I decided to write for this blog to share the experience of the DUI school experience in Marin County. I have about 6 weeks left in my group sessions (this is after the six weeks of "education" sessions) and am winding down my time. Group sessions are more interesting than the education sessions since you actually get to hear the stories of other people and their DUIs and what they are going through. The format of the group sessions is quite simple. First everyone in the groups share their "highs" and "lows" from the week. Basically this means that people share what went on in their lives during the week (how work was, what they did for fun, if there were any problems, etc..) Then we have a variable topic each week where we talk about some aspect of alcohol, as you can imagin this is usually on the negative effects or implications of drinking too much.
That being said, let me get into it.
We had a substitute “counselor” this week, which was a bit of a change of pace and let the students run the class a little bit for a change. Everyone had their stories of their past week, most of them were funny as we have a bunch of young folks in the class. A couple of the elder statesmen / stateswomen of the class got to learn what a “home girl” was which was entertaining but I think illustrates the diversity of the people in the class. There are people there from all walks of life with all sorts of backgrounds and different relationships with alcohol. Some people clearly have had or are having significant issues, others have sworn off alcohol altogether and the majority will continue to drink but will take steps to never get a DUI again. The main focus of this class was to discuss how to host a safe party from an alcohol perspective. Most people agreed that the steps were a little over board in general but that keeping an eye out for those that have gone over the edge is a good idea.
More Soon.