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How to Develop Life Skills Book, 104 Activities that Build by Alanna Jones

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I was asked at my internship to develop a boy’s life skill group and a girl’s empowerment group. Due to this I read the book “104 Activities that Build” by Alanna Jones. This book consist of experiential activities that can be done with groups. Each activity provided in this book provides a description, instruction, objective, who it is appropriate for, group size the activity is intended for, materials needed and discussion prompts. I really like the idea of using experiential activities to open up discussion and provide insight. These activities help group members put into practice what is being discussed and further reinforces topics in group.

The games can have further therapeutic value by helping to promote positive social …show more content…

There were valuable thoughts I gleaned from these introductions that I can apply to any group or in therapy. One thought that resonated with me was when people are having fun and are engaged that are more likely to learn about themselves and also how they interact with those around them. Another thought that was helpful to remember when running groups is that individuals have a strong need to be heard, validated and be given positive compliments; when this happens these memories are held onto tighter and longer. As therapist we should remember this and help develop situations where this can naturally occur for youth. The author suggest this can be done by playing games. In the coping skills introduction I really like that it talked about giving youth the right to say yes to good activities. We teach them what not to do and what to “just say no” to, but we also need to teach them what to say yes to. All of these suggestions are very applicable to social workers working with youth. It is another way of looking at how to give clients learning experiences.

I like that the learning experiences suggested in this book provide youth with real time behaviors to attach learning to. I believe it is also more power to teach in the moment than latter through discussion only. I will use many of the activities and ideas provided in this book in my clinical practice. I have been able to implement some of the activities suggested into

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