Sheila's Heroine Case Study

Sheila is a 25 year old cocaine addict. She was attending group therapy voluntarily after an intervention from her mother and her church. Sheila explained that she was introduced to cocaine by her boyfriend of four years. Sheila is easily is coerced by her boyfriend because he fills the void left by her father. She has been dealing with her absentee father since childhood. These unresolved issues from childhood initially created turmoil between her and other members of the group and the group leader. However, once this was addressed Sheila’s role within the group’s session became a follower. She usually goes along with whatever the majority of the group had decided (Toseland and Rivas, 2011). Patricia, 40 is a single parent with two daughters.
The particular members with whom she shares a close connection are the parents within the group. She exhibits certain warmness towards them and they provide her with emotional and social support. She explains that this is the type of emotional connection was what she had with her mother. Michelle, 45 admits to using crack and cocaine for more 20 years. Several years ago she lost custody of two of her children. Since then, she has remarried and has two more children. She is concerned about losing her two youngest children because of her history of relapsing. Michelle has several different roles in the group. As she is transitioning out of the program, she has been a wealth of knowledge and support for others in the group. Michelle has made significant progress toward recovery. She is currently in the maintenance stage of recovery. She is working to sustain changes achieved to date. She has begun building an alternative lifestyle that denounces her old behavior (Connors, Diclemente, Donovan, and Velasquez, 2013). Her current role within the group is encourager as she often rewards other members with agreement, warmth and praise (Ashford and LeCroy,