Therapeutic Interventions



Group Icebreakers


Action Name

Have the group stand in a circle. The leader introduces themselves by saying their name and performing an action simultaneously. For example, saying "Mike" while balancing on one foot. The client to the leader's left must now say the leader's name and perform the action, then say their own name and perform their own action. The third client repeats the first two, does their own, and so on.

Un-Common

Break the group into teams of 2-4 people. Each team must come up with three things that they have in common. They may be as simple or complex as the team wants. When the team has completed that, they must write a short paragraph that introduces all members of the team by name and what they all have in common. The kicker is that when the team reads the paragraph to the whole group, they must alternate saying each word in the paragraph (one client says the first word, the next client says the second word, and so on).

Common Connections

Take a picture of each client with an instant or digital camera. Then provide each client with a prepared questionnaire that includes questions about favorite foods, books, places, or hobbies. When the questionnaires are completed, clients share their responses with one another. (This can be done one-on-one, in small groups, or as a group activity.) Clients examine their peers' questionnaires to find "connections" -- things they have in common with one another. Post client pictures on a bulletin board titled "Common Connections." Then clients use strips of construction paper to connect the pictures. On each strip that connects two pictures, clients must describe the connection in writing. (For example, a strip labeled "We have three brothers" will connect the pictures of two clients who each have three brothers.)

Find Someone Who...

Create a sheet of questions such as, "Find someone who had eggs for breakfast". Each client is then given the list, along with a pen, and must get the signature of someone who did whatever each question asks. If you require a different signature for each question, participants will meet as many people as there are questions.

Time Capsule

Create and have clients fill out a "time capsule" questionnaire with questions that ask about clients' interests, such as favorite bands, colors, or foods, best friends and so on. Collect the questionnaires. Keep them until the end of the group. At that time, have the clients fill out another time capsule questionnaire with the same questions on it. Then hand back the originals. Watch as the clients react to their original answers.

The Name Continuum

Put a sign of a large A on one wall of the group room. Put a sign of a large Z on the opposite wall. Then have all participants arrange themselves in alphabetical order between the letters. You might do first name order first, then repeat for family name order. Variations: See whether clients can do this without saying a word, have them organize themselves in order by birth date, height, or another piece of orderable information.

Have a Ball!

This activity is ideal for young clients who are not able to write. Clients sit in a circle on the floor. The leader holds a large rubber ball and tells his or her name and something else about him or herself. Then the leader rolls the ball to one of the clients. That client tells his or her name and something about him or herself. The activity continues until everyone has taken a turn. Leaders might focus the activity by asking clients to share specific information, such as the names of pets, favorite books, or favorite foods.

Meet Your Group BINGO

Prepare a BINGO sheet that contains the same number of squares as there are clients in the group. Have each client write her or his name on a small piece of paper and place it in a fishbowl or another container. Then give each client a prepared BINGO sheet. Clients walk around the group room and gather their group mates' signatures, one signature per square. When all sheets are filled in, play BINGO. Reach into the bowl, and pull out a client's name. Call out the name. Clients mark off that name on their BINGO sheets. The first client to get a full row of names calls out BINGO and wins the game. That client can be the one to call out names in a second round of the game.

The More Important Book

On the first day of group, read to clients The Important Book, by Margaret Wise Brown. It's a wonderful, repetitive book that tells the "important thing" about a variety of things, such as a spoon, an apple, the wind, etc. After reading the book and discovering its repetitive form, write your own More Important Book. Each client tells about him or herself, following the format of The Important Book. The clients end, as the book does, by repeating the first line, "But, the most important thing about (client's name) is that he or she _____." Each client is responsible for a "most important thing" page, which becomes part of the group book. This is great way to get to know one another, and the book can be utilized throughout the group.

Who Am I? Riddle Book

Have clients share facts about themselves by creating a Who Am I? riddle book. Clients write four or five statements about themselves. The last line is a question: "Who Am I?" Put this up as a bulletin board and have client’s guess each other’s riddle. The first client to guess correctly gets to choose who guesses next.

Hands-On Activity

Have clients begin this activity by listing at least 25 words that describe them and the things they like. No sentences allowed, just words! Then, ask each client to use a dark pen to trace the pattern of his or her hand with the fingers spread apart. Provide another sheet of paper that the client can place on top of the tracing. Because the tracing was done with a dark pen, the outline should be visible on the sheet below. Direct clients to use the outlines as guides and to write their words around it. Provide clients a variety of different colored pencils or markers to use as they write. Then invite clients to share their work with the group.

Pop Quiz

Ahead of time, write a series of getting-to-know-you questions on slips of paper -- one question to a slip. Then fold up the slips, and tuck each slip inside a different balloon. Blow up the balloons. Give each client a balloon, and let clients take turns popping their balloons and answering the questions inside.

Take As Much As You Want!

Tell clients that you're going to pass around a roll of toilet paper and invite clients to “take as much as they will need to get the job done”. After everyone has had a good laugh over the amount of paper they took, explain how the game works. For every piece of toilet paper the client ripped off, they must tell the group one thing about themselves. Some realize they took quite a bit of toilet paper, but with a little prompting and probing from the leader, they will find things to share. This activity provides a nice way to find out about clients' personalities, families, likes, and dislikes.

Paper Dolls

Have clients cut out 2 feet tall “paper dolls”. Ask clients to decorate their dolls in a collage style using pictures from magazines or by filling them in with various materials. Leave the face portion blank and while clients dress their dolls, use a digital camera to take pictures of clients and crop the pictures so that only faces show. Enlarge face images to fit the paper dolls and have clients glue their faces to the dolls.

Sign My Arm

Give all clients a paper bag and marker. Ask everyone in the group to put the paper bag over their dominant hand/arm and explain the bag represents a cast. When the leader says, "Go," everyone in the group must obtain as many signatures as they can on their “cast”. It isn't as easy as it sounds because each client has to keep the paper bag on his or her dominate hand and must sign their own name with the opposite hand.

Twenty Questions

This activity encourages teamwork, "true participation" and to the idea that being wrong can lead to being right! Choose an item in the room and have clients guess what it is. Clients can ask only questions that can be answered with either yes or no. For example: "Is it blue?” or "Is it in the front half of the room?" The client who finally guesses correct is the next yes-no client. Stress that the client would never have guessed correctly without everybody else's help; the "no" answers helped as much as the "yes" answers did and sometimes we learn as much or more from being wrong as from being right. This activity will set the tone of friendly cooperation on the first day of group.

A Tangled Web

Gather clients in a circle sitting on the floor. Hold a large ball of yarn. Start by telling the clients something about yourself. Then roll the ball of yarn to a client without letting go of the end of the yarn. The client who gets the ball of yarn tells his or her name and something about him or herself. Then the client rolls the yarn to somebody else while holding on to the strand of yarn. Soon clients have created a giant web. After everyone has spoken, all the clients stand up, continuing to hold the yarn. Start a discussion of how this activity relates to the idea of teamwork -- for example, the clients need to work together and not let others down. To drive home your point about teamwork, have one client drop his or her strand of yarn; that will demonstrate to clients how the web weakens if the group isn't working together.



Interventions for Building a Positive
Peer Culture

Bad Habits

Supplies
1-12 inch ruler
1 sheet of newspaper
1 magic marker

Write "bad habits" across the top of the sheet of newspaper. Brainstorm a list of bad habits and record them on the paper, [profanity, lying, cheating, stealing, whining, not following directions, not wearing seat belt, not brushing teeth, not wearing a bike helmet]
Place the ruler at the edge of a table, the ruler should extend from the table by 5". Explain that the ruler represents a person. Lay the newspaper over the section of the ruler that is on the table. Explain that the newspaper represents a person. Ask clients if the bad habit [newspaper] is strong enough to hold the person [ruler] down when you strike the ruler. Demonstrate [strike the ruler]. Discuss that bad habits restrict personal freedom. Also discuss the deception of bad habits; people do not recognize the control bad habits have over their lives.

Being Kind to One Another

Supplies
Bowl of water
Pepper
Sugar
Bar of Soap

Sprinkle pepper in the bowl of water, explain that the pepper represents all the people in the clients lives. Discuss that how we get along with the people in our lives is largely determined by how we treat them and speak to them. Discuss "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will break my heart". Tell the clients that the soap represents negative harsh words. Have a client touch the soap to the water [soap will repel pepper]. State when we speak unkindly to others, they won't want to be around us, and will scatter. Now pour a teaspoon of sugar into the center of the bowl [sugar attracts pepper]. Discuss how being kind and loving towards others causes other people to want to be around us and be our friends.

Bad Habits

Supplies:
2 popsicle sticks
Thread

Ask for 2 volunteers. Have each child hold a popsicle stick about 1 foot apart. Wind the thread around the sticks 1 time and tie it. Ask the children to pull the sticks apart and break the thread. Continue the process by slowly increasing the amount of thread wrapped around the sticks until the children can no longer pull them apart.
Explain that habits are like the thread; bad habits [profanity] are easy to break in the beginning, but become harder to break the more they are repeated. Good habits [wearing seat belt, telling the truth] are strengthened each time they are practiced and like the string are less likely to fade.
Ask:
What is an example of a good habit you have?
What is an example of a bad habit you have? How can staff help you break the bad habit?
What is a bad habit the group needs to work on? How can staff help?

Being Kind and Supporting One Another

Supplies:
Drinking glass filled with 1 cup of water
1 egg
1/4 cup salt
tablespoon

Place the egg in the glass of water. Explain that the egg represents someone who does not feel cared for by others, sinking to the bottom represents how someone who is made fun of would feel [low, sad, depressed, unappreciated]
Remove the egg and set it aside. Slowly add salt to the water a tablespoon at a time. Explain that the salt represents different ways to make someone feel good inside. Discuss examples.
After all the salt has been added, replace the egg to show how it is now supported by love and held up by encouragement and acceptance of others.

Negativity

Supplies:
Small pebbles
Small pieces of candy

Give each child a piece of candy. Now, ask each child to place a pebble in their shoe. Go outdoors and have the children walk around until their candy is gone.
Ask each child to talk about their walk:
What did he feel during the walk?
What was he thinking about?
Explain how this compares to life:
Do we sometimes focus on the bad things [pebbles] and forget about the good things [candy]?
Ask the children if they spend most of their time noticing and pointing out the negatives of others [tattling], instead of the nice things people do for us?

Fulfilling Responsibilities

Supplies:
Clear jar
Large objects [walnuts]
Small objects [rice]

Preparation:
Measure amount of objects needed by placing large objects in jar first, then fill the jar with the small objects.
Discuss all the important and fun things we need to do in a day [school, bike riding, chores, TV, homework].
State the jar represents a day, the large objects represent all the hard things we do, the small objects represent all the fun and easy things we do.
Ask one child to fill up his day with as many hard and easy activities as he can fit in the jar. The child will most likely not fit everything into the jar. Note that he was not able to accomplish everything he needed to do.
Demonstrate by placing responsibilities [large objects] in the jar first and explain by fulfilling our responsibilities first, there will always be time left for fun, as you poor the small objects into the jar.

Telling the Truth

Supplies:
Chair
Ball of Yarn
Prearranged volunteer

Discuss honesty. Ask children to think of a time when they made a decision to be honest when it might have been easier to tell a lie. Ask to share how it felt to be honest.
Ask the volunteer to sit in the chair and ask simple arranged questions, as he lies wrap yarn loosely around the chair until all tied up, asking follow up questions throughout. [example: what did you do over the weekend - went to Disneyland - question what rides he went on, souvenirs, etc]
Explain to the group that you asked the volunteer to lie and that everything he said was made up. Discuss how one lie leads to another and how quickly you can become trapped by the lie.
Ask the group about times they have been caught in a lie or had to tell another one to cover up the previous lie. Discuss why it is important to tell the truth [safety, trust, feel good about self, because its the right thing to do]



Anger Management Cootie Catcher

All kids can relate to Cootie Catchers! Download this template and follow the directions below for a fun way to teach clients self-control techniques.

Download Here


Crisis/Natural Disaster Booklet

Crisis varies greatly. The only thing we can be certain of is that any type of crisis, natural disaster or terrorist related, will re-traumatize the youth we serve in residential treatment. This booklet is a Microsoft Word document; download it now and save it to your desktop or a disk so it is easily accessible should you ever need it. The booklet is general enough to be used as is. It is also very easy to customize by utilizing the find/replace command to alter "terrible thing" is the specific crisis at hand. The booklet is set up as a journal and will assist youth in identifying and exploring their fear, confusion and sadness. It will also assist the clinician in facilitating a discussion about the crisis with youth to help them come to terms with whatever "terrible thing" has happened.

Download Here


Interventions from Youth Change

Teach The Difference Between "Trying" and "Doing"

The next time a student says "I'll try" instead of "I will," throw a pen on the floor and ask the student to "try" and pick it up. Be sure you don't allow the child to actually pick it up-- just to try. The student will quickly experience and understand the big difference between doing and trying, and this understanding will quickly spread to other students who watch this exercise.

Help Students Manage Serious Family Problems

Students may have little energy for their school or work site when family problems overwhelm them. Have these youth sort their problems into "Things I Can Change" and "Things I Can't." Initially, many youth may claim to be able to change family problems like drinking and hitting. Inform students no one can change anyone else, just them self, then have students re-sort their problems. Many problems should shift from "Things I Can Change" to "Things I Can't," freeing more energy for school or work. Counseling for the family problems should also be offered.

Problem Solving

Give kids this guideline to use to decide whether or not to engage in questionable behavior, such as stealing, cheating or lying: "Would you want to read about it tomorrow on the front page of the local paper?" If the answer is "no," don't do it.



Interventions from Marco Products

A Smile and a Tear

Supplies:
For each child:
A Smile and a Tear worksheet
Pencil
For the child volunteer:
Bell or whistle
Stopwatch or clock with a second hand

Purpose: To understand how people show their feelings without words.
Give each child the A Smile and A Tear Worksheet and a pencil. Explain that they are to work by themselves and answer each question on the worksheet with an event. (Give an example taking a math test could be an event that would make you bite your nails.)
Ask for a volunteer to be the timekeeper. Explain that the timekeeper will announce to the children when they should begin talking to their partners and when they should change partners.
Instruct the children to quickly find a partner. Tell them that when the timekeeper rings the bell they should take turns telling their partners how they answered number one on the worksheet. They will have one minute total to do this, or thirty seconds each. At the end of one minute, the timekeeper will ring the bell again. They should then quickly find a new partner and wait for the sound of the bell. When they hear it they should take turns telling how they answered number two on the worksheet. This procedure will continue until all of the questions on the worksheet have been answered.
When finished, discuss the following questions:
1. What are some of the ways people show feelings?
2. Can you share some of the things happening in your life that would cause you to show a particular feeling?
3. What are some ways you can show feelings in your classroom?

Conflict Resolution

Supplies:
Paper plate for each student
Crayons
We're Different, We're the Same, or another book dealing with similarities and differences

Purpose: To help the students understand that everyone has feelings.
Have the students sit on the floor in a circle. Say the words happy, sad, and angry. Ask the students what those words are. Have the students continue answering until the word feeling is mentioned. Explain that each of these words is a feeling word. Feeling words describe ways people feel when something happens to them. Draw a face on one of the paper plates. Write the word happy under it. Do the same for the words sad and angry. Ask the students to name some other feeling words. As each word is named, draw a face on a paper plate. Under each face, write the feeling word the face expresses. Continue until you have completed one paper plate for each student or the students are unable to name any more feeling words. Give a paper plate to each student. If there are not enough paper plates to go around, ask each student still needing a paper plate what feeling word he/she would like to have. Draw that feeling face with its appropriate word on a plate and give the plate to the student.
Tell the students that you are going to describe some situations. They are to listen carefully to each situation. If the situation makes a student feel like the word on his/ her paper plate, the student should hold the plate in the air. Some examples of situations are:
You fell and skinned your knee.
Your friend won't play with you.
Your mother gave you a big hug.
Your teacher smiled at you, etc.
As each situation is described, notice the different feelings the students are holding up. Emphasize that more than one feeling can apply to each situation and that no feeling is incorrect. Continue this exercise until at least 10 situations have been named. Conclude the session by reading We're Different, We're the Same, or another book dealing with similarities and differences.

Student Reaction Bulletin Board

Cover a centrally located bulletin board with paper so that it can be written on. Title the board: "What Do You Think?" Each week, or every other week, select a different picture, newspaper or magazine photograph, or poster. Put it in the middle of the bulletin board and write a question under it. Tie felt-tipped markers to string and attach them to the bulletin board. Encourage students to write their reactions to the questions written by the pictures.
Examples:
Picture of a mountain-What would be a good name for this mountain?
Picture of a group of children-What do you think these children are talking about?
Picture of a stage with closed curtains-What assembly program would you like to see?
Picture of a plane-Where would you like to fly to?