About the Group

Communication and Emotional Wellness (7 weeks)

• Physical Needs
  • Individuals, and in particular adolescents, have difficulty caring for their physical bodies, which causes physical and emotional repercussions.
  • Therapist will address physical needs (eating, drinking, hygiene, sleep, and exercise) and discuss the pros of one taking care of their body, difficulties in taking care of these needs, and strategies that can be employed to make it easier.
• Self Care

• Therapist will define self-care and the positives of engaging with self-care.
• Adolescents will talk about some misconceptions about self-care.
• Therapist will help client discuss how individuals can fit self-care into their day with minimal difficulty.
• If group is more developed, it can be talked about how society subtly discourages self-care.

• Communicating

• Communicating is much more than understanding language, speaking, reading and writing – it is the skill of determining what one wants to communicate and realizing how our communications will be understood by others.
• Using I-statements
• The difference between “I feel” and “I think”
• How to communicate with respect towards others even when disagreeing with them.

• Mindfulness

• Mindfulness techniques have proven to make individuals happier.
• Mindfulness will be defined and the benefits will be talked about
• Adolescents will talk about the various difficulties in adopting mindfulness techniques
• Adolescents will talk about the differences between having an optimistic outlook vs. a negative outlook. Therapist will talk about toxic positivity
• Therapist will talk about accepting negative emotions in your space and be comfortable
• Recognizing our internal mechanisms and realizing what our emotions feel like in our bodies.

• Defining and Respecting Boundaries

• Therapist will define what boundaries are and how they are a form of respect and appreciation of others.
• Examples of different types of boundaries and the reason why people might have those boundaries in place
• Some boundaries might break social norms- discussion. When is it okay to follow the boundaries of others and when not?
• Adolescents will discuss their own boundaries and why they have those boundaries as far as they feel comfortable sharing
• What happens if someone does not follow your boundaries? What does that feel like emotionally and internally?

• Meditation and Grounding Techniques

• Relate these back to mindfulness and how these can allow to lower anxiety/depression, assist with disassociation
• The consequences of multi-tasking and fast living
•  Nature and slow living as a mindfulness/grounding technique
• What meditation is and how to go about it.
• Recognizing energies that are in your body
• The similarities and differences between mindfulness techniques and grounding techniques.

• Coping Skills and Hobbies

• Therapist will define coping skills and what they are.
• Therapist will speak on hobbies and coping skills and their benefits.
• Defining coping skills as both positive and negative, defining impulsive behavior as a coping skill with consequences
• Highlighting that coping skills hurt ourselves and hurt others.
• Determining what makes unhealthy coping skills easy and what makes healthy coping skills hard
• Reptile brain vs. logic brain.
• Pros of creative endeavors
• Accepting and understanding failures/not being good at an activity.

 
Advanced Think Tank via Defining Ourselves and the World Around Us (6 weeks)
Advised for older and/or mature teens and/or young adults

• Defining Identity and Genuineness
  • Defining our true selves vs. our idealized selves, and how we can continue to strive towards our idealized selves
  • It’s okay not to be perfect
  • How others see us vs. how we see us
  • The mask that we wear around other people and why
  • How a mask can be beneficial
  • How to be a genuine person to both ourselves and other people
  • How to be uniquely ourselves while also fitting into other groups
  • Respecting and accepting our physical bodies
• Emotional Vulnerability with Others
  • Defining Emotional Vulnerability
  • Pros and cons of emotional vulnerability
  • How and why strength is defined as not being emotionally vulnerable and why it’s the other way around
  • Crying as a display of weakness- why?
  • Fear of rejection
  • Trust and how this relates to emotional vulnerability
  • How to tell when you can trust someone enough to be vulnerable with them.
  • Difference between genuineness and emotional vulnerability
• Respecting Parents and Authority Figures While Understanding they are Human
  • Defining why authority figures exist and their importance
  • Determining what respect means and how to earn respect
  • Earned respect vs. human respect vs. authority respect
  • How to communicate in a respectful but effective way.
  • Perspective taking with others
  • Thinking of authority figures as both a role and as human
  • Setting healthy boundaries with authority figures
  • How and when authority figures can be toxic.
  • How to deal with authority figures that do not fulfill their role well
• Ways Society Impacts Mental Health
  • Romanticization of work and labor
  • Romanticization of mental illness
  • Increased stress and the negative effects of stress
  • Commercialism and it’s negative effects
    • Fake self-help and/or expensive help for money-making purposes
  • The beauty industry
  • Male and Female roles
  • Industrial racism and sexism
  • Technology and the Internet
  • Media standards
  • Recreational substances
  • Limited work/home boundaries
  • Natural idolization of pessimistic and/or hedonistic characters
• Using ourselves as a therapist
  • Understanding our trauma
  • Understanding our own internal mechanisms
  • Understanding our triggers
  • Genuine, open and honest feeling within our selves
  • Understanding and adopting our needs
  • Talking with others in a therapeutic way
  • Helping only when we are mentally healthy
  • Acceptance of ourselves
  • Journaling and other outlets
  • Meditation as a means of true feeling
  • Acceptance of awe and wonder
  • Expressing oneself creatively
  • Not giving into hopelessness and/or despair
  • Understanding when we need a therapist
  • Acceptance that we cannot place ourselves in a box and that we are a constantly evolving organism
  • Accepting the different stages in our and others’ lives.
  • Defining purpose in our lives and that it’s okay to allow that purpose to change.