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Sample Pages of Relief
The importance
of a support group
and how to organize one
for your community
(complete chapter)
C H A P T E R 24
THE SUPPORT GROUP
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From RELIEF FOR HURTING PARENTS by Buddy Scott of
buddyscott.com © Allon Publishing
Note: Allon Publishing grants permission for this chapter to be
reproduced and distributed on the condition that copyright information
and this paragraph remain with the work. Allon Publishing does not
grant permission for it to be published in another work, without permission.
For user-friendly resources and supplies for parents, grandparents, parent
support groups, parenting classes, and family counseling, visit
buddyscott.com.
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Parents, you need to be understood.
You need the friendship of someone who can identify with what you're going through, someone who knows how to care, someone who really does understand.
You need to let your bottled-up emotions flow in the form of talk and tears. Talk and tears are T and T for relieving emotional distress.
You need support for figuring out how to help your child, for implementing your plans, to help you continue wanting to help your child!
You need your confidence regenerated, your courage boosted, and your stamina renewed.
You need to be taught how to survive in this strange, cruel wilderness of family problems, in this eerie jungle of confusion and frustration.
And you need someone to rejoice with you over the victories! To applaud you when you've done well!
We meet these needs in our counseling agency through our parent support group, which is named Parenting Within Reason (PWR). The name emphasizes the balance we diligently seek to maintain, and the initials are the abbreviation for power.
We have found the companions we get to be with in this group to be wonderful reinforcements deluxe. The participants say that it is one of the best allies a parent could have.
In this chapter, I'll tell you how a group like ours functions, and I'll briefly outline how one can be started in your community.
Companionship ranks highest in support received.
I asked several abused parents what had helped them more than anything else. I thought the parents in our parent support group would list God as their greatest tower of strength, since ours is a Christian counseling center, but they didn't.
Each person listed the support group. It was unanimous. The understanding people who had moved up beside them and who were standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them near their battlefields had become their greatest stabilizing factor. Here are a few of their comments:
- "You can say what's bothering you, and they understand. I finally feel understood."
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