Author Archives: Kelly Uhland

WRAP for Support Group Facilitators

Facilitating support groups is incredibly rewarding and meaningful work, but it can also be stressful at times. Are you looking for ways to stay well and stay on course with your wellness while facilitating your support group(s)? Then this is the workshop for you!

What is WRAP?

The Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP®) is a personalized wellness and recovery system born out of and rooted in the principle of self-determination. WRAP® is a wellness and recovery approach that helps people to:

  • decrease and prevent intrusive or troubling feelings and behaviors
  • increase personal empowerment
  • improve quality of life
  • achieve their own life goals and dreams. Working with a WRAP® can help individuals to monitor uncomfortable and distressing feelings and behaviors and, through planned responses, reduce, modify, or eliminate those feelings. A WRAP® also includes plans for responses from others when an individual cannot make decisions, take care of him/herself, and/or keep him/herself safe.

This is a 2-part series. You must attend both days to get a certificate of completion.

Day 1: Wednesday April 10, 2024 10:00 – 12:00 PM EDT

Day 2: Wednesday April 17, 2024 10:00 – 12:00 PM EDT

Where: via Zoom

Engagement Strategies for Support Group Facilitators

To maintain a successful support group, group facilitators must continue to engage and re-engage their group members with different tactics and strategies. This webinar will provide effective tools that a facilitator can use to keep their group members engaged and coming back each meeting!

During the webinar we will discuss:

  • Why engagement is important
  • How disclosure can be used to engage with individuals
  • What the barriers to engagement are and how to overcome those barriers
  • Re-engagement strategies that may be useful when attempting to re-engage those who have stopped attending the group
  • Creative tools that can be used to keep participants engaged in a support group

When: Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm

Where: Via Zoom

NJ Self-Help Group Clearinghouse Offers Free Workshops

The NJ Self-Help Group Clearinghouse offers free workshops on starting and running self-help support groups statewide. The workshops offered free to the public include:

NJSHCH Presentations, Trainings and Services

An Overview of the New Jersey Self-Help Group Clearinghouse – This 1-hour presentation, delivered online or in-person gives an overview of the services provided by the NJSHCH. This presentation can be tailored for any target audience, including non-clinical and clinical staff, service recipients or the general public.  This overview is for anyone to learn more about accessing self-help support groups will benefit from this presentation.

How to Start a Support Group – This 1-hour training, delivered online or in-person goes through the steps of starting a self-help support group from concept to marketing.  Follow-up technical assistance can include NJSHCH staff attending the new group, consultation and ongoing support.

Group Facilitation for Support Group Leaders – In this 3-hour or 4-hour workshop, delivered online or in-person, participants will learn the difference between a self-help support group and group therapy; key characteristics of an effective group leader; basic skills to be a good support group facilitator;  responsibilities of a group facilitator; how to be an effective communicator; how to conduct a successful meeting; engagement strategies; setting guidelines and boundaries; establish goals; manage time; set priorities; strategies for identifying and managing challenging behaviors; different personalities; tips on delegating responsibility; developing commitment and involvement; how to access technical assistance for troubleshooting.

WRAP® (Wellness Recovery Action Planning)

WRAP® is an evidence-based practice (EBP) developed by Mary Ellen Copeland in 1997 as a self-designed prevention and wellness process that anyone can use to get well, stay well and make their life the way they want it to be. WRAP® is now used extensively by people in all kinds of circumstances, and by health care and mental health systems all over the world to address all kinds of physical, behavioral/mental health and life issues.  Seminars are led by trained and certified WRAP Facilitators

WRAP® (How to Develop Your Personal WRAP) can be presented online or in-person as a 1 or 1.5 hour overview, a 4 hour workshop or an 18 hour workshop presented over 3 -4 days.  Specialty WRAP® workshops.

WRAP® Seminar 1 is an 18 hour in-person workshop, typically held over 3 full days.  WRAP® Seminar I introduces participants to the The Five Key Recovery Concepts, guides participants in creating a personal WRAP®, and offers those who complete the seminar a path to becoming a WRAP® Facilitator.  The focus can be tailored to best fit your organization and the populations it serves (such as addictions, veterans, re-entry from incarceration, youth/children, and families) and their life challenges, including addiction, trauma, healthy aging, developmental distinctions, justice involvement, and mental health.

WRAP® Seminar 2 (WRAP Co-Facilitator Training) is a 5-day intensive, in-person event that gives participants the skills, knowledge, and materials to facilitate WRAP® seminars in their community and organization. Seminar II is only for those who have completed WRAP®  Seminar I (in-person).  To become certified WRAP® Facilitators, participants in Seminar II engage in experiential and interactive learning activities, learn how to facilitate the structure of WRAP®, illustrate their personal experience with WRAP®, and show understanding of WRAP® ethics and values. Participants can lead WRAP® Seminar I upon completing WRAP® Seminar II.

PADs (Psychiatric Advance Directives)

UNDERSTANDING THE New Jersey PSYCHIATRIC ADVANCE DIRECTIVE (PAD) 

This presentation will provide participants with a basic overview of what Psychiatric Advance Directives (PADs) look like in New Jersey and how they can be utilized as a self-advocacy tool for individuals experiencing a mental health crisis.  Target audiences for the presentation include individuals and or families with a member with serious mental illness, peer support professionals, wellness center staff and clinical mental health or medical professionals.

If you have any questions or need additional information please email njgroups@mhanj.org 

Clearinghouse Connections; Volume 9- December 2023

Check out the latest issue of the NJ Self-Help Clearinghouse Newsletter Clearinghouse Connections!

Clearinghouse Connections; Volume 4- September 2022

Spotlight on Recovery Centers!

Check out the latest issue of the NJ Self-Help Clearinghouse Newsletter Clearinghouse Connections!