Potholes in my lawn: "the book" finally... was inspired by the wonderful children I had the honor of producing 50 minute groups for, for the last five years of my life. The 50 minute therapeutic groups were supposed to be quick, brief and to the point, discussing the client's day to day feelings, but of course things like that get dull quickly for young troubled youth (behaviorally and emotionally) and for the child at heart therapist who's in charge of planning, running and illustrating the groups. Over the course of the last five years I have planned, implemented and conducted over 700 groups and some were beautiful, some confusing but all were fun and a learning experience. As time passed my understanding of a troubled youth's wants and needs became more understandable. Finally I understood rarely does a child want to discuss problems on a Monday morning, they would much rather talk about their weekend and how much fun it was or should have been, rarely does a child want to hug and greet a person whom he or she just met. I learned through the course of time, that yes they want the world to know that they have been hurt, betrayed, misunderstood, misguided, but that they still want love. They want to drive over and pass their potholes on the road to success. Over the last five years I've learned enough to write ten books or more on giving therapeutic groups alone, but instead I settled on giving you 182 of the best, most favorite and most needed groups for a complete school year (of an average 182 day school year), but the groups where designed to be used at any setting/place for the help and assistance with adolescents and teens. Many of the most prized groups I thought of keeping a secret from the rest of the world, but then thought if the groups were that much of a benefit for the CARE clients/children that maybe they could possibly aid and assist the other million plus troubled youth of the world and the facilitators that sometimes run out of ideas like I did on many occasions. The groups of "potholes in my lawn": were not only rated the best and most favorite from the clients, but through therapeutic observations of the 700 groups, the groups that were presented were the most effective in helping to change lives.