Using Experiential Activities in a CBT World

Heather Shahan, Ph.D., LPC, LMFT, LSOTP

Psychotherapy Services and Yokefellows

psyfw@sbcglobal.net

Workshop Objectives

• Identify experiential activities to implement in ones clinical practice to promote change in client thoughts / behaviors.

• Identify experiential activities to use to help clients make healthy connections in their life promoting different patterns of behavior.

What do you hope to get out of sitting through this, the last workshop of the conference?

How much time do you spend with a particular client each week?

Experiential learning in a nutshell

• “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience”

David Kolb

Experiential Learning Theory

Making connections

Using experiences to help clients make new connections or to amplify weak connections to concepts reinforcing of the good life

Utilize metaphors to promote change

Looking to perturb the current maladaptive system and replace it with appropriate boundaries, healthy relationships and sexual behaviors, adaptive coping skills

Identify and strengthen protective factors

Create a different dialogue in the lives of the offenders

Facilitating a process of change

Risk – Needs - Responsivity

• Identify the presence of risks in the clients life

• Identify needs of the client

• Respond in ways to promote change

• Andrews, D. A., & Bonta, J. (2010). The Psychology of Criminal Conduct, (5th ed.). Anderson.

Risk and Protective Factors

Dynamic Risk Factors

: emotional identification with children, hostility toward

women, general social rejection, loneliness, lack of concern for others

Social influences: associate with those promoting criminal behaviors

General self-regulation: impulsivity, poor cognitive problem solving,

negative emotionality

Sexual regulation: sexual preoccupation, sex as coping mechanism,

deviant sexual interests

Cooperation with Supervision: missing sessions, splitting treatment /

supervision

Acute Factors: victim access, emotional collapse, substance abuse,

collapse of social support

•Hansen & Harris, 2003

Protective Factors:

•Healthy relationships

•Pro-social relationships, informed support system

•Job, Housing, Financial stability, Positive attitude,

Family

•Healthy sexual lifestyle

•Compliance with supervision / treatment

•Sobriety, healthy social activities, well-being

The inner and outer you

• Provide each group member with a manila folder.

Talk about the concept of the inner-self and then the

outer-self.

• Inner self: part of the self that is known to the

individual

• Outer self: part of the self that the world sees

• Have the client take the folder home and write

words, slogans, songs, experiences, include pictures

on the folder helping to reveal more about himself

in the context of how he/she sees himself/herself

You are the Author of your Life

• Cover page: name and title

• Dedication page – who do you want to dedicate your life experiences to, what would you tell them – if you don’t have someone, think of a person you would want to dedicate the book

• Chapter titles – create a list of chapter titles of life – can be based on anything: education, relationships, experiences, jobs, achievements, criminal history

• Process Questions - Focusing on making positive changes in the here and now to influence future chapters – process questions:

• What do you want the next chapters in your life to look like?

• What steps are you currently taking to get there?

• What have you learned from your past to influence how you live yfuture?

Next 30 years"My Next Thirty Years” by Tim McGraw

I think I’ll take a moment, celebrate my ageThe ending of an era and the turning of a pageNow it’s time to focus in on where I go from hereLord have mercy on my next thirty years

Hey my next thirty years I’m gonna have some funTry to forget about all the crazy things I’ve doneMaybe now I’ve conquered all my adolescent fearsAnd I’ll do it better in my next thirty years

My next thirty years I’m gonna settle all the scoresCry a little less, laugh a little moreFind a world of happiness without the hate and fearFigure out just what I’m doing hereIn my next thirty years

Oh my next thirty years, I’m gonna watch my weightEat a few more salads and not stay up so lateDrink a little lemonade and not so many beersMaybe I’ll remember my next thirty years

My next thirty years will be the best years of my lifeRaise a little family and hang out with my wifeSpend precious moments with the ones that I hold dearMake up for lost time here, in my next thirty yearsIn my next thirty years

Songs• Offenders often have difficulty in identifying feelings /

emotions – songs are good at it!!

• Have the client pick a song they feel best describes

them – can be used in a variety of contexts:

• Before offense

• Now

• How they want to see their future selves

• Message to someone

• Brings in the lyrics to group session to share with

others helping to create an environment to talk about

emotions of feelings perhaps otherwise not identified.

Share on how the song relates to them.

• Examples:

• The Reason – Hoobastank

• Unwell – Matchbox 20

• Shake it Off – Taylor Swift

That little voice inside your head

• Engage in a general discussion of self-talk

• Give each group member a piece of paper and have

them write down negative self-talk that is present on

the left side of the paper – talk about those

• Then have them write down counter statements

(positive self-talk) on the right-side

• Process the difference in coming up with the lists

challenge them to utilize positive self-talk for the

next 7 days and notice the differences in how they

feel about themselves

Anger as an Iceberg Emotion

• What do you know about an iceberg?

• When was a time in your life when you were

angry?

• What was the underlying emotion?

• What other options did you have in the

situation?

• How might you react differently in the

future?

Hole in my sidewalk

Process Questions for each Chapter

Chapter 1

•Name a “hole” you have fallen into on the sidewalk.

•Describe what was it like in the “hole”?

Chapter 2

•How often have you found yourself in exactly the same

more than once?

Chapter 3

•What did I do to get here?

Chapter 4

•What am I now doing differently?

Chapter 5

•How is your inner dialogue different?

•What changes do you notice?

•What changes do others notice?

•What are you doing to maintain this change?

Telling your story

Use a piece of paper to illustrate the impact of disclosing

information about ones offense to so many people.

Examples of people with access to the victim’s story:

Initial outcry, police, SANE nurse, CPS, lawyers

(disposition), court, neighbors, friends, school personnel,

parents of school friends, social media, and so on and so

forth…………

Process questions:

•What were your thoughts about how many people the

victim told his / her story to during the process?

•Describe how the paper looks at the beginning vs the

end of the exercise

•What happens when the story is revealed?

•How does hearing the story impact the listener?

Dear Abby

� PSYCHODRAMA

� JAKE

� BROTHER

� MOTHER

� DAUGHTER

� JAKE WITH TREATMENT / JAKE WITHOUT

TREATMENT

Mission Possible

• Used to help promote the development of controls (increasing ones boundaries)

• Have clients write down controls they use in their daily life on index cards

• The more cards, the longer the “wick” from sexual deviancies

• Examples of controls (internal or external): safety plan, group as a conscious, informed support system, healthy relationship, rubber band, hobbies, spiritual beliefs, legal system

Pornography Ad Campaign

• Discuss the harmful impact of pornography

• Creating an anti-pornography campaign where the

individual addresses the popularization of

pornography vs the dark side of pornography. The

campaign consists of a pamphlet including:

• A motto

• 1st hand account of the destruction pornography

caused in your life

• Thinking errors and corrected thinking

Pornography

• After reading the book, have the individual write a preface

using his story

• Write a letter to his future wife about the work he is

currently doing to establish, create, and maintain appropriate

boundaries / sexual behaviors learning to live in the good

life.

Name affirmation

• When a group member leaves the group – I write down their name on a piece of paper and have each group member write a message, affirmation, or way the leaving member has made a positive impact on group

Trading Up: You Rock

Have client write a deficiency / maladaptive pattern of behavior

her life on a piece of paper and fold it up. Put all papers in a sealed

envelope. Tell them I will take care of this deficiency for them.

As a way to help promote change, have clients identify a charact

they would like to strengthen / amplify over the next year.

Trade in: impulsive for self-control

negative self-talk for positivity

irresponsible for accountable

lying for truthful

defensive for open

deviancy for healthy boundaries

selfish for empathic

Any other ideas to share?

Thanks kindly for your time and for being such an amazing audience – safe travels home!

Heather Shahan, Ph.D., LPC, LMFT, LSOTP

PSYCHOTHERAPY SERVICES AND

YOKEFELLOWS

PSYFW@SBCGLOBAL.NET