Activities used in Psychological Therapy

Activities used in Psychological Therapy

Huanu Marius-GiorgicGet to Know You Sociometric Questions

Sociometric activities engage people in representing social dynamics in physical space using their bodies.Sociometry was developed by Jacob Moreno in the 1930s.The wordsociometry comes from the Latin socius, meaning social and the Latin metrum, meaning measure.

This activity is simply a series of "sociometric" questions which require participants to arrange themselves in space in relation to other people according to various individual and social characteristics.Facilitator warmth and friendly encouragement will help to break natural hesitancy. Laughter is very healthy. Leaders are to move amongst students and join in as participants.Suggest you use about 10 questions for a session.

Get to Know You Sociometric Questions

Locus of controlGoals - this exercise is designed to give students:Insight into "locus of control" as a psychological constructFeedback about individual locus of control scoresStrategies for changing locus of control

Locus of controlApplicationsPossible applications of this exercise include:Psychology classesPersonal development coursesCorporate trainingTherapeutic / rehabilitation programsVariations can be created by selectingdifferent types of Locus of Control questionnaires.

Fear in a hat

Set an appropriate tone, e.g., settled, attentive, caring and serious.The tone could be set by introducing the topic of fear and explaining how it is normal and natural at this stage of program that people are experiencing all sorts of anxieties, worries and fears about what might happen.Fear in a hatCan be done as the first activity in a program, during the initial stages or well into the program.Ask everyone, including the group leaders, to complete this sentence on a piece of paper (anonymously).Fear in a hatCollect the pieces of paper, mix them around, then invite each person to a piece of paper and read about someone's fear.One by one, each group member reads out the fear of another group member and elaborates and what he/she feels that person is most afraid of in this group/situationFear in a hatIf the reader doesn't elaborate much on the fear, then ask them one or two questionsWhen all the fears have been read out and elaborated on, then discuss what people felt and noticed.Can lead into other activities, such as developing a Full Group Contract, personal or team goal settings, course briefings which specifically tackle some of the issues raised, or into other activities in which participants explore their feelings and fears

IllusionsPeople never cease to be marveled by exercises whichillustrate how automated and limited human perceptions can be.As William James put it,whilst part of what we perceive comes through our senses from the object before us, another part (and it may be the larger part) always comes out of our own mind.

IllusionsOptical illusions and cognitive deceptions can be used as experiential exercises to:provide convenient windows into how the brain works;help people become aware of the hidden constraints of the visual system in a way that normal perception fails to do show how psychology can be a fun tool to help people learn about themselves.

IllusionsTo conduct an experiential session for people to explore some of the ways their mind perceives, download and print out the 25-page Word document, which contains: Introduction, Background reading, Answer sheet,17 optical illusions and cognitive deceptions, 1 per page.

IllusionsSitting in a circle, provide a basic introduction to illusions and hand out the answer sheets. Then pass the illusions out, allowing participants to spend ~90 secs studying and answering each one, then passing it on to the next person. At the end, discuss the answers and the implications for understanding the human mind.

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