Supervision Exercise

This week in supervision, I asked the group to write a letter and/or draw a picture to one of the patients they were having a hard time with. I got this idea of the "unsent letter" from the book, Creative Supervision by Mooli Lahad. Some of the ideas from her book seemed a little out there or involved for my supervision group, but this free writing exercise was a big hit. It helped the therapists have an outlet for their countertransference. It helped them be more aware of it, so they are able to deal with their responses to these difficult patients better. One therapist wrote what she learned from the patient, another wrote phrases that she could actually use with the patient. You could even do this on your own to vent or gain insight. Just be sure not to put the patient's real name on it or leave it in an unsecured area! We'll definitely do this exercise again...

Feeling Embarrassed Directive

This week, I asked my Empathy group members to create an image about a time they felt embarrassed or humiliated. At first, some patients couldn't think of anything embarrassing that happened to them. We talked about how we sometimes repress those memories because the associated feelings can be painful to think about. I told them they should choose a memory that they felt comfortable talking about, as one patient said he didn't want to share some really embarrassing moments from his past. The patients were able to talk about their situations and feelings and relate their feelings to how their victims may have felt or still feel.

Group Drawing

This week in my Empathy group, I had the members create a group drawing. Each person had 2 minutes to add to the drawing and then it went around again and each person had a minute more to add to it. This was a good exercise about boundaries, and I also noticed that each person generally drew their own thing, not taking into consideration what the others had drawn. Each patient seemed pretty self-absorbed in his own thoughts, ideas, or issues. I pointed out that when this happens, he may have less empathy for others because he is so focused on himself. I then had them do another group drawing with the instruction to try to be a little more aware of what the other group members drew and what was going on for them. The second drawing was more cohesive and supportive than the first disjointed, disconnected one.

Empathy through music

For this directive, I listened to various classical music pieces and chose 4 different songs. I tried to find pieces that were upbeat, sad, angry, anxious sounding, etc. I played the first piece for the group and then asked everyone to draw the feeling they got from the song. They did the same thing for all 4 pieces and then got to talk about their art work and the feeling that inspired it. They were able to compare their art work, so it was interesting to see who got similar feelings from the same musical piece. This was a different approach, yet another way to help the patients tune into feelings.

Entitlement leading to decreased empathy

This week in my Empathy group, I asked the group members to portray a time that feeling entitled caused them to have decreased empathy for someone. Half of them were able to relate this directly to their crimes. A couple said that they felt entitled to sex which led up to their offenses. Many sex offenders have entitlement issues and related distorted thinking that they need to address. This directive helped them be more aware of how their feelings of entitlement caused harm to others.

A Valentine directive

In one of my Empathy groups, I asked the participants to create an image about a time they felt loved. This helped to remind them that they could be loved, which is a concept that many offenders struggle with. Some feel they do not deserved to be loved or will never be loved again. This directive helped them get in touch with this feeling better and could encourage them to talk about how to be able to attain that feeling again. One patient drew some flowers to represent the love he had felt from his older sister. Later, he reported that this exercise helped him to talk to his younger sister, who he felt was more accepting of him, about how his crimes impacted his family and his desire to make amends with his older sister.

Out-of-Control directive

I tried this directive with my group this week...I asked the group members to think of a time where they felt out of control. I asked them to depict that in an image, but using their non-dominant hand. After, each member was able to discuss the feeling and also the experience of using their non-dominant hand. Some said that using their non-dominant hand helped them get in touch with the out-of-control feelings better. They were able to relate feeling out of control to times they committed their crimes, and they were also able to relate their feelings to how their victims may have felt out of control as well.