Thriver Groups

Empowering Yourself . . .

You are in for a treat!  Entering the Thriver Zone:  A Seven-Step Guide to Thriving After Abuse will take you on an amazing journey. Take a moment to look through the book quickly before you begin.  The best way to use this book is to start at the beginning and go through the seven steps, step-by-step! But if something in the middle of the book grabs you, you go there, too.

As you go through the exercise, you may want to read what you wrote for each exercise aloud to a friend and see what he or she thinks.  Remember, you can’t do this wrong, but it’s great to get support from someone else in your life.

 Or . . . Working with a Thriver Group!

Another way to work through this book is to gather a group of women (e.g. friends, family, acquaintances) to do the exercise in the book together.  The group can include women who have experienced abuse or violence in their lives, but it can also include anyone who has had a struggle (e.g. illness, death of a loved one, loss of a job) that they are trying to move beyond.

Here’s some tips on setting up your own Thriver Group.

• Decide who you think might fit into such a group.  Invite everyone to a gathering and let them decide for themselves if this is something they are interested in.
• Keep the number of people in the group manageable.  You want everyone in the group to have a chance to share and talk.
• Set up a regular time and place to meet, every week, once a month or more or less than that.  You can meet in someone’s home or at a local library or community center.
• Make sure everyone agrees to keep what is shared and talked about in the group confidential.
• Decide the format for each group.  How long will you meet?  One to two hours is a good.  What will you do at each meeting?  You could go through the exercises step-by-step and ask the group members to read the chapter ahead of time, write out the exercise and bring it to share with the group.  Or at each meeting of the group, read a step aloud, do the writing exercise in the group and then share what you have written.
• Make the group meetings fun!  Include some time to ask how everyone is doing and make sure everyone is able to relax.  Share babysitters or arrange carpools to the meetings if that makes it easier for everyone to attend.  Include a pot-luck meal or desserts so that everyone is feeling good about your gathering.
• Support the new thriver goals set in the group.  After you have new goals set (Step Seven – Set New Goals), use your group for support and encouragement to get those goals accomplished.
• Get feedback on how the group is working for everyone.

Contact Susan at susan@thriverzone.com and let her know how your thriver group is doing!

Order Susan’s Book — Entering the Thriver Zone — Today!