Therapeutic Groups

Partners for Progress has had a formative and sustaining role in the inclusion of two key therapeutic court groups in Alaska's therapeutic courts:

• Anchorage Wellness Court Process Group is a facilitated peer support group that encourages bonds between Wellness Court participants and is part of the court-ordered treatment program. Participants share their successes and concerns in a safe environment with familiar people. Partners for Progress contracts with facilitators familiar with the therapeutic court process and helping others overcome addiction.
  
  The Process Group is modeled on the NALGroup®, which provided a structured, problem-solving group setting for Wellness Court participants. NALGroup (Non-Addicted Living Group) was created by Mike Krukar and facilitated by him for the past ten years until his recent retirement.

• MRT: In November 2000, during the formative stages of the Anchorage Wellness Court, Partners for Progress arranged for Dr. Ken Robinson to conduct MRT Facilitator Training for the full Wellness Court team, including Judge Wanamaker and several board members.  This 32-hour shared training helped the team understand and focus on cognitive-behavioral treatment.  MRT has now been incorporated as a regular component of the court-ordered treatment program in the Anchorage, Fairbanks, Bethel, Juneau and Ketchikan therapeutic courts.
  
  Partners for Progress supports the MRT component of therapeutic courts through contracts with MRT facilitators in Anchorage and Fairbanks and by providing scholarships and helping to arrange attendance at annual MRT facilitators' trainings.
  
  While MRT was originally developed for use in prisons, it can be incorporated into any form of treatment and is effective in reducing recidivism.  MRT is based on the use of the workbook, How to Escape Your Prison.  Group participants work through each chapter individually and together with a trained MRT facilitator.  They are promoted by their peers as they move up a ladder of self-knowledge and decision-making, starting by learning honesty with themselves and others, moving to a more positive and productive self-image and, eventually, to a state of well-being that includes caring for others.  

Links:
MRT Freedom Ladder