I had the opportunity to attend the “Teambuilding with Offenders/ Boundaries Session by M. Gail Cecil, CTRS. This was presented at the 2011 Annual American Therapeutic Recreation Association’s conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The focus of this session was on implementation of teambuilding activities for people who need to develop healthy and appropriate boundaries. Persons with this need could be offenders who lack empathy for others.
She defined teambuilding as activities that are designed d to encourage people to work cooperatively. She defined cooperation as working together: the act of working or acting together to achieve common goals.
Gail Cecil provides services for about 460 male sex offenders who are 19 years or older at a detention and treatment facility.
Gail points out that a Rec. Therapist can’t run something she (or he) has not done before. Basically, the Rec. Therapist needs to have competencies in the interventions she (or he) is providing.
Gail also points out the importance of debriefing at the end of a session. She says that if you don’t debrief then it is just an activity. The debriefing is the part that makes it therapeutic. Here are some general guidelines for debriefing: equal circle so eye contact can be made with everyone. Start questions with things the Rec. Therapist observed in the group session. What were the group’s difficulties? How did they overcome these challenges? Or how could they have done better? Gail likes to get the “Bad: out of the way first and then move towards the positives. I like this idea. End the session on a positive note. What were their strong points and strengths? What did the group participants do well?
The purpose of the debriefing is basically: how are these skills going to help you (the participant) in the future?
I’ve heard these “debriefings” called different things in different settings. I often use the word, “wrap-up” when working with children in adolescents. Some therapists who I work with call it “processing” the group session.
Here are some of the general expectations that Gail Cecil pointed out for teambuilding:
Diversity, respect, acceptance, goal-oriented, using resources, collaboration, communication, etc.
An Ice-Breaker Activity
Gail uses ice-breakers to assess a group and to determine the people who she is providing services for. It is a good way to observe the group dynamics. Look for people who are leaders, followers, and for people who lack boundaries.
She provided an ice-breaker activity to help the participants who attended this group session to get to know each other. She made the comment that we Recreational Therapists sit around the big tables at the general sessions and lunches and have the basic conversations: Where are you from? What population do you serve? What setting do you work in? I’m sure I laughed aloud because that seems to be so true based on my expectations from attending conferences. Here is a picture of the dining hall at the 2011 ATRA conf. in Indy (to the right).
During this ice-breaker activity that Gail facilitated, “each participant shared their name and a favorite place. I regret to say that I can’t remember all of the participants in my little circle. However, I did have the opportunity to meet Anel Van Rooy, CTRS who was sitting right beside me. She said her favorite place was her parent’s farm. I noticed that her accent was different from ones that I know, but I couldn’t place where she was from. Naturally, Gail’s ice-breaker headed into more conversations. I asked Anel where her parent’s farm is at. Anel told our small group circle that she is from South Africa, which, I think is really awesome.
Anel earned her B.A. in Recreation from North Western University and her graduate degree at Eastern Washington University. She is going to take a lot of neat things back to South Africa with her! I was glad I had the opportunity to meet her and so many other Recreational Therapists who are doing wonderful things.
Gail introduced a second question once all of the group participants had answered the first one. She had us state when was the last time we had visited our favorite place.
Other ice-breaker questions that Gail pointed out where to have group members
to:
Cecil had the participants in this training to participate in several other activities that we could take back to our own facilities and use as interventions.
Gail had hand-outs for activities titled: traffic jam, I am the egg man, Ultimate, What are your values?, and read my emotions. I’m going to email Gail to see if she’ll email me these documents so I can post them at this blog.
Here are some of the resources she suggested:
The focus of this session was on implementation of teambuilding activities for people who need to develop healthy and appropriate boundaries. Persons with this need could be offenders who lack empathy for others.
She defined teambuilding as activities that are designed d to encourage people to work cooperatively. She defined cooperation as working together: the act of working or acting together to achieve common goals.
Gail Cecil provides services for about 460 male sex offenders who are 19 years or older at a detention and treatment facility.
Gail points out that a Rec. Therapist can’t run something she (or he) has not done before. Basically, the Rec. Therapist needs to have competencies in the interventions she (or he) is providing.
Gail also points out the importance of debriefing at the end of a session. She says that if you don’t debrief then it is just an activity. The debriefing is the part that makes it therapeutic. Here are some general guidelines for debriefing: equal circle so eye contact can be made with everyone. Start questions with things the Rec. Therapist observed in the group session. What were the group’s difficulties? How did they overcome these challenges? Or how could they have done better? Gail likes to get the “Bad: out of the way first and then move towards the positives. I like this idea. End the session on a positive note. What were their strong points and strengths? What did the group participants do well?
The purpose of the debriefing is basically: how are these skills going to help you (the participant) in the future?
I’ve heard these “debriefings” called different things in different settings. I often use the word, “wrap-up” when working with children in adolescents. Some therapists who I work with call it “processing” the group session.
Here are some of the general expectations that Gail Cecil pointed out for teambuilding:
Diversity, respect, acceptance, goal-oriented, using resources, collaboration, communication, etc.
An Ice-Breaker Activity
Gail uses ice-breakers to assess a group and to determine the people who she is providing services for. It is a good way to observe the group dynamics. Look for people who are leaders, followers, and for people who lack boundaries.
She provided an ice-breaker activity to help the participants who attended this group session to get to know each other. She made the comment that we Recreational Therapists sit around the big tables at the general sessions and lunches and have the basic conversations: Where are you from? What population do you serve? What setting do you work in? I’m sure I laughed aloud because that seems to be so true based on my expectations from attending conferences. Here is a picture of the dining hall at the 2011 ATRA conf. in Indy (to the right).
During this ice-breaker activity that Gail facilitated, “each participant shared their name and a favorite place. I regret to say that I can’t remember all of the participants in my little circle. However, I did have the opportunity to meet Anel Van Rooy, CTRS who was sitting right beside me. She said her favorite place was her parent’s farm. I noticed that her accent was different from ones that I know, but I couldn’t place where she was from. Naturally, Gail’s ice-breaker headed into more conversations. I asked Anel where her parent’s farm is at. Anel told our small group circle that she is from South Africa, which, I think is really awesome.
Anel earned her B.A. in Recreation from North Western University and her graduate degree at Eastern Washington University. She is going to take a lot of neat things back to South Africa with her! I was glad I had the opportunity to meet her and so many other Recreational Therapists who are doing wonderful things.
Gail introduced a second question once all of the group participants had answered the first one. She had us state when was the last time we had visited our favorite place.
Other ice-breaker questions that Gail pointed out where to have group members
to:
- a.) Answer: Who am I?
- b.) Line up and get in alphabetical order by first name. Gail had us to practice this one too, however, we had to be silent and we couldn’t use sign-language. We could use body language and non-verbal communication.
- c.) Make a shape. This is where the group members hold a rope or string. They must form shapes with the string. Gail suggested state borders. In example: Colorado would be easy to create because it is more of a square shape. West Virginia would be a little difficult however, but I’d like to see a group try to do it. I provide services for children and I have a deck of cards that show the state borders and it has facts on the back. I plan to use this deck of cards! I’m having a Halloween carnival at our residential facility in October. This is for diversion and beyond their typical day of therapy activities. I plan to have several small groups of children participating in teams to create Halloween shapes: pumpkin, ghost, haunted house, etc. We’ll compare each of the three to four team’s shapes. Gail suggested using toilet tissue if the placement does not allow ropes or strings due to precautions.
Cecil had the participants in this training to participate in several other activities that we could take back to our own facilities and use as interventions.
Gail had hand-outs for activities titled: traffic jam, I am the egg man, Ultimate, What are your values?, and read my emotions. I’m going to email Gail to see if she’ll email me these documents so I can post them at this blog.
Here are some of the resources she suggested:
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