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 About Divorce Recovery Leaders Recovery leaders exhibit what Dale Larson (1993) calls a "prosocialness" of altruistic personality. He writes, "Although research on volunteer helpers in the human services is somewhat sketchy, it supports our everyday observations that a powerful self-selection factor is at work here. For example, volunteer community mental health workers, when compared to non-volunteers, have more internalized moral standards, more positive attitudes toward self and others, greater empathy and more emotional stability All of our Divorce Recovery leaders are volunteers and most have experienced divorce or another significant loss, are deeply aware of the distress in other people. This empathic response is at the core of altruism. It develops as leaders extend their caring and understanding to others. As leaders open to those needing their assistance, the participants are to some degree included in the leader's psychological world. Divorce Recovery leaders do not act in a therapeutic role in the Divorce Recovery group setting. Rather they lend support and provide educational information. Leaders, whether they are lay or professional, are encouraged in this setting to establish clear boundaries and define their limits clearly, encouraging participants to obtain needed therapeutic services from the wide range of available community resources. As Divorce Recovery leaders participate in facilitating groups, they indicate feelings of success. They feel good in doing what they are doing as they see group members grow in their own understanding and support for one another. What occurs is that once leaders are able to give, altruism is intrinsically reinforced and they often want to do more. Divorce Recovery leaders indicate how much they have grown as a result of their leadership efforts. Leaders frequently say, "I grew so very much in leading this group. The group members will never know how much this helped me." This bears out the fact that volunteer involvement is good for the physical and mental health. However, it should be noted that leaders are encouraged to lead only when they feel emotionally ready and able to focus on others. Although benefiting from group leadership, leaders are encouraged to do their own "emotional work" elsewhere. Divorce Recovery leaders are volunteers willing to devote time in community service. Professionals and lay people; some are high school graduates and others have graduate degrees; some are students working on undergraduate degrees, and others have technical degrees. Many have participated in a Divorce Recovery group and want to give back in some way to others who are experiencing divorce. Others have never been married, but experienced divorce as a child and feel called to serve children of divorce. Some of the leaders have been married for 40 years and others for two years. Some are young students and others are in their elder years. About two-thirds of the leaders are women. LEADER TRAINING SPRING 2008 GROUP Divorce Recovery Group Leader Training is designed to train potential leaders for Divorce Recovery groups. Persons who want to become Divorce Recovery leaders must complete the training. Having completed the training, participants will:
The training is
led by members of the Divorce Recovery Training team.
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