CONTINUING EDUCATION (CEU) COURSE MATERIAL FOR COUNSELOR COMPETENCY REQUIREMENTS
STEP 1: READ THE MATERIAL BELOW
CREATING A THERAPEUTIC ENVIRONMENT THAT ENGAGES PARTICIPANTS IN THE RECOVERY PROCESS
COURSE OBJECTIVE:
To learn the principles most needed to facilitate program participant’s engagement in the treatment and recovery process.
COURSE MATERIAL
This course provides 3 CEUs and covers the sub-topics listed in the Table of Contents:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Creating an Environment of Prayer
II. Encouraging loving relationships between program participants and developing a sense of family.
III. Challenging participants to make positive movement toward recovery
Section I. Create an environment conducive to prayer. Prayer is more often caught than taught. People best catch the importance of prayer when a leader helps to create a setting that is conducive to praying. To create that environment you must:
1. Motivate
2. Build a sense of mission
3. Constantly renew the need people have to pray
Motivate People to Pray
Help motivate classes and departments through all means available (ex., testimonies, teachings, and challenges). Especially lift up the expectation that God will answer when His people pray, reassuring them that this is not just hype, but the promise of God.
All the great prayer warriors of the Bible had a sense of being on a mission with God. They had a purpose bigger than themselves, a destiny to fulfill. Such an understanding guided their praying so that their prayers were God-centered; their prayers sustained them in discouragement; and their prayers positioned them in such a way that God was more likely to answer. Such a perspective also helped them guard against the tendency to have an inward focus.
People don't do anything unless they are motivated. Our carnal natures resist prayer, which does not come naturally. It is something that must be learned and nurtured. As a prayer life grows, the heart and mental attitudes begin to align with the mind of God because of the communion that takes place in a rich prayer life. People do not naturally develop a rich prayer life; they must be lead into it. In the Bible, God always sent leaders to prepare the hearts of the people and get them ready to respond to Him. As people do move into it, they find that their motivation to continue, which is God-given, inspires and motivates them to go deeper into prayer.
Build a Sense of Mission, Destiny and Passion
When prayer lacks freshness, people fall into a rut and prayer becomes duty-driven and passionless. God answers prayers that come from the heart. Guide your program classes and departments to not fall into a routine mediocrity. Always look for fresh ways to help members focus on and actually practice prayer.
Organize Prayer for Special Events
For example, if your program has a special event coming up (as it frequently should), ask members to sign up to pray in prayer groups before the event. Organize special times of prayer when people naturally come together such as around meals and meetings of all kinds. Every event should be an occasion for prayer. Our lives should be laced with prayer and we should teach those entrusted to our care to make their lives laced with it as well.
How you encourage your program leaders and participants to pray is limited only by your imagination, but the idea should be clear: Use all available means, both inside and outside of your program, to help your members understand and practice prayer.
Section II. Encourage loving relationships between program participants, staff members, and between staff and participants observing proper authority boundaries. Many do not understand the true meaning of love the way God intended it as a constellation of therapeutic relational behaviors. Unlike what many believe, it has nothing to do with lust or sex, unless within the boundaries of a committed marriage relationship. Outside of these boundaries, lust and sex spawns a multitude of mental illness. But the kind of love that God intended for His children in recovery has more to do with a higher form of love bearing the mark of unconditionality. There are 54 "one anothers" in the New Testament that teach us how God intended us to treat one other. These Biblical principles are the very ones that bring down walls of isolation that drive people to insanity and prohibit addictive bondages from being broken as they get pushed deeper and deeper into their toxic strongholds.
Below is a listing of verse references to the Greek word ALLELOUS, translated as "one another or each other”:
Mk. 9:50 “...Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”
Jn. 13:14 “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.”
Jn. 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Jn. 15:12 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
Jn. 15:17 “This is my command: Love each other.”
Rom. 12:10 Be devoted to one another with mutual affection. Honor one another above yourselves.
Rom. 12:16 Live in harmony with one another.
Rom. 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.
Rom. 14:13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another....
Rom. 15:7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Love the sinner…not the sin)
Rom. 16:16 Greet one another with a holy kiss....
1 Cor. 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
1 Cor. 11:33 So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for each other.
1 Cor. 12:24-25 ....But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
1 Cor. 16:20 ....Greet one another with a holy kiss. (In our culture this might translate to a holy hug or handshake)
2 Cor. 13:12 Greet one another with a holy kiss.
Gal. 5:13 ....But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. Gal. 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Gal. 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.<> Eph. 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Eph.4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Eph. 5:19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs...(up lift one another in the Spirit)
Eph. 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Col. 3:9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
Col. 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another...(this does not mean that you should trust them with things that they are not yet trustworthy enough to handle)
Col. 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
1 Thes. 4:9 Now about your mutual love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
1 Thes. 4:18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.
51 Thes. :11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
1 Thes. 5:13 ....Live in peace with each other.
1 Thes. 5:15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
Heb. 3:13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Heb. 10:24-25 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Heb. 13:1 Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.
Jam. 4:11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another....
Jam. 5:9 Don’t grumble against each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged....
Jam. 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed....
1 Jn. 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
1 Jn. 3:23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
1Jn. 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God....
1 Jn. 4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
2 Jn. 1:5 ....I ask that we love one another.
1 Pet. 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere mutual affection, love one another deeply, from the heart.
1 Pet. 3:8 Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.
1 Pet. 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
1 Pet. 4:9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
1 Pet. 5:5 ....All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
1 Pet. 5:14 Greet one another with a kiss of love...(a wholesome, early New Testament cultural kiss) (this could also in many setting refer to a wholesome modern era Western World kiss).
Impartation and the conveyance of knowledge, skill and attitudes related to the power of this kind of love should be a part of every recovery professional’s discipline.
It is said of Love, that it covers a multitude of sin; that God is Love. Love coming out of a carnal heart filled with self-centered motives dies quickly during the first signs of trouble or inconvenience, but a heart transformed by God into a fountain of blessing to others, is extremely powerful; strong enough to foster change in deeply addictive lifestyle and behaviors? This kind of transformed heart full of God’s Love can turn a murderer into a transformed person full of God’s Love for others. This kind of Love, the Bible says, never fails. It is so powerful that, if pursued, it will motivationally transform us from the inside out and conform its pursuer to the kind of Love described in 1 Corinthians 13.
It is God’s will that we love others; without Love nothing else matters. Without Love, all of life’s greatest feats and accomplishments spiritual or not is as a “noisy gong”, or a “clanging symbol” and in the eyes of God means very little.
Love is more than a feeling; it is choosing to behave in loving ways, empowered by Love itself. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, produced in our lives as we yield to God. The Bible defines it this way: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude…Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” This passage is a description of how God loves us. But as we begin to absorb His love, we will find ourselves reaching out to love again or perhaps even for the first time. No one loves perfectly, but we must learn how to love. We can ask God to help us love others and stop waiting for them to love us first. We cannot expect to be good at loving right away; we should be patient as God’s love grows within us and He teaches us how to love. When we choose to act in loving ways, the emotions will follow, and we will find that our love will be returned.
In a recovery setting, when Love is taught consistently and practiced daily a healing bond is formed between all members of the spiritual family. Several dynamics take place at the same time. While each member, by choice, determines to make loving decisions and sow seed into one another by looking for opportunities to apply loving behaviors and take loving actions, the love dynamic grows in both the love giver and the love receiver. Simultaneously, the Holy Spirit pours out His love glue upon the spiritual family so as to make the loving bond even stronger.
But even in this healthiest of environments, there are disappointing moments of regression into old behaviors. It’s during these times that the family leaders, counselors, pastors and lay ministers step in and lovingly confront bad behavior. But it is now perceived as love rather than written off as coming from “some jerk who does not understand him,” for a variety of reasons.
Perhaps one reason for this newly found acceptance of painful truth is due to consistent and daily Bible study. It has renewed the mind of the individual, even in the midst of bad behavior. It has brought about positive attitude change enough so the one being corrected can now receive the truth about his destructive choices or actions.
This evidence of emotional healing and spiritual growth can emerge because he now experienced and knows the truth that, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6). He can now accept a loving confrontation about his reversion to bad behavior, whereas before his pride would not allow confessing the truth. Behind the scenes the Holy Spirit softened his previously hardened heart to the point where he could now humble himself and admit he was wrong. Furthermore, because he has experienced authentic Christ-centered love and commitment, he really does not want to lose a good friend and he has matured enough to realize his need for good friends who will tell him the truth when he messes up, with the condition that the confronter will still love him after the dust settles. This kind of Love, offers great security and opportunity for spiritual growth and emotional healing.
Section III. Challenge participants to make positive movement toward recovery .
Commitment is the engine that makes spiritual growth happen. It’s also a key part of the Purpose Driven Model which is showing remarkable outcome results while gaining popularity among professional Christian counselors in the field of recovery.
To help program participants to make commitments to their spiritual lives and the recovery process, visual images are being used by several recovery programs to communicate with and motivate them to enthusiasm.
Jesus was a master of creating visual images in order to communicate to His followers a strong desire to make progressive commitments to their spiritual lives. When he talked to fishermen he said, “Follow Me. I’ll make you a fisher of men.” They got the picture immediately. When he talked to a farmer, he said, “The Word of God is like seeds. They’ll grow 30, 60, and 100 fold.” He said, “For you were going astray like sheep; but are now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” to people who knew about sheep. Jesus had a way of giving people just the right picture to help them get to their next level of commitment.
The church that birthed the Celebrate Recovery movement and the Purpose Driven Model of recovery uses the picture of a baseball diamond to motivate people to move ahead. Most people know that you can’t stay on first base. You’ve got to continue on to second base and then third base and finally home. It’s a natural picture that helps people want to move on to the next level.
Since the culture and character of different recovery programs vary and would respond differently to different pictures of commitment, each program should develop their own picture of commitment unique to their population. Here are some valuable guidelines to consider in doing so:
1. The picture needs to be dynamic. The picture should create a natural desire to move to the next level. A baseball diamond does that. If you’re on first base, you naturally want to move on to second base. There must be something inherent in the picture that encourages people to move to the next level. Whatever picture is chosen must have something that’s dynamic about it.
2. The picture needs to be specific. The picture should make it clear what comes next. It must not only create desire but show direction as well. The baseball diamond picture mentioned above showed that you need to go to Recovery Seminar 101 to get to first base. To go to second base, you take Recovery Seminar 201. There are specific next steps that people can take, and they can see those next steps clearly using the baseball diamond.
3. The picture needs to arouse enthusiasm. People want to be challenged. The commitment picture needs to challenge the program participants. You’ll need to ask for big enough commitments that the challenge will get them excited about making them.
4. Your picture should be realistic. Your pathway needs to have an end. Enthusiasm is lost if people can’t see an end to the process. There must be a sense of completion. Your picture should show them that they can complete the process.
Christian recovery is a marathon. We’re not running sprints. We’ll be running the race for the rest of our lives. But even in a marathon, you’ll find water stations where you can have a sense of reaching a goal. When we help adults to grow as Christians and recover from addictions, we need to provide more finish lines, where we can help them “break the tape.”
INSTRUCTIONS FOR TAKING CEU QUIZ
STEP 1: READ THE MATERIAL
STEP 2: TAKE THE QUIZ BELOW (YOU MAY REFER TO THE COURSE MATERIAL)
STEP 3: MAIL QUIZ TO: ACADC – PO BOX 8604 – REDLANDS, CA 92375 WITH A CHECK OR MONEY ORDER IN THE AMOUNT OF $29 MADE PAYABLE TO ACADC
UPON RECEIPT OF YOUR ANSWER SHEET AND CEU FEE OF $29, YOUR CEU CERTIFICATE WILL BE MAILED TO YOU.
CEU QUIZ - 3 CEUs of Credit
STEP 1: READ MATERIAL - STEP 2: PRINT OUT AND TAKE OPEN BOOK QUIZ BELOW - STEP 3: MAIL ANSWER SHEET AND $29 FEE TO ACADC, PO BOX 8604, REDLANDS, CA 92375
Course No. CE10808 –TAP 21 Counselor Competencies - Section 2: The Professional Practice of Addiction Counseling, C3: Facilitate the engagement of participants in the treatment and recovery process. Use numbers 1 through 10 on the answer sheet in section 3 on the next page by circling the correct answer for each question. As soon as your quiz is received, your CEU certificate will be mailed to you.
1) Which statement is true:
A. Prayer comes naturally to most people
B. People need to be motivated to pray
C. Prayer is mainly a strategy to relieve stress
D. There is no difference between the recovery rate of people who pray and people who don’t
2) True or False – Prayer is caught more than taught
3) Building a sense of being on a mission for God in people
A. Protects them against the tendency to have an inward focus
B. Gives them a purpose bigger than themselves
C. Guides their prayer life into God-centeredness and out of discouragement.
D. All above are true
4) People fall into a rut and prayer becomes duty-driven and passionless when:
A. It comes from the heart
B. It lacks freshness
C. When it’s given in desperation
D. When it’s not liturgical
5) Which of the following statements are true
A. Prayer is sacred and should only be uttered liturgically.
B. Prayer is simply talking with God and our lives should be laced with it.
C. Every event should be an occasion for prayer.
D. B and C
6) True or False – God wants to develop a spiritual family environment when people practice honoring others better than themselves.
7) How many references to loving “one another” does the new testament contain?
A. 9
B. 16
C. 32
D. 54
8) True or False: Love that comes from a carnal heart that has not been transformed through a relationship with God:
A. Dies quickly
B. Is not a true blessing to others
C. Is not strong enough to foster change
D. A, B and C
9) True or False - In a recovery setting, when Love is taught consistently and practiced daily, a powerful healing bond is formed between all members of the spiritual family.
10) In order for a visual image to be an effective tool in motivating people in recovery it must be:
A. Dynamic and Generalized
B. Enthusiasm arousing and challenging
C. Seen as never coming to an end
D. Calming
