Workshop That I Will Be

¶ … workshop that I will be conducting will be focused on self-esteem / interpersonal skills activities since participants (n=8) evidence social skills / esteem-related problems.

My main form of therapy would be social skills training which would help participants with social skills such as making small talk or maintaining eye contact during conversation. Social skills therapy will also help the participants recognize and interpret social signals so that they will know how to react and interact to messages of others. Social skills training will also be integrated with cognitive behavioral modification so here, for instance, I will show participants how to challenge their thoughts using the RET system integrated with behavioral techniques (REBT).

Techniques

I will break down complex social behaviors into smaller portions before arranging each into hierarchical order of difficulty and introducing them to the group. For instance, at least two participants, NC and RG have problems with trust issues and understanding and accepting other people's lifestyles. I will have the group purposely model a situation (in steps of incremental complexity) where RG and NC (amongst other participants) will generate ways to deal with this particular situation. They -- and the group -- will rate their performance. I might also introduce RG and NC (or at least encourage them) to interact outside the sessions with different others. This can be done over the internet (e.g. Beliefnet.com) or by joining inter-faith/cultural groups. Allport has shown this to be an excellent means for gaining understanding and acceptance of others as well as for becoming more assertive and open with others. In this way, such a technique can be helpful to NT too.

NT and DW both want to feel more confident in a public forum. Breaking specific steps into more manageable steps can also help here by introducing the party environment where participants can play out the behaviors of introducing themselves to others, making small talk, and so on. Skills would be taught piece meal, rather than in one go.

Other techniques used would involve modeling, role-playing, feedback (from the group), videotaping one's performance, and reinforcement of positive interactions. A.S. For instance (who becomes easily frustrated with others who overly emote) may be encouraged to keep a diary and monitor her progress in that area. EL can also use this technique to work on her issues of trusting others.

Other methods that I would use (all based on CBT) include a contract between counselor / client to assess, monitor and adopt or break certain habits; the reward or punishment of certain actions, and instructions on the philosophy behind detrimental thoughts and how to change thoughts. The participant is taught to question evaluations and beliefs; gradually faces and deals with fearful situations and stimuli (via gradual extinction); experiment with new ways of behaving and thinking; and (in the case of EL and DW who wish to become more trusting and confident) adopt stress-reducing techniques such as relaxation, visualization, mindfulness, and distraction. In fact, visualization would be a helpful technique for all in order to help them envision, accordingly better incorporate their new behavior.

Other behavioral techniques that I would use for low self-esteem (which most of the participants suffer from) is to help them pinpoint their points of self-criticism and question whether they can improve / work on them and is so how. I will also help them shift their attention to positive points about themselves and make them aware of their tendency to criticize themselves by having them chronicle the amount of times that they do so in their journal. To help them accept criticism, I will ask them to repeat precisely what the other person said and to assess its validity.