As we all have noticed, time is moving by really fast. It is already coming to our final days of this Senior Project. On March 10 I had my first meeting with 7th and 8th grade girls, and the meeting turned our to be quite successful. Liza joined me during this meeting while I introduced my thinking process. I told them that one of the best way to confront a problem is by expressing it in front of a people who have been through similar problems. It took a while before the girls opened up their minds to the idea of group therapy. I had to nudge them a bit for them to start talking. Once the first few people decided to contribute, we had a functioning group going on. I was very surprised that it was able to work out pretty good.
I learned something from this first meeting. I learned that the only way for a group to have the greatest performance is if everyone is comfortable. This has helped me with the idea that before each group session, I will need to have some activity in place to build comfort and trust in each member. I plan to have another meeting with the girls during these final days of school. I am still keeping in mind that I will learn from each session. Does anyone have any ideas of what sort of trust and comfort exercises that I can use?
I'm glad to hear that your therapy session went well because I know it's not easy to get people to open up to strangers or just anybody. In your case it's not so bad because they see you as a superior senior so they look up to you. I think it would be great to maybe play a game before you start the actual session which would serve as an ice breaker to get the kids happy and build bonds with you. I don't know what game, but it could be a game that depends on them to trust one another like the human wheelbarrow race. They have to trust that the other person won't drop the other. Also before asking them about their issues or troubled times, I think you should start off with one of your hard times that you faced and how you felt at the time and how you overcame it. I'm pretty sure you already do that because I know how you are from our talks that we have had before and your really understanding. Besides that good job and hope your next session goes well.
ReplyDelete