Stress Strategies: Creative Interventions in Group

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Stress Strategies:
Creative Interventions
in Group Work
By Mary Ann Thompson, MA, NCC
March 20, 2014
VSCA Conference
Richmond, VA
Focus

Strategies in group work that combat
negative stress

Background: The scoop on stress

Packets: Icebreakers, meditations, games,
resources

An alternate method: Narrative therapy is
explored as a creative group counseling
option
Icebreakers Energize a Group

Break the ice!

Likert-style

Strongly
Agree
Agree
Strongly
Disagree
Disagree
Statement:
Music is helpful in alleviating stress.
Perspectives:
How do we think about stress?






“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom”
– Soren Kierkegaard
Not all stress is negative; we all have positive
and negative stress in our lives.
Students tend to think of stress as negative.
Advertisements and other media tend to
associate stress as a powerful, destructive force
solved by medication.
 Are we stressing about stress?
Minimizing the negative stress aids in academic,
career, social, and of course the personal lives
of our students
Around the World: Multicultural
Perspectives on Student Stress

Multicultural competency – Implicit in tone
and acceptance of student strategies

Awareness of sources of stress and varied
experiences

Unique stressors of new students, immigrant
students navigating an unfamiliar landscape,
language barriers, acculturation stress

Awareness of dominant cultural narratives
that place an emphasis on putting others first
and silencing personal concerns, identified as
“forbearance coping” (Wei & Liao, Heppner,
Chao, & Ku, 2012)
Why Stress?

Possible causal factors:

Chronic over-scheduling

High stakes testing

Financial concern at home

Change (moving, family system, friends)

Technology, lack of person-to-person contact

Medication

Genetics, cortisol levels

Diet

Sleep problems
Stress Outcomes:
Non-Violence


Frank, Bose, & Shrobenhauser-Clonan (2014) utilized a
yoga-infused Transformative Life Skills program in an
alternative school

The program correlated with student nonviolent attitudes,
reduced hostility

Diminished anxiety and depression levels in participants
A teacher founded the Mindful Life Project to reduce
violence and teach self-regulation techniques to
students with similar findings

Reduced violence

More respectful rather than argumentative responses

Reduced detentions, suspensions, absenteeism

Reported “calmer” feeling and strategy to sleep
(Schwartz, 2014)
Stress Outcomes: Learning

Optimal learning when a student is not
negatively stressed or perceiving a lack of
connection with peers and school
 Social-emotional
learning (SEL) is
important
 Changes
in school policies, Illinois and
New York investigating SEL standards
 (Durlak,
Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, &
Schellinger, 2011)
Stress Outcomes:
Mind-Body
Connections

Mindfulness stimulates activity
in the
Pre-frontal Cortex


Associated with abstract
thinking and decisionmaking (Schwartz, 2014)

Also emotional-regulation
(Broderick, 2013)
Holistic Health

“The operation of the
brain is more like an
orchestra than a number
of soloists” (Broderick)
http://themindfulclassroom.files.wordpress.
com/2012/10/brain-poster.jpg
Group Work as a
Stress Intervention




A counseling group is social; students
learn from one another.
Much of the stress students face is social
Other stress is academic and students in
the same grade level are likely to identify
some of the same stressors (i.e. specific
projects, written homework, class
dynamics)
Students learn firsthand that they are not
alone
Multicultural Merits of Group
Counseling

Establishing systems of support minimizes
acculturative stress

Group counseling fosters “relational engagement”
(Orozco, 2010, p18)

Feeling of belonging, mentorship, learning
social behaviors

Carries over to academic success, familiarizes
the student with the school and classmates in a
comfortable setting
Setting the Scene

Creating an atmosphere of calm

Confidential space

Ideally space apart from tables and chairs

Not bright, florescent light during
meditations

Free from outward distractions as feasible

Activboard or meditation bell

Introductory music
 Enya
song clip (20 seconds)
Icebreakers & Introductions

Group Rules & Confidentiality
 Encourage
creativity: “Don‘t interrupt students
when meditating”

Pre-test

Student Buy In
 Write

the rules & sign
“What do you most want to get out of our Stress
Strategies group?”
 Offer
many opportunities for students to learn stress
strategies from each other
 Students
Select: Meditation, Art, Game Day
Chocolate-Covered Strategies



Red: What does it mean to be successful?
Orange: If you could create anything, what would it be?
Yellow: What is your favorite thing to do when you are
stressed?
Green: If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
 Blue: What is one quality in a friend that is most
important to you?
 Brown: What is your favorite story/book/movie?

Stick Your Stress on the
Stress-o-meter

Ask students to identify the stressor and rate the
stress level
Meditation Teaches






Being in the moment
Mindful of your body
Awareness of thoughts
Freedom from judgment
Focus
The same strategies are helpful test-taking
strategies, listening skills, and steps to self-control

Carries over to the classroom, knowing how to calm self
and be ready for sleep, routine, self-awareness
Teach Deep Breathing in
Group




Simple practice:

Hands on your sides to feel diaphragmatic breathing: Push out

Bring your arms up with your hands into fists that you raise high above your
head as you breathe in, relax and let your hands fall loosely to your sides as
you breathe out
Visualization

Imagine you are a balloon filling up with air and expanding…

Think of your favorite place to be quietly by yourself… Go there.
Evoke the senses

Meditation bell or music; breathing in deeply to the tune of the waves

Imagining the sight, smells of a space; bring it back to feeling now
Simple Muscle Tensing

Focus on head, neck, shoulders… Or focus on tense areas
Teach Deep Breathing in
Group

1. Gently Introduce – Be aware of tone

2. Count

3. Model

4. Teach
 Distinguish
deep breathing from hyper
ventilating
 Ask
students about their understanding
Positive Self-Talk:
It Can Be Taught!

“It is impossible to be happy without
developing a positive outlook, and the
inner feeling of a positive space that is
ultimately impervious to outside events…
We can train ourselves in the skills of
being happy…We can liberate the positive
force within us by dropping our negative
self-perceptions and our inappropriate
goals.”
– Richard Laynard, Happiness: Lessons from a New
Science, 2005, p188-189
Teach Positive Self-Talk in
Group

“I am” exercises

Ice breaker question: “What do you
say to yourself when you are feeling
really stressed?”

Practice replacing negative
thoughts
Games that Stress Strategies

4 Corners Likert-Scale: Strongly Disagree,
Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree

Ex. “Sometimes when I’m stressed, I draw”

Yogi Says & other yoga card games

Train Wreck as a Stress Crash Course

Tables in a circle and one person in the
center

Find another seat if the statement applies to
you

Ex. “I listen to music when I’m really stressed”
Discuss Strategies

Identify stress: “I know I’m stressed
when. . .”

Ways to cope with stress
 Energy
Out
 Relaxing:
Sleeping patterns
 Being
with others
 Deep
breathing
 Meditation

Check-ins

Goals
& Music
Student Feedback from
Stress Strategies Group

Qualitative (post-test):

What is something you learned in group?

“Meditation”

“How to calm down”

“How other people handle stress”

“I can tell other people things without
getting embarrassed”
Student Narratives

The empowerment in finding one’s voice

Arranging or rearranging an individual’s
personal story

Shifts can be made: Perspectives on self
and situation  Some control  Life
changes

Just as an author writes a work, a student
can discover the authorship of his or her
story
A Case for Narrative
Counseling

Despite the fact that narrative counseling
is not a popular approach in American
schools, there is international support for
this approach (Winslade & Monk, 2007)

Relevant to group practice

Nonjudgmental approach

Culturally relevant

Writing can be therapeutic

Interdisciplinary offerings for schools at a
time when writing has been identified as
a particularly weak area for American
students (Teach Thought, 2011)
A Narrative Group Counseling
Model

Nancy Paulsen’s Model: To build confidence and improve
student focus on schoolwork

Remind students to “challenge a challenge”

Introduce format and sharing standards

Counselor notetaking and sharing

Emphasis on crafting an alternative story

Plan an End of Group Celebration early

Use of cum folders, teacher comments, group feedback

Creative activities personify a character in the story

Follow-up questions for art or writing

Ex. “How big are you compared to Anger?”
(Winslade & Monk)
A Narrative Stress Strategies
Group

Both creativity and journaling are
identified as helpful ways to cope with
stress

A narrative group approach to stress will
involve an individual focus on goals and
stress as well as a sharing of ways to cope
and learn from one another
A Narrative, Stress Strategies
Group

Emphasis on the personal story

Sample Exercises:

Draw your stress as a character in your story. Is
it male or female? Person? Creature? A force?

Write about an extremely stressful experience.
How did you get through it? What did you
learn? (Free-writing exercise)

Embark on a “mindful walkabout” (Broderick,
2013). Write about something you observed in
nature. What is it that stands out to you?

Write a simple meditation for group. What are
we saying to Stress?

Discuss: What helps stress to be less present in
our lives?
Thank You
Thank You for Your Attention!
Enjoy a Stress-Free & Optimal-Learning Day

References

Barseghian, T. (2013, September 12). Why teaching mindfulness benefits students’
learning. In P. Broderick’s, Learning to breathe: A Mindfulness curriculum for
adolescents to cultivate emotional regulation, attention, and performance.
Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/09/why-teaching- mindfulnessbenefits-students-learning/

Brigman, G., Campbell, C., & Webb, L. (2006). Student success skills: Helping students
develop the academic social and self-management skills they need to succeed. Group
manual. Boca Raton, FL: Atlantic Education Consultants.

Condon, L. (2009). The Warm up ring: Keys to energizing your group. Clearwater, FL: L.
Conlon.

Duncan, S. (2003). Present moment awareness: A simple, step-by-step guide to living in
the now. Novado, CA: New World Library.

Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011).
The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A
meta‐analysis of
school‐based universal interventions. Child development, 82(1), 405- 432.

Enya. (2000). Who can say. On A day without rain. Access date: March 13, 2014.
Retrieved from iTunes Store: http://www.apple.com/itunes/store

Frank, J., Bose, B., & Schrobenhauser-Clonan, A. (2014). Effectiveness of a school-based
yoga program on adolescent mental health, stress coping strategies, and attitudes
towards violence: Findings from a high-risk sample. Journal of Applied School
Psychology, 30(1), 29-49.
References

Global Young Leaders Conference. (2013). Faculty instructions. Congressional
Youth Leadership Council.

Kierkegaard, S. (2014). The concept of anxiety: A simple psychologically
oriented deliberation in view of the dogmatic problem of hereditary
sin. (A. Hanay, Trans). New York, NY: Liveright Publishing Corp.

Laynard, R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons from a new science. New York, NY:
The Penguin Press.

Marino, G. (2012, March 17). The Danish doctor of dread. The New York
Times. Retrieved from
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/the-danish-doctor-ofdread/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

The Mindful Classroom: Taking a Mindful Approach to Teaching, Learning, &
Life. (2012, October 13). Teaching the Brain. Retrieved from
http://themindfulclassroom.wordpress.com

Olsen , K. (2013, October). Strategies and school counseling programs to
address students’ mental health and wellness. Session presented at the
Virginia School Counselor Association Fall Institute, Richmond, VA.

Schwartz, K. (2014, January 17). Low-income schools see big benefits in
teaching mindfulness. MindShift. Retrieved from
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/01/low-income-schools-see-bigbenefits-in-teaching-mindfulness/
References

Suarez-Orozco, C. (2010). Promoting academic engagement among
immigrant adolescents through social-family-community collaboration.
Professional School Counseling, 14(1), 15-26.

Teach Thought. (2012, November 6). 12 data points detailing the
problem of poor writing in America. Retrieved from
http://www.teachthought.com/industry/12-data-points-detailing-thecrisis-of-poor-writing-in-america/

Ward, K. (2010). Worried sick: break free from chronic worry to achieve
mental & physical health. New York, NY: Berkley Books.

Wei, M., Laio, K.Y., Heppner, P.P., Chao, R.C., & Ku, T. (2012).
Forbearance coping, identification with heritage culture, acculturative
stress, and psychological distress among Chinese international
students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 59(1), 97, 106.

Winslade, J.M. & Monk, G.D. (2007). Narrative counseling in schools:
Powerful & brief. (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
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