

Clients will:

• Read and highlight Chapters Five and Eight in the Narcotics Anonymous basic text.
• Continue daily writing in the guided journal My First Year in Recovery.
• Complete life inventory (Fourth Step) and process with primary counselor and temporary sponsor.
• Complete Step-Working Guides Four and Five and be able to verbalize a clear understanding of the patterns in life that have contributed to and resulted from addiction.
• Review twelve-step meeting lists for home area and, taking into consideration family, work, aftercare requirements, and commitments, develop a written meeting attendance plan to be reviewed and discussed with primary counselor and temporary sponsor.
• Write a sponsor-sponsee job description that addresses the following questions:
• What is a sponsor?
• What is a sponsee?
• What do clients expect to contribute to this relationship?
• What do clients expect to get from this relationship?
• Compose a description of the three external or environmental factors and three internal factors, characteristics, attitudes, or behavior patterns that are the most active threats to maintaining recovery after leaving LVRC. Using the information from the above activity, clients will develop at least three behavioral strategies per threat that they can begin to practice as solutions to deal with these potential risks.

Areas of concern and need will be addressed with clients on an individualized basis. Clients may be asked to repeat Phase I activities that are relevant, based on where clients are in treatment and recovery. In the event of this, clients will be informed that they are being referred back to these activities and told specifically why that is the case. In many cases, repeating activities refreshes and enriches clients' awareness of the information covered. And because of attention, concentration, and memory challenges that are normal to post-acute withdrawal, many people benefit from attending these activities a second time. Post-acute withdrawal is a process that can last anywhere from a few weeks to as many as six to nine months, as body and brain go through a process of rebalancing themselves to life without mood-altering substances. As a result, repetition in early recovery can be helpful in clarifying and reinforcing new information. Another reason clients may be referred to attend Phase I activities again is to participate in the capacity of mentor or role model for new clients in an area in which the mentoring client is are doing well.