Grupa rozwoju osobistego dla rodziców młodzieży z zaburzeniami psychicznymi – sprawozdanie z zajęć

Abstract

Parents whose children have been diagnosed with mental/emotional disorders need support in the process of coping with their difficult life situation. Such help could enable them to adequately reinforce their children’s development as well as increase the whole family’s chance to wipe out the life crisis. One of the valuable methods of support could be personal development group for parents. The purpose of the present thesis is to present the theoretical foundations, the course and the outcome of the work of the personal development group for parents of young people with mental disorders. The group in question was a closed one and included 8 people. The program scheduled 10 weekly meetings. The work was focused on the following issues: the acceptance of the child’s diagnosis, placing the experience of the disease in the child’s and family’s life stories, self-esteem and the ways to reinforce it, communication within the family, setting boundaries between the family subsystems, interpretation and understanding of emotions, personal convictions about parenthood, the search of one’s own resources as well as those concerning the whole family and the widely understood social system. The work within the group was inspired by the methods of existential psychology and narrative psychology. The participants’ tasks included telling and listening to the stories of the key-events of their lives as well as searching the personal meaning of the particular life experiences. The recap of the paper presents the chosen insights and conclusions obtained afoot the work with the described group.