Running head: SELF-ESTEEM CYCLE

Riker 1

Self Esteem Cycle:

A Substance Abuse Treatment Group
Giselle Riker
Wayne State University

Author Note
This process recording was prepared for SW 4010, section 001 taught by Dr. Kim Rich-Rice.

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Riker 2

Communication Patterns Narrative

Before beginning the group, the facilitator Emily told me that I should think about
something to say for an introduction and be prepared for any of the questions the group
members may have for me upon meeting me. She also told me that her personal preference as a
group leader was to promote a more open-ended environment in that she does not mind when
the primary conversation of the group shifts to a back and forth exchange between two or more
group members, as long as it doesnt stray too much from the topic at hand or continue for an
excessive amount of time. Emily believes that group therapy works best in an environment
where members are encouraged to communicate with one another so they are actively
supporting each other and helping each other grow, rather than becoming disengaged by being
forced to listen to the facilitator lecture the entire time.
I noticed right away that Gavin and Andrea were going to be the monopolizers of the
group, which I think was simply a reflection of their individual outgoing personalities. Both of
them had a lot to say throughout the discussion, especially Andrea, who had a comment or
question for almost every single point brought up. Although it got to be a bit much at times (at
one point Emily had to tell Andrea to wrap up her story), many of the comments that Gavin and
Andrea made sparked talking points for other members. I was pleased to see that almost all of
the group members appeared to be actively engaged in the discussion about self-esteem, except
for Katy who was doodling the whole time and Tara who appeared to be listening but chose not
to speak. Emily did a great job with facilitating respectful conversation and I admired her
decision to let clients share freely and not force anyone into talking if they were not
comfortable.

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Content
Beginning Phase:
The group began with round
robin introductions in which
everyone gave their name,
how long they had been in the
program, and what they liked
best about the program.

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Social Workers Gut-Level
Feelings
I am feeling a bit nervous
because this is my first time
sitting in on a group and
interacting with clients
outside of the intake office,
but I am also excited to finally
see a group in action. I am
feeling grateful that all of the
clients are very being friendly
and welcoming towards me,
that definitely helps me feel
more comfortable.

Following the introductions,

Emily passed out a selfesteem survey. When
everyone was finished, she
opened up the floor to anyone
who wanted to share their
results and their reactions i.e.
if they agreed or disagreed
and why or why not.

I am considering whether or
not I want to share my results
because I want to be involved,
but Im not sure if I want to
share my insecurities with the
clients. I am curious about the
results of the members who
did not choose to share.

Middle Phase:

I find it interesting to hear

what self-esteem meant to
other people, because it has
always been something that
kind of had one set meaning
in my head, but it really is a
subjective idea.

After the group members

shared their results, Emily
began the discussion by
asking the group: What does
self-esteem mean? Everyone
seemed to be on the same
page in defining it as a selfperception of ones self worth,
that affects how you treat
others. Victor defined as being
a sense of contentment, which
can be different for everyone.

Logical Interpretations of
Client Interaction
Based on the information each
client chose to share in their
introduction, I could almost
make predictions about who
would be talking more
throughout the discussion.
Everyone was respectful and
did not interrupt each others
introductions. Emily wanted
everyone to be involved so
she introduced herself and had
me and the other intern
introduce ourselves as well.
The six clients that chose to
share their results were those
that had pretty positive
results, mainly that they were
all on the right track with
their self-esteem level. Jesse,
a particularly soft spoken
gentleman, decided to share
his results, but he was
interrupted once by Andrea,
and I think that may have
discouraged him a bit because
he did not contribute for the
remainder of the group.
The group seem to build off of
each others definitions of
self-esteem, and they seem to
be really in tune with each
other when it comes to selfesteem because so many of
them feel it is a big portion of
their recovery.

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Riker 4

Emily passed out a hand-out

explaining the Self-Esteem
Cycle which basically says
that an individuals
performance reality stimulates
either positive or negative self
talk, which reinforces self
image, and self image comes
full circle by controlling
performance reality.
We start to break down the
self-esteem cycle by talking
about self-talk and how it
works for everyone. Emily
explains that self-talk is often
influenced by the external,
especially when people tell
you things about yourself over
and over again, its easy to
start believing them.
Andrea and Victor both agree
that most of their self-talk is
negative. Kim explains her
interpretation of self-talk, that
it can be any thought that
comes into your head
throughout the day, it doesnt
necessarily mean giving
yourself pep talks in your
head. She tells Andrea that
positive self-talk can be
something as simple as doing
her makeup in the morning
and feeling good about how
she looks.

Im curious to see how we

discuss the self-esteem cycle
because I have never heard of
this particular concept before.

Instead of beginning the

discussion with an
explanation of the hand-out,
Emily chooses to jump right
in by asking the clients
opinions of what the terms
meant.

It makes me sad to hear about

some of the clients self-talk,
especially for Alyssa who said
she used to think of herself as
nothing more than a stupid
junkie going nowhere.

Emily chooses to let the

clients facilitate the group in a
sense by letting them talk out
the defintion with each other,
adding input and clarification
when necessary.

I really appreciate Kims

explanation because I had a
definition to At first, I notice
that Andrea looks confused
and Im nervous that she
might be somewhat offended
by Kim for calling her out, but
Im pleased to see that she is
very appreciative of Kims
explanation, telling the group
Isnt she the best? It makes
me really happy to see a client
teaching another client.

The discussion leads into a

discussion about the
difference between shame vs.
guilt, shame being
acknowledging that you did
something wrong and feeling
bad about it, and guilt
meaning holding onto those

I really enjoy this portion of

the discussion and find
Victors perspective very
thoughtful. I had never
considered shame and guilt to
be different concepts but it
makes so much sense when
they are explained this way. I

Although they werent sitting

by each other or having their
own side conversation, it was
clear from the beginning that
Kim and Andrea knew each
other outside of the program.
However, I think their
interactions were an example
of a positive dyad
relationship, because at the
beginning of group Andrea
told Kim she should come
with her to a Celebrate
Recovery meeting that night,
and then here Kim took the
time to explain self-image to
Andrea in a way that would
relate and make sense to her.
Emily commended Victor for
bringing up the point of
shame vs. guilt, and she then
went on to add her own input
based on what he had said,
which is a good example of a
client influencing the
facilitator and the direction

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negative feelings and letting
them weigh you down. In
other words, you can feel
ashamed of something, but
you do not have to keep
feeling guilty for it.
Emily then shifts the
conversation to self-image,
the next part of the cycle.
Emily asked members to
explain how they perceived
that self talk contributes to
self image, and then share
how other factors in life
relates to their self image.

Kim asks Emily to stop and

explain what exactly selfimage meant because she was
confused because of her
peers varied definitions.
Emily then used a personal
example of how the three
aspects of the self-esteem
cycle related to preventing her
from going back to school in
the past.
Ending Phase:
To wrap up the group, Emily
asked the clients what they
thought were some ways to
promote positive self-esteem
based on the discussion
throughout the group. Some
things that we came up with
included: self-care, staying
away from negative people,
being empathetic with
yourself, having realistic life
expectations, staying active,
accomplishing goals, and
more.

Riker 5
think about my own
experiences with dealing with
guilt and I feel like I can
really relate with the clients in
this sense.

the discussion takes.

Self-image has always been a

pretty ambiguous term in my
head, so Im interested to hear
other opinions of it. I think
about how self image is
reinforced for me: when
people tell me Im doing a
good job at work, I think of
myself as being hard-working,
but when my mom tells me
Im being irresponsible, I feel
negative about myself and that
easily outweighs the positives.
I really appreciate Emilys
example and I found it to be
The way that Emily has
approached group leadership
thus far makes me feel like it
is much less daunting than I
thought before and gives me
confidence that I will be able
to do it on my own someday.

Again, the discussion is

mostly member facilitated,
with Emily posing new
questions or points every so
often.

Im happy to see that the

majority of the group
members seemed to have
gained positive information
from the group.

Several of the clients

contributed during this portion
of the group, sharing personal
examples about how certain
things make them feel good
about themselves. At one
point, Andrea told a story that
went on for a bit too long, so
Emily had to interrupt her and
tell her to wrap it up as time
for the group was running out,
although this was really the
only time Emily attempted to
curb Andreas monopolizing.

Kim felt comfortable enough

to pause the discussion in
order to get a clearer
definition of self-image, and
Emily did a very good job at
explaining it in a relatable,
understandable way.

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Emily explained that
addiction is a thinking
disease, and that is why it is
so easy for addicts to focus on
guilt and negative thoughts.
Therefore, she emphasized the
idea of meta-cognition:
thinking about what youre
thinking about. Kim added
onto to this idea by saying that
she found this idea really
interesting, but didnt think
she would be able to change
her thinking patterns
overnight. She then explained
how she would attempt to
start by acknowledging her
positive and negative
thoughts.
Emily thanked her for input,
asked if anyone else had any
last thoughts, and ended by
thanking everyone for a good
group.

Riker 6
Im overall really pleased with
how this group went and I
cant help but feel lucky that I
was able to observe such a
structured group on a topic
that everyone can relate to.
Everyone seemed to get along
really well in this group and
now Im curious to see how a
different counselor leads
group.

This is just about the only of

the group where one could say
Emily was lecturing for a
minute, but she was really just
wrapping up the group by
recapping everything we had
discussed and the ideas that
the client came up with. Kim
was able to recognize that she
knew she would not be able to
change her self-talk and
overall self-esteem right away,
so she provided everyone with
the alternative short term goal
of simply checking ones
positive and negative
thoughts.

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Riker 7

Diversity Narrative
Personalized Nursing LIGHT House (PNLH), my field placement site where this group
took place, is a very diverse program by nature because it has very little specific admission
criteria, besides for having a need for substance abuse treatment and being over age 18. I was
lucky enough to be able to observe a group that happened to consist of an even number of males
and females, and see how gender contributed to the groups dynamics. Contrary to the popular
idea that women are better communicators than men, I found that in this particular group, the
men appeared to be much more engaged and comfortable with sharing personal information
about themselves and their recovery. In fact, Kim and Andrea were the only two females that
really contributed to the discussion, with Andrea speaking significantly more than Kim. Since I
do not really know the clients very well, it is hard to say if this silence was the result of their
own individual personalities, or if it was more so that women are not typically comfortable
talking about their self-esteem and self-image in front of others, especially men.
The other form of diversity within this group was age. There seemed to be a wide variety
of ages, from 18 year old Gavin to 60 year old Doug. Age did not seem to be a big factor in
keeping the clients from relating to one another, but again I think it may have had some impact
on the amount of information they chose to disclose. Gavin and Andrea were the two youngest
group members and also the two who had the most thoughts and questions on the topic of selfesteem. Younger individuals often tend to have more insecurities because they are still trying to
figure out who they are, so that could have been why Andrea and Gavin expressed the most
interest in understanding their self-esteem and methods to improve it.

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Riker 8

Summary
Overall, I really enjoyed attending this group. I loved watching the clients interact and
finally being able to see them working in the recovery process rather than simply checking them
in at the beginning of the program. I have always been interested in working in group work, and
I found Emily to be an excellent group leader and I really liked the way that she was able to
encourage conversation without being too pushy. I always thought it would be hard for me to
fully be on the same page as the clients in group because I personally have never been an addict,
but by sitting in on this group I realized how much we all actually do have in common and I feel
much more confident about being able to relate and empathize with this population even though
I havent been in quite the same circumstances as many of them. I loved to see the cohesion
between the members of this group and it really made me happy to get an idea of the progress
they were each individually making in recovery. For example, Gavin was the first intake I
observed on my first day of internship. When I met him, he was extremely emotional and at
what he considered to be the lowest point of his life. He really stuck with me because despite all
the mistakes he made, he was very determined to get clean and start over. And now five weeks
later, he is positively glowing and has nothing but good things to say about the program and
how much he has grown and turned his life around; its almost as if hes a totally different
person. Im so happy I was able to witness his individual progress. I think that this group was an
ideal representation of the positive work that PNLH does, and the supportive bonds that clients
form when doing group therapy.

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Riker 9

Legend

= Facilitator

= Actively Listening & Contributing

= Silent

= Disengaged

= Monopolizing
= Male
= Dyad
relationship

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Riker 10

=Female

Emily

Tara

Victor

Matt
(Intern)

Andrea

Me

Doug

Katy

Kim

Gavin
Bryan

Jesse