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The Festival of Recovery Celebrates Self-Help Support Group Participation in April, 2015
LOS ANGELES—SHARE! is excited to host the Festival of Recovery, a free event to allow the community to explore self-help support groups and get help with such goals as losing weight, getting organized, spending less, learning something new or quitting smoking. The celebration will be held on Saturday, April 11 at SHARE! Culver City at 6666 Green Valley Circle, Culver City CA 90230.
“If you want to change a behavior, research shows that you have a 40 percent better chance of success if you’re in a self-help support group,” said Ruth Hollman, Executive Director of SHARE!. a Los Angeles nonprofit dedicated to personal growth and change.
Self-help support groups work for several reasons, according to research:
1) Stating a goal publicly, and being surrounded by encouraging people, rather than dealing with it on their own, makes people more likely to reach their goals.
2) Support groups give people the encouragement they need to keep trying even when they mess up or make mistakes in pursuit of their goal, rather than giving up because they binged on chocolate or missed a day at the gym or smoked a cigarette.
3) Support groups teach tools and systematic approaches for achieving change. Debtors Anonymous, for example, teaches people to keep a budget, and to systematically whittle away at their debt. Overeaters Anonymous encourages people to set their own abstinence, working with a doctor if they choose to find the approach to eating which is best for them. Clutterers Anonymous teaches people to remove an item each time they bring home a new item.
The Festival of Recovery offers an opportunity to get to know all kinds of self-help support groups which are free and available throughout Los Angeles County. These groups address relationship issues, eating disorders, compulsive behaviors, advanced planning for health crises, anxiety, depression, substance abuse (including smoking), and attention deficit disorders. While many of the groups follow 12-Step formats, others use cognitive behavioral methods, and/or non-spiritual approaches.
There will be information about the 12,000 self-help support groups in Los Angeles County and help finding the ones will help you keep your New Year’s Resolutions.
Participants will be able to attend sample meetings of the groups and get information and literature. These groups include Overeaters Anonymous, Debtors Anonymous/Compulsive Spending, Co-Dependents Anonymous, Crystal Meth Anonymous, Sexual Compulsives Anonymous, Sex Addicts Anonymous, Recovering Couples Anonymous, Free ‘N’ One, S.M.A.R.T. Recovery, Narcotics Anonymous, Women in Sobriety, Alcoholics Anonymous, Cleptomaniacs and Shoplifters Anonymous (CASA), Nicotine Anonymous, Attention Deficit Disorder support group, and Recovery International. Several groups will be offered in Spanish including Co-Dependientes Anonimos, Neuroticos Anonimos, and W.R.A.P (Wellness Recovery Action Plan).
If you have ever wondered what happens in a support group, or want a free way to reach for the life you have dreamed of, attend Keep Your New Year’s Resolution Day. Free lunch is provided, including vegetarian options.
The Festival will be held at:
SHARE! Culver City, 6666 Green Valley Circle, Culver City CA 90230 on Saturday April 11, 2015 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
In 2012, community members gathered to learn about self-help support groups at SHARE! Culver City.
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