OBJECTIVE OF THE SESSION
The objective of this session is to free ourselves from our fears by creating a work environment that is free of prejudice and full of confidence. The dynamics and exercises that are proposed below would place the group in cooperative situations. These would allow participants to work on channeling the anger.
CASE SCENARIO: WHY DON’T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!
Mr. Mathew is a 20-year-old man facing mental health issues.
He lives with his mother; he doesn’t work and the only thing that he enjoys doing is going
walks and attending social events because he likes being surrounded by people.
Last Saturday, he attended a food festival organized in a village nearby the town he lives in.
After having a great time there by tasting different foods from other countries and
socializing with people from the fest, he started walking to reach the closest bus stop feeling
grateful for this peaceful and fulfilling evening.
Thinking of all the things he would recite to his mother, he lit a cigarette.
During his walk, he was approached by a group of youngsters, who asked him ignobly for a
cigarette.
Feeling uncomfortable by their attitude he refused to give them one, letting them realize
that he was annoyed by their behavior.
Acting normally, they started shouting and laughing at him, making rude comments and
mocking him. Feeling humiliated, Mathew, decided to ignore them.
Then, they started throwing stones towards him.
With the feeling of fear and anger at the same time he decided to hide around the corner
and wait until the youngsters had gone, mumbling, “Why don’t you leave me alone!”
Theoretical background
Aggression type
Episodes of verbal, postural and physical aggression.
Emotions: fear
Coping/Stressors related to mental illness/social stigma and victimization. Functional coping strategies
Questions and answers
1st Question
At what point in the scenario do you find that the protagonist was a victim of violence? To what kind of violence does the scenario refer to?
1st Answer
Mathew has been a victim of verbal violent from the moment the youngsters asked him ignobly for a cigarette, when making rude comments and mocking him.
He was emotionally violated when they started shouting and laughing at him. Emotionally violated should have felt when, probably desperately, trying to avoid the stones.
2nd Question
Do you think that the thoughts, the actions, the feelings and the attitudes adopted by the protagonist of the scenario helped him/her to cope with this situation? Are there any alternative ideas?
2nd Answer
Instantly, these actions helped him. Not for managing the situation but for avoiding being further emotionally and verbally hurt.
In his situation and with his psychological status, maybe it was the right thing to do at the specific time. He was alone and he felt humiliated not to mention helpless.
3rd Question
What other interventions and actions could further help the protagonist to deal with this incident and with any potential similar incidents in the future?
3rd Answer
Maybe he should make these long walks along with some friends. He should learn to cope with rude people.
He should work with his therapists’ self-esteem and self-confidence issues.
PREPARATION
This session is carried out between the trainer (improvisation professional) and the caretakers. They should all wear comfortable clothes and shoes.
- Duration: 90 minutes
- Number of participants: 6-20
- Place: A room where there is space to move
- Materials and tools: No
NOTE: This sessions proposes a set of activities to deal with the emotions produced by verbal violence situations, some activities might be more suitable than others to the final trainees depending on factors like their culture or mental health illness (i.e like those activities involving physical contact). The mental health professional leading the session can skip or modify those exercises adapting it to the needs of the trainees.
It is recommended to do the session with 2 trainees at least.
PROCEDURE
Introduction: Discovering ourselves in the other and finding the feeling of unity for channeling the anger
Duration: 10 minutes
Exercise 1.1: The raft
Purpose: This exercise is extremely important since we manage to make two things clear from the first minute: the group is a team and the space is ours. Body position and breathing are keys to good emotional health.
Duration: 3 minutes
Description: Walking barefoot around the space, feeling relaxed at a moderate speed. With group listening, everyone goes at the same speed, while the instructor stays in silence. Participants should try to take up all the available space. Imagine that the ground is a raft: if there are too many on one side, the raft will lose its balance and it will sink, so everyone has to keep the raft stable.
Exercise 1.2: Speeds
Purpose: To warm up the body by doing various speed changes
Duration: 8 minutes
Description: We would call «10» (ten) as the maximum speed that group can sustain without crashing and «1» (one) as the lowest speed, which participants can move without losing their balance. Meanwhile, zero (0) means stop. The moderator will vary the speeds by saying numbers and the group will adapt.
Exercise 1.3: Free speed
Purpose: This exercise works on group listening and we will get to know the type of group we have. We can find out if the group is willing to take risks, secure, absent-minded, or very impulsive.
Duration: 8 minutes
Description: Now the speeds will vary and the director will count. If the group maintains the instructions, we can also make the decision to stop.
Exercise 2
Purpose: We start with emotional warming-up in order to see that the ridicule does not exist, we are not perfect, nor do we have to pretend to be perfect because it gives us more pressure. Tension leads us to the lack of communication and chain of errors that will end up in failure.
Duration: 9 minutes
Descripción: Everyone walks in a row, following the person in front like a snake. The person who heads this row invents a way to move through the area (on all fours, jumping, doing the gorilla gesture…) and the rest of the participants imitate him/her, being as real as possible to all movements. The head of the line will rotate, so that everyone is in that position. If the body has warmed up, to reach the mind would be easier. When our body is prepared, the breath goes deeper and the blood flows through the body. It means that we have to leave «our individual reality» (our problems and sorrows) outside the classroom (sacralization of space).
Exercise 3. Stop
Purpose: To continue with the emotional warming-up. Laughing at ourselves helps us to maintain a healthy self-esteem. It is the cause and the consequence simultaneously. In other words, it is the symptom and the medicine. Thanks to the fact that we have built an optimal working climate, the participants of the activity can enjoy the dynamics. This also aims to create an appropriate climate for the externalization of emotions.
Duration: 10 minutes
Description: Everyone STOPS, except one person who walks. He/she should walk on his/her own pace (make sure it is in the most everyday way possible). After 10 seconds of observation, another person walks behind the first one, imitating his/her way of walking. At 20 seconds, another will enter, then also mimics the imitator by satirizing his/her walk a little. Then at 30 seconds, another companion adds to the queue, making a greater satire than his/her previous colleague. The first person to come out keeps his/her walk in the most regular way possible and without turning. Finally, the 5th person is added, ridicules the last person in the row as much as possible. At this time, the original person STOPS, watching his/her peers roam the area with the imitations.
Exercise 4. The pendulum
Purpose: Building trust and responsability
Duration: 10 minutes
Description: Each group consists of 6 (six) persons. One in the center should close his/her eyes, lock his/her body and feet (stand still, without any movement). Surrounded by the group, that person should trust them, then throw him/herself behind. The group, by using their hands, should move and swing the person in the middle gently as if he/she were a pendulum.
Variation: The guide dog: In pairs one person assumes the role of the guide dog and the other the blind person, the dog guides the blind person through space through physical contact.
Exercise 5 Freefall
Purpose: This dynamic works the same as the previous one, but with more complexity. Now it requires greater trust and responsibility.
Duration: 10 minutes
Description: Work in pair. One is behind the other on the same line and at a distance of less than 1 meter (the distance can be extended depending on the couple). The person who is in the front should drop him/herself backwards. There is no need to give him/herself a push, just let the body fall backwards. It is very important that the person who falls is firm; he/she does not bend, so the other person behind can hold the fall with his/her hands and arms easily.
Variation: The frogs: the exercise is divided into three parts:
- 1st: we walk through the space and name the objects that are in the space (Example: Radiator, window…).
- 2º: Now without stopping walking through the space we name the objects that we see in the room but not by their original name but by the first image that evokes us (Example: Metal, light…).
- 3º Finally, in pairs, we take a walk through the space, we choose an object that is in our environment and we name it with the 3rd image that bounces back to us (Example: If we find a radiator and at first sight it evokes the word metal we think it evokes the image of metal, for example, CASTING) our partner has to guess what our second image has been.
Exercise 6. Cramp
Purpose: Promoting voluntary acting caused by a particular stimulus or mental/sensitive object
Duration: 10 minutes
Description: The entire group stands and makes a circle, facing the center at equal distance. The goal is to circulate an external stimulus around the circle indefinitely. For example, moderator of the game touches the shoulder of the person on his/her right. Then, that person does the same to the person next to his/her right, and so on until it goes back to the moderator, then start again. If this stimulus works, we can add more in the opposite direction. We can make the game more difficult in various ways: making the circle but with our backs, broadening the distance between the member of the group, playing background music, and so on.
Exercise 7: Conclusion
Purpose: to evaluate the session
Duration: 10 minutes
Description: Once the session is over, the group sits down together and shares their feelings. These 10 minutes help us understand what the participants have received and how they have done it.
CONCLUSION
After the session, the participants should have acquired enough tools to deal with everyday situations in a healthy way. Throughout these seven exercises, they could discover and learn improvisation tools in order to see that the other person is not a threat. Instead, they are their fellows that might have common purpose; anger is a way of dealing with fear.
