ACTIVITY: All Stand UP

Purpose: This activity initiates the conversation about refusal skills. Materials needed: none Instructions/Steps: Facilitator asks everyone in the room to stand up and move to another chair. After everyone settles into a new chair the facilitator can ask a number of questions to generate conversation such as: “Why did you move.” “When I asked you …

TIP: Service planning in group

Last week I delivered a training on service planning in Golden.  It was so great to see so many familiar faces there.  During the training the issue of having to update service plans in group came up, so I thought I would put down a few ideas about service planning in group on this blog. …

ACTIVITY: Problem Solving Think Tank

Purpose: This activity encourages sharing in a safer way and supports problem solving, community support, and flexibility of thinking when working with life issues. Materials Needed:  halved sheets of paper and pens, bowl Instructions/Steps: Group members anonymously write down a current problem that they are working to address in their life.  The more concrete and …

TIP: The power of group

Group therapy is often the primary modality for providing service to clients involved in court-ordered treatment.  Although many clients need individual therapy to target very specific issues, group therapy has extremely high success rates, and some studies are pointing to group therapy being as effective as individual therapy at reducing symptoms and facilitating long-term behavior …

ACTIVITY: Two Truths & A Lie

Purpose: This activity can be used as a way to initiate a conversation about the topic of honesty and dishonesty and, more specifically, what role dishonesty may have played and continues to play in their relationships both personal and professional.  It can also be used as an introductions exercise, especially when there is a mix …

TIP: Creating Safety in Group

All learning groups benefit from a balance of safety and risk taking.  There has to be enough safety for people to take risks, and enough risk taking for people to try new behaviors and thus learn and grow.  Too much risk places people into fight/flight/freeze mode, which we know inhibits the learning centers of the …

ACTIVITY: EMOTION BENCH

Purpose: This activity helps facilitate learning around expressing and identifying emotions Materials Needed: Cards with different emotions written on them Instructions/Steps: Ask two members of group to pretend to be sitting on a park bench talking about whatever they would like (sports, weather, etc.). Their job is to enact an emotion you give them without …

TIP: Working with someone who monopolizes group

You may have had this experience in group where things are going along quite well, until a certain person, let’s call him Jones, starts to talk.  Your heart sinks immediately, because you now that once Jones starts, he goes on for quite a while, and all the energy you have built in the group dies …

TIP: Teaching Skills

One of the primary objectives of group is to teach skills.  Examples of skills include thinking, emotional regulation, goal setting, problem solving, refusal skills, moral reasoning, etc.  Therefore, all the activities on this blog have a skill-focus.  The activities are not just because they are fun, they always have a purpose.  Most CBT groups have …