Meeting Format

Format for Beat Your Addiction (BYA) Meetings

Kenneth Peiser, Ph.D. & Martin Sandry, Ph.D.

There is no formalized, rigid format for BYA group meetings. The purpose of group meetings is to help its members to work though the twelve step program. Also note that one of our intentions while writing the book was to enable persons addicted to anything attend Anonymous groups meetings when BYA, SMART, or other alternatives to Anonymous groups are not available in the area in which the addicted person lives. This involves learning to translate or reinterpret what is said at Anonymous meetings into the more rational alternatives as presented in the BYA program; that is where the Glossary at the back of the book is most helpful.

As in other self-help groups, BYA meetings serve to support and encourage member’s attempts to recover from their addictive behaviors. BYA meetings, in addition, help people to use REBT on their own in their daily lives, even when they do not have outside support and encouragement.



Suggestions for Chairing BYA Group Meetings

In small groups, everybody should introduce themselves and state why they want to recover, such as,

“I’m Sam. I want to recover because I don’t want to get into trouble with the law.”

“I’m Bruce. I want to recover because I don’t want my six year old daughter to be disappointed in me.”

“I’m Angelina. I want to recover because I want to save my marriage.”

"Hi, I'm Joe, and I'm just about out of money.

The reasons should be specific and concrete like the examples just given, rather than general and abstract, such as, “I want to be a better person,” or “I want to be true to myself,” or “I want to improve my relationships with other people.” The chairperson or any group member could follow-up on non-specific responses with, "What do you mean?" or "Can you please be more specific?"

In large groups, only new members and people who want to tell the group something or ask for help would introduce themselves as above, right before they tell or ask.

After the introductions, the chair-person can open the meeting with something like, “Does anyone here want to report how they are doing with the exercises you’ve been working on since our last meeting or ask questions about how to do their exercises,” or “Does anyone want to share their responses to the exercises you’ve been working on?”

If nobody volunteers, the chairperson could ask individuals at random what exercises the person selected has been working on.

The format presented above are merely suggestions of how the meetings can go. If the chairperson has a different idea, then by all means do it that way! However, what is not optional is that the exercises and the meaning of at least one step, as in the book, be discussed at each
meeting. We say at least, because sometimes you might want to discuss two steps at the same time. For example, steps one and two, three and four, five and six, etc. can logically go together.

Toward the beginning of all meetings at which there is even one new member, the ABCDE Method should be presented. All meetings should be conducted by the chairperson in a style which emphasizes everyone’s personal responsibility for their emotions and behaviors.. For example, when discussing problems that members have, instead of “How did that make you feel?,” the language would best be altered to something like, “How did you make yourself feel about that?” When discussing members’ behaviors, use language reflecting the individual’s decision to act in the manner they did, or their intention while doing so, something like, “Why did you decide to do that,” or, “What did you hope to accomplish by doing that?”

Another kind of thing that could be discussed is members’ current problems, and how to apply the ABCDE method to those problems. This means, of course that someone in the room, hopefully the chairperson, is familiar with the method. Wherever the group members live, it is likely that there are REBT practitioners in the area who could help; if not, then the authors may be contacted (see pg. xix in the book). It would be a good idea if, in each meeting, one or two problems get processed by the group. The purpose of this is to teach the group members to use the ABCDE method on themselves, rather than to have the meetings become group psychotherapy, as this requires very well trained professional therapists.

Five or 10 minutes before the time scheduled for the group is up, it is recommended that the chairperson ask the group for suggestions about what to talk about during future group sessions. This helps the group members to take responsibility for, and to become more active in their recovery. It also gives the chairperson time to prepare him- or herself for whatever the topic may be.

The authors would appreciate feedback from chairpersons as well as meeting attendees so that we may keep improving the format of the group meetings. This should be done via our web log at www.PsychologicalSolutions.blogspot.com