very selectively.”
DR. KRISTINA ERICKSON
Autumn Leaves
Location: Indoors
Time: 45 minutes
Materials: Construction paper (green, brown, orange, red; blue or white for background)
Removable sticky tape, glue dots, glue, or glue sticks
Markers
Scissors
Optional: leaf shapes for templates
Objectives
• To stimulate thinking about behaviors, habits, or experiences that clients are ready to let go.
• To provide a visual representation of the process and a way to self-check desired changes.
Directions
1. Review directions and anticipated outcome with the group.
2. Ask each participant to choose a background sheet of construction paper.
3. Instruct participants to design their own tree trunk out of brown construction paper.
4. Have them cut out leaf shapes and glue them onto the branches of the tree.
5. Direct participants to place a few leaves at the base of the tree.
6. Tell participants to set aside four or five leaves on which to identify some personal feeling or behavior that one wishes to “leave behind.”
7. On the selected leaves, have participants write specific behaviors they wish to overcome. For example, snacking excessively, chewing fingernails, being impatient, procrastinating, or being late for appointments.
8. Using removable tape, have participants place the selected leaves on the tree or falling toward the ground. They can be positioned with the behavior showing or turned privately inward.
9. Encourage participants to keep the tree, and as they make progress, move the leaves down toward the ground.
10. If desired, paricipants can write behaviors of the past that they have already left behind on the fallen leaves.
Observations
This activity was done with a group of twelve. Several participants needed help and individualized attention to get started and to conceptualize desired life change. All embraced the concept of identifying behaviors they wished to leave behind, and about half put their trees in strategic locations so they could do daily checkups. One woman made a Christmas tree and decorated it with pinecones that fell off—Christmas represented her target date for achieving the desired changes.
Inspired by: A Yaqui Indian ceremony in which the entire village lets go of personal issues and the entire village is cleansed in a group ceremony.
Childhood Comforts
Location: Indoors
Time: 35 minutes
Materials: Jumbo pencils and crayons, the style used in early elementary school
Construction paper
Objectives
• To encourage positive recollection of and appreciation of internal resources.
• To access the creative resourcefulness of childhood.
Directions
1. Invite participants to recall the variety of ways in which each found safety as a child, with emphasis on the child’s adaptive wit. Emphasize the unexpected multitude of creative ways children have in recognizing and attending to the need for comfort.
2. Read aloud the following explanation:
This activity is designed to bring out the remembrances of when you were young and looked forward to the time when you could have a 32- or 64-pack of crayons. But back then, you learned to adapt and to work with the colors at hand.
The purpose of using elementary school materials is to bring back a time when participants faced challenges different from the ones they experience as adults. Note that the jumbo crayons come in only eight colors.
3. Encourage discussion within the group of possible responses: a place, gesture, toy, pet, relationship, or activity. There is no correct discovery.
4. Emphasize that this is neither an art project nor an evaluation of artistic ability. It will not be graded or displayed. It is a process of self-discovery.
5. Remind participants they can use as many sheets of paper as needed.
6. Invite participants to make an artistic rendering or a symbol of something that brought comfort to them as a child. Read aloud the following explanation: No matter what our background as children, each of us went through normal, healthy developmental stages in which we discovered our own ways of finding resources to help us feel safe or comforted. The purpose of this activity is to remember some strengths and resources we discovered in childhood and to capture and enjoy those feelings. In this safe environment, where we are here and now, remember a time when you were very young. You are invited to close your eyes and think back to ways that you found safety and comfort as a child. Maybe it was a friend, pet, toy, doll, a stuffed animal, a blanket, or some other object. Or maybe it was a hiding place or secret playhouse where you learned to feel safe and comfortable in your own way, all on your own. Use the materials here to draw those images, which is a way to help you to remember some of the strengths that have kept you safe.
7. Invite volunteers to show their work and talk about the meaning.
Observations
By encouraging recollection and appreciation of resources within, the client is better equipped to problem solve in the present and future. This strength-based activity encourages connection to forgotten or unappreciated internal resources. A study by Sarah Davies and Gail Kinman, presented in 2010 at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference, indicated that recovering alcoholics who focus on positive experiences in their past may be more successful in managing their addiction.
This activity was performed in a cafeteria setting on two separate occasions. Several group members had come from traumatic life circumstances and had never had a healthy or safe home life. Permission was given to draw what they felt like. Initially, two group members were withdrawn, but as the drawing began, everyone became more expressive. Some reassurance was needed regarding poor drawing ability. Both occasions resulted in full participation—everyone became actively engaged and wanted to tell
