How to Start and Facilitate a Support Group for Victims of Stalking

How to Start and Facilitate a Support Group for Victims of StalkingSupport Groups: A Great Benefit to Victims of StalkingSupport groups are groups of individuals with a similar problem, need, or experience who meetto discuss how to better cope with their situations. Support groups can decrease a person’ssense of isolation, provide emotional support, and encourage healthy coping strategies to dealwith stressful life events. 1 By sharing their stories and feelings, group members learn that theyare not alone and help one another to overcome feelings of frustration, loneliness, and despair.Perhaps for the first time, individuals in a safe and supportive group receive attention and nonjudgmentalfeedback from other group members.Stalking victims often feel alienated and fearful for their well-being. Stalking supportgroups can help alleviate this sense of isolation and provide victims with an opportunity to expresstheir feelings in a safe and understanding environment. Victims of stalking often want tolearn how to keep themselves and loved ones safe, as well as how they can minimize the impactof stalking on their lives. In a stalking support group, victims can learn about safety planningstrategies and available community resources. The emotional support and practical informationthat a stalking support group provides can be invaluable resources for victims of stalking.Groups that provide both an educational and emotional component are called psychoeducational.2 The psychoeducational format appeals to many stalking support groups that aimto educate members on safety issues and provide emotional support to help them cope with theongoing trauma of stalking. How to Start and Facilitate a Support Group for Victims of Stalkingfocuses on this support group approach.Psychoeducational stalking support group topics include practical elements on how tosecure one’s home, obtain a protective order, access safe shelter, and document stalking incidents.The group can also help victims cope with the physical and emotional impact of stalking(e.g., isolation, depression, anxiety, exhaustion, poor concentration, or posttraumatic stressdisorder). 3 An increased sense of security and trust helps individuals combat the fear and lossof control they feel when faced with unpredictable, threatening intrusions by stalkers. 4 By connectingmembers to others who listen, believe, and support them, the group helps diminish thedamaging effects of being stalked.Other benefits of this type of group include: bringing together victims at different stagesof coping to explore their personal goals, financial flexibility (i.e., facilitators incur relatively fewcosts), and adaptability to victims’ varied educational and emotional needs. However, if grouporganizers or leaders find that another format better fits the needs of their community, they areencouraged to seek additional resources and materials.1 Ronald Toseland and Robert Rivas, An Introduction to Group Work Practice, (Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon,2001), 3-41.2 Ibid., 202.3 Michele Pathé, Surviving Stalking, (London: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 51-57.4 Paul E. Mullen, Michele Pathé, and Rosemary Purcell, Stalkers and Their Victims, (Cambridge, UK: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2000), 38-51.2