Quick Guide for Clinicians - SAMHSA Store - Substance Abuse and ...

34 Substance Abuse Treatment: Group TherapyA number of pre-treatment techniques have beenshown to reduce incidence of dropout:• Role induction uses formats like interviews, lectures,and films to educate clients about thereasons for therapy, setting realistic goals fortherapy, expected client behaviors, and so on.• Vicarious pre-training via interviews, lectures,films, or other settings demonstrates whattakes place during therapy so that the clientcan experience the process without actuallycommitting to group membership.• Experiential pre-training uses group exercisesto teach the client behaviors such as self-disclosureand examination of emotions.• Motivational interviews use specific listeningand questioning strategies to help the clientovercome doubt about making changes.One effective way to retain clients can be used ingroups that have a few veteran members. Whennew members join, the old members are asked topredict which new member will be the first to dropout. This prediction paradoxically increases theprobability that it will not be fulfilled.Group AgreementsA group agreement establishes the expectationsthat group members have of each other, theleader, and the group itself.