online group therapy

The patient I had in this online group therapy is Mr. L. He was in his 50s, and almost did not speak any English and had no knowledge about the internet. Therefore, I guessed that he must have only limited education. 

Mr. L was a cook in a Chinese restaurant, and had a drinking problem which he never really admitted. He lived along with his wife in a Virgina City near DC. Because of his drinking problem, his wife had several severe fights with him, during which he beated his wife, and his wife called 911. As a result, the court ordered Mr. L. to move out of their house, and not be near his wife. However, Mr. L violated the restriction order, which led the court ordering him to attend the group therapy for addiction. This time, Mr. L followed the court order. He moved out of the house and rented a place to live. But because he did not know how to set up a connection with the online meeting, his wife came to his place and set it up for him every week. He was required to finish a-two-hour meeting every week for 8 weeks. Mr. L and his wife were serious about these meetings, and never late, so I could  see that he really wanted to go back with his wife. Only after satisfying the request of the court about addiction therapy, his restriction order could be rescinded.  

The group therapy is composed of one therapist and several patients, and the number of the patient was 4-6 at most of the time.The therapist sent out reading materials through email to all the members, and then discussed these materials in the section. There was a tally in the beginning of each section,  and any patient who was more than 15 minutes late, he/she would be counted as attending this meeting，and every patient was required to show his/her face on the screen during the meeting. After the tally, the therapist talked about the contents in the material for a while, then asked the patients to discuss what she just said, or fill some evaluation forms. If nobody spoke out, the therapist would say some more and try to encourage discussion by asking individual members.   

I did not think this kind therapy could help Mr. L. First, he did not know English, so it was impossible for him to read the materials sent by the therapist. In addition, it was unrealistic to expect Mr. L. to join the discussion during the meeting (the therapist never asked Mr. L. any question during his meeting). Even with my help, Mr. L. heard a little about the contents of these meetings, he did not have enough time to understand them. Therefore, he never acknowledged that he had a drinking problem, and only attended these sections because of the court order. Although he attended every section on time, which was much better than most of his group mates, I did not think he got too much help from these sections.

 Almost all of the patients were ordered by a court to attend this group therapy. Although drug addiction is a serious problem in American society, most persons attending this group were because of DUI (driving under the influence). The only person in this group who openly acknowledged a narcotic drug addiction was a young woman, and she was also the only woman who loved to talk about her life during the discussion.

A heavy smoker with various piercings and tattoos, this patient has very short hair and was in her 20s. According to herself, she became addicted to heroin in teenage. Because of her addiction, she lied a lot, and was thrown out of home by her mother. I am not sure what she did to support herself and her addiction, but she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. The father of her son first denied the son, but accepted his responsibility after a positive parental DNA test. After birth, her son was very sick and was kept in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for more than a month. Since she was still using heroin after conception (maybe she stopped using after she found out she was pregnant), the father logically blamed her for the medical problems of their son. She dissented and argued that even if she did not have drug problems, it was still possible that her son would have these health issues. In addition, she said that she was courageous when her son was in NICU, which inspired other mothers with newborns in NICU. Now, she tried to stay clean for her son, and moved back to live with her mother. The father of her son also helped with child care. Now her son is a little over 1-year-old.

I did not think that she had already become a responsible person since she still denied the obvious link between her drug problem and her son’s medical problem. But I did believe she was in a much better position now. I hope she can completely overcome her drug problem, and become a good mother for her son.