Blog 19: Independent Component 2

LITERAL
(a) “I, Stephanie Salas, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.

Fish, Gary. Harrison, Thomas. "Substance Abuse: Information for School Counselors, Social Workers, Therapists, and Counselors." Massachusetts: A Pearson Education Company. 2000. Print.

(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.
(d) Explanation of what you completed.    
For my independent component i did a combination of attending NA Meetings and mentorship. Throughout the month of April, I attended NA meetings 3 times a week, two hours each, for 4 weeks. Narcotics Anonymous Meetings are a support group that are designed specifically for those dealing with drug addiction. They are based off of the Twelve Steps and Traditions, which were first used in Alcoholics Anonymous. The meetings that I attended were at two different sites: One was a residential treatment facility called BHS Recovery Center, and the second was a building on Holt Ave. I was able to sit in and observe how these meetings functioned.

INTERPRETIVE 
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  

This is a picture of BHS Recovery Center, the residential treatment center where they hold NA Meetings. It's actually right down the street from iPoly so that's convenient. The meetings also usually start at 7:30 P.M., which is why you can see the sun setting in the background.

Unfortunately they did not allow me to take pictures while the meeting was taking place. BUT i was able to sneakily take one. At this center, since it was a residential treatment facility, the room was split into two sections. One section, the one where I was sitting, is the seating for the public or for people who are new. On the other side that wasn't photographed, however, is the seating for all the addicts who are currently residing here. In this photo, you can see a speaker in front of the room. And also, in back of him are two posters: One is the Twelve Steps, and the other is the Twelve Traditions At every meeting that I attended, an alumni who had remained sober for a number of years came up to talk about everything that he/she went through meanwhile their battle, and why the Twelve Step system helped him/her remain sober.

I did not take these pictures, but it is an exact replica of the posters that were hung up in BHS. In every meeting, they went over one specific step, and a different speaker came up and talked about his/her own experiences and consistently referred back to that step as being a vital factor of them overcoming their addiction.

This is where I do my other hours. It's at the SEA Charter School in Pomona, and it's held at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. 

Teresa handed me this stash of files and told me to get busy on inputting and sorting. The files include documents that social workers, probation officers, and counselors have to fill out when dealing with their client. I still have a lot left to do.

APPLIED
How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 
This component helped me answer my EQ because it taught me how effective support groups are, which is a type of behavioral therapy, which relates back to my first answer. Throughout listening to the speakers talk about their personal experiences, I noticed that they referred a lot to what I had already learned through research. They mentioned over and over that addiction is a disease, and it takes constantly falling down and pushing yourself back up to overcome it. They also mentioned that they were grateful for being given the opportunity to go through treatment, and without it they would have never changed. From what I noticed, everyone attending the NA Meetings all treat each other like family. Even I, who was no one but an observer, was treated with respect. And after every meeting, they all hugged in a group and recited the goal of NA, which I thought was comforting and intriguing.