ACA WebBlog

Check out my.counseling.org to see another blog of mine. This week's blog features an article on use of everyday activities for children with ADHD.

Relationship Workbook for Teens

A great resource for anyone working with teenagers. The Teen Relationship Workbook helps teenagers identify support systems, characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships, has activities focusing on dating violence and safety planning section. All activities are outlined for use in a group setting or also can be used individually in the therapeutic setting. Each section has reproducible handouts that can be given to teenagers and parents.

Activity: Exploration of Healthy Relationships

To help adolescents explore healthy relationships try using a small soft ball to toss around to group members. Group members should stand in a circle and toss the ball to each other. Each time a group member catches the ball, she is to say one characteristic of a healthy relationship.

Tip: Group member should call out name of person before tossing the ball to that person to ensure safety with the activity.

Messages from the Media

One useful tool for helping adolescents understand the images that they see in magazines, billboards and other advertisements is to have them watch the process that leads to the end product. The Dove Evolution Commercial available on YouTube is one resource to depict this process. It is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hibyAJOSW8U.

American Counseling Association WebBlog

Make sure to check out the American Counseling Association blog as I will be an upcoming weekly author on various counseling topics! The website is http://my.counseling.org/.

Looking to Enhance Self-Esteem

As part of my Adolescent Girl Talk group, I use games. Games such as Self-Esteem Bingo help promote benefits of self-esteem, identify self-esteem boosters and busters, and identification of personal strengths. To go along with this game, I give the girls a list of positive affirmations and ask them to pick at least 3 from the list given and write them on an index card. This index card is to be placed in a spot where each morning the girl can see it and remind herself of the positive aspects of her life to give her a brighter outlook as the day moves forward.

Game available from: http://store.guidance-group.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=350770&eq=&Tp=