self-help groups

groups of people, often in some distress, set up for mutual support and assistance towards renewed psychological health. Self-help groups are part of the general group-therapy movement, and though having a group leader, or facilitator, is not regarded as obligatory it is usual to have one. The emphasis is on sharing a common experience and current emotions, and it is through this sharing and the deeper understanding of SELF and others it brings, that the healing process takes place. Such groups are commonly found in work with the bereaved, and with sufferers from eating disorders and alcoholism. See also SOCIOLOGY OF THE BODY.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

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An organizational typology for self-help groups. American Journal of Community Psychology, 19, 769-788.

Dimensions and predictions of professional involvement in self-help groups: a view from within

Alcohol Concern spokesman Jim Asbury said: "The aim of our project is to establish a collection of new self-help groups, in which individuals from the local community can offer guidance, understanding and mutual support to others."

pounds 2,000 boost for helping to beat the bottle

Women in self-help groups embark on a period of reflection and become more aware of the social, cultural and personal mechanisms that turned them into victims and kept them in that role for so many years, with the all-too-familiar consequences: low self-esteem; guilt; shame; loss of personal judgment; isolation; fear; self-doubt; denial of their own needs, even their bodies; inability to carry out their own projects.

Domestic violence self-help groups: taking steps to end victimization. (Consequences of Gender Violence)

This is familiar territory for sociological research; examination of the connections between people's experience of health problems, their use of self-care and self-help groups and their use of formal health care.

DEMANDING PATIENTS? ANALYSING THE USE OF PRIMARY CARE

The study examined self-help groups in four major cities and on nationwide online discussion groups.

Support Groups Are Growing Rapidly

But that provokes the question: If every alcohol treatment clinic has access to self-help groups, why doesn't every hospital have a self-help unit?

Self-Help Comes of Age

Self-help groups have the potential to be beneficial to social workers' clients.

A Topography of Self-Help Groups: An Empirical Analysis

The rationale for facilitating patients' involvement in 12-step self-help groups stems primarily from recent AA outcome research and from developments in the management and organization of health care in the United States.

Professional Interventions That Facilitate 12-Step Self-Help Group Involvement

Treatment, which lasted about 3 weeks, stressed overcoming denial of addiction, fostering a sense of belonging to self-help groups, and thinking of addiction as a disease.

AA's motivational benefits

It has become the largest funder of self-help groups for the poor in the nation.

How the church passes the buck to the poor

This paper concerns the history and structure of the so-called self-help groups of alcoholics in Austria.

Belief in medicine and belief in God: self-help of alcoholics and AA in Austria

members to claim a privilege as an extension of either the priest-penitent or the spousal privileges.(4) Instead, he held that New York law does not extend a testimonial privilege to self-help groups. Although the A.A.

"And the wisdom to know the difference": confidentiality vs. privilege in the self-help setting