CRAFT Group Skills Lab

OVERVIEW

Join this role-play CRAFT group for providers who are committed to offering CRAFT services in the community. Through experiential learning and co-facilitation, you will observe, experience and practice CRAFT in a group format. Each participant will have a turn to co-facilitate one week of the CRAFT group, and during the remaining weeks participants will be a participant in the group. By the end of this group lab, you will be ready to replicate or adapt an 8 to 12 week format CRAFT group for concerned significant others. You should only sign up for this opportunity if you are committed to offering a CRAFT group or workshop to the community.

This group lab is for people who have already had an introductory course in CRAFT or a CRAFT-based approach, and value the opportunity for deliberate practice in a supportive learning environment. Studies by Bill Miller (co-developer of Motivational Interviewing) have shown that while training participants in an introductory workshop often report feeling confident in their new skills, changes in practice behavior are usually modest at best and quickly diminish after training if nothing more is done to consolidate new skills (Miller & Mount, 2001; Miller, et al., 2004; Schwalbe, et al., 2014). Deliberate practice with feedback is key to learning!

Before registering, please ensure that you can commit to attend all, or nearly all, of the sessions. The groups will be in person at Verdant in Lynnwood and the times and dates are being determined by the feedback from interested participants. I encourage you to register with a colleague, so that you can form a co-facilitation team when you are ready to offer your own CRAFT group in the community. Solo participants are ok too!

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS  

What will be doing each week?

The first 1 hour and 15 minutes of each group we will be conducting group, just like a real CRAFT group. The “participants” of the group will be all of you: providers who have been trained in CRAFT and are practicing the skills by participating as group members. The group will be facilitated each week by Lara, with the assistance of each of you, who will take turns acting as a co-facilitator. The next 15 minutes will be a debrief of the group experience. This is your chance to ask questions as a CRAFT provider and discuss what occurred in the group. The last 30 minutes is only for the participant who will be facilitating the following week, to stay and prepare with Lara for your turn the following week. You will have guidance and support to prepare for your turn co-facilitating. 

Is this a role play?

Yes, you will be simultaneously participating in the group as a group member, while learning as a professional. In that sense, you are “role playing” as a participating group member. However, I encourage you to “be yourself” and to draw from experiences you are familiar with, rather than “act like” someone else. Be genuine. 

What if I am not a “concerned significant other” of someone with SUD?

You do not have to have personal experience loving someone with a SUD. You can still “be yourself” while imaging yourself in the shoes of someone who is a parent or partner of someone with a SUD. What I ask is that you do not take on a “character” but rather act as your authentic self while participating in group and experiencing receiving CRAFT based support. This will make for a more realistic experience for those co-facilitating and be most impactful for you as a participant.

What if co-facilitating makes me really nervous?

It is understandable to be nervous about “performing” in front of others. Rest assured that Lara will be there to help you prepare and to support you as your co-facilitator. Lara is an experienced instructor and supervisor and is there to help you stretch your comfort zone in a supportive and encouraging environment. Further, we learn best by doing and if you are considering this group lab experience then it's probably because you care about the work that you do and want to be good at it. You can do this!

Will I be ready to offer a CRAFT group after this?

The intention of this group is to increase your experience, expertise and confidence to host your own CRAFT group in your community. You will have handouts from this group that you can use or adapt for your own CRAFT group. We will also discuss ideas for adapting this group to best serve your specific community or target audience. 

What is the cost for this group?

This group is provided for free through funding from Verdant Health Commission, for the purposes of ensuring that CRAFT support services are available to residents of South Snohomish County. In exchange for this free training, you are committing to attending in full and offering a CRAFT group or other CRAFT service in the community in the future.