Month: March 2013

Today we welcomed 2 new members to the group, which is always great to see. We discussed how people can find it challenging to remain focussed and positive when life events happen which people feel can derail their achievements they have made. Two group members wrote very thoughtful poems/words about what this group means to them. Seeing and hearing things like this inspired the other group members.

We had June Dickson from Action on Depression as guest today who explained what her organisation does. As part of her work she facilitates the Living Life To The Full program, which uses CBT based tools. We did a little exercise to show how this works. Everybody found this exercise thought-provoking and interesting, in that we all responded to it in different ways defined by our character. Everybody really appreciated June’s input today, we all thought she was a star who passed on important tools to help us live in a way we aim to strive for.

Today also marked our quarter century of meetings, thanks for everyone who has contributed to the group, we very much appreciate it!

A reminder that due to the Easter break, the next group will take place on Thurs 11th April 2013

Today we had our most attended group so far. It was nice to see people returning who had not been able to attend for a while. We looked at the ways people expressed their feelings/emotions and how some found it easier to write down how they feel in poems, or by using art materials. A couple of group members have come up with the idea of making music with the poems.

We looked at how hard it can be for people who have experienced trauma to be able to function while having to live with the mental scars from years of abuse. The group looked at recovery stories which inspired them and was also thought-provoking for them with their own experiences.

Next week we will have June Grant from Action on Depression as our guest.

Watched lessons from geese today (and some funnies). We identify as a group that we need to stick together and get strength from each other. The geese accompany someone who is sick, that happens here. The helper is also helped, helping others influences your own healing, helping others gives you comfort within yourself.

Laughter and fun is also healing, great that is not always intense and heavy, fun is very important, if you have other things to think about thats good when you leave, something keeps pulling us back.

Great that we are able to welcome new people and have something to welcome them to, we have good foundations and much to offer. Amazing that people from around the world are linked in with us technologically.

We had a very worthwhile group today with John Crawford as our guest. John was explaining to the group what SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health) do. John was filmed (this will be put on this blog on the near future) talking about the new group he is going to start running in Glasgow. This group is called the Community Support Network Service. The group aims to support family members, friends, loved ones and carers of those who are living with thoughts of suicide.

John said he was very interested in hearing about the group member’s experiences with suicidal thoughts. John mentioned if group members have someone they can talk to when they feel really low and with whom they could construct a contract so that when things seem unbearable they can chat to that individual.

It was great to have John at the group as it helped people explore things that they maybe had not before.

Next Week we will have Lesley Galbraith from the Scottish Recovery Consortium as our guest.