Exercise Swap 1 (Thursday session)
Stephen Andrew
N.B.: the comments that precede the “->” were made by workshop participants; those that follow were the facilitator’s.
Opening and closing trainings with stories
Working with exercises: Learning to do your best
Anti-cocktail party (Speed dating)
Introduce yourself (in whatever way seems comfortable to you)
Name, job, what do you do,
Challenges for you, and
One thing they would not know about you
2 minutes, then change partners.
Sometimes the participants are asked to change roles, sometimes to change partners.
Debrief: What did you notice?
If you don’t get to exchange with your partner, it feels weird. ->
If you change roles it is more of an exchange—MI is relational.
Even if time is short, you get some depth ->
It is a good response to “I don’t have time to do MI”
You could feel the energy in the room->
There is a lot of energy in relationships.
The exercise builds intimacy->
A response to “it takes a long time to make an alliance with someone new”.
But in therapeutic relationships the information is one-way (therapist doesn’t talk about self)->
But empathy is two-way, even without self-disclosure.
BIG POINT: debriefing is where you teach MI—it is where you reinforce the themes of MI.
Q: If no one brings up the point you thought you were bringing, do you bring it up?->
No, use what comes from the folks.
Left, Right story
People stand in a circle.
Take an object from a bunch of stuff (Stephen had a bag of objects like pens, trinkets, markers, etc.).
When you hear the word “right”, you pass your object to the right, when you hear the word “left” pass to the left.
The following story is read and the objects go around (much laughter).
Mrs. WRIGHT eyes her grocery list carefully. “There won’t be anything LEFT of our budget after our shopping,” she sighed. Mr. WRIGHT looked up from his paper. “That’s all RIGHT my dear, there isn’t anything LEFT of it anyway at the end of month. I’ll just be happy that what the WRIGHT family has LEFT, will see us to the end of the month.” As Mr. WRIGHT LEFT his paper, he said, “Have you the RIGHT gift for Aunt Lulu WRIGHT’s birthday? She’s been awfully lonely since her daughter LEFT home, RIGHT after she married LEFTy. Uncle Harry LEFT her a lot of money, but she does not know how to enjoy it RIGHT.” Eddie WRIGHT was studying in the corner, LEFT side of the fireplace. “I wish Aunt Lulu WRIGHT would ask me the RIGHT way to spend it,” he said as he LEFT. Eunice WRIGHT sniffed and said, “she would have been RIGHT to not have LEFT much to you,” she called after Eddie WRIGHT as he LEFT. “I’m sure you would have had some LEFT”, he said to Mrs. WRIGHT. “I woudn’t have much LEFT, but I’m RIGHT sure I’d have enough LEFT to take a RIGHT fine tour of the LEFT bank.” Just then the doorbell rang and the mailman LEFT a package RIGHT on the step for the WRIGHT family. Inside was a new stack of ten dollar bills. It was from Aunt Lulu WRIGHT who LEFT town and headed RIGHT for her daughter’s house. Mr. WRIGHT hugged Mrs. WRIGHT and Eddie WRIGHT jumped RIGHT up on the couch. It was after all very RIGHT of Aunt Lulu WRIGHT to have LEFT something for the family before she LEFT. It LEFT a warm feeling in the WRIGHT’s hearts and they took a RIGHT fine trip to the LEFT bank.
Debrief: What did you notice?
Felt like I wanted to give up. Stop caring after awhile. Fun, enjoy the chaos. Hard to track the story. I wasn’t listening after awhile, just listening for the key words. ->
Sometimes we don’t listen to the story, we lose track of what our clients are saying.
I tried to do it right, but then giving up, trust the others to let it go.->
When clients get overwhelmed, do they give up somehow and just do the best they can, giving up the way to do right?
When therapists are oriented to certain things, as counselors maybe we don’t listen well.
Too chaotic->
Sometimes agencies overwhelm the counselors and they just stop working as much. Also when things are chaotic, it is hard to stay with the story. What could you do to stay with your client when what s/he is bringing is chaotic?
Can make mistakes->
As a trainer, as a counselor, we can make mistakes. We can relax a little with them. “OOPS!”
I felt a curiousity about the objects and what I was going to learn.->
Fun. We can have fun in trainings, fun with our clients.
This would be risky with some of the folks I train->
Take a risk sometimes! “What the heck!”
Adaptation from Jeff Breckon: Each person is given a word and and has to stand up when they hear it while the facilitator reads a book (Jeff reads The Cat in the Hat). Start slowly, then go faster (increase chaos).
Another variation: Everyone picks a letter out of a bag (or use the first letter of the partipants’ first name). The participant stands up everytime s/he hears a word that starts with that letter. Read a story.