Teresa Fletcher, Tanner Biwer & Hannah Conner, Adler University 11/10/2017 Creativity and Counseling Children & Adolescents: Strengths-based Experiential Activities 1 Creativity and Counseling Children & Adolescents: Strengths-based Experiential Activities Teresa Behrend Fletcher, PhD, LPC, ACS Tanner Biwer, BS Hannah Conner, BS Adler University Introduction • Why do children & adolescents come to counseling? • Because someone else thinks they need to change something. • What do children & adolescents need from the counseling experience? • They need skills to manage life circumstances • How do children & adolescents learn best? • Experientially…by doing • How do clinicians navigate developmental challenges and individual differences? • Develop a successful process • What skills do counselors need to be effective in working with this population? • Analytical, Creative and Practical Intelligence What do we do? How do we do it? • Experiential Learning Theory • ”Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” (Maimonides, n.d.) • “Learning by doing, followed by reflection.” (Gass, 1993, p. 4) • Nature vs. Nurture • It is not nature vs. nurture as an either/or, but the recognition, validation and acceptance of what nature provides while supplementing skill development for long-term health and well- being through a nurturing environment.
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• Why do children & adolescents come to counseling?• Because someone else thinks they need to change something.
• What do children & adolescents need from the counseling experience?• They need skills to manage life circumstances
• How do children & adolescents learn best?• Experientially…by doing
• How do clinicians navigate developmental challenges and individual differences?• Develop a successful process
• What skills do counselors need to be effective in working with this population?• Analytical, Creative and Practical Intelligence
What do we do? How do we do it?
• Experiential Learning Theory
• ”Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” (Maimonides, n.d.)
• “Learning by doing, followed by reflection.” (Gass, 1993, p. 4)
• Nature vs. Nurture
• It is not nature vs. nurture as an either/or, but the recognition, validation and acceptance of what nature provides while supplementing skill development for long-term health and well-being through a nurturing environment.
• Expression of thoughts & feelings so others can understand
• Listening and “hearing” perspectives of others
• Ability to get along with others
• Identify healthy qualities in others
• Reading and reacting to others
• Developing empathy towards others who are different than you
• Acceptance of individual differences
• Engage with others to develop meaningful and intimate relationships
• Sharing thoughts, struggles & dreams with others
Coping & Solution-focused Skills
• Assertiveness
• Decision-making processes
• Initiate change
• Acceptance of consequences
• Caring confrontation
• Overcome adversity
• Following directions
• Prioritizing interests and values
• Conflict resolution
• Negotiation
• Reflecting and learning from past experiences
• Self-soothing and self-care
• Facing fears
• Persistence
• Independent living skills
Successful Counseling
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we acted rightly. We are
what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. (Aristotle, n.d.)
• The ability to process information to analyze, evaluate, judge, or compare and contrast (Sternberg, 1997).
• Finding the “core issue” or hypothesis
• Creative Intelligence
• The ability to identify client strengths and co-constructing meaningful interventions within sessions to take advantage of moment-to-moment experiences (Carson & Becker, 2004).
• Practical Intelligence
• The tacit knowledge that influences common sense or as a social intelligence with the ability to select, shape, and adapt to everyday environments (Sternberg, 1997).
Successful Intelligence in Counseling
Six-Step Problem-Solving Model
Counseling Process
Successful Intelligence
Recognition Presenting Problem/Assessment
Analytical
Definition Assessment/DiagnosisConceptualization
Analytical/Creative
Formulating Strategy Conceptualization/Hypothesis
Creative
Representing Information Conceptualization/Treatment Planning
• Creative individuals are complex, or contain contradictory poles that involve the ability to move from one extreme to the other as an occasion or situation requires (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996).
• Theories of Creativity
• The process in which individuals engage in thinking creatively and implement ideas and include preparation and incubation along with an idea [inspiration, insight, ideation, illumination] and evaluation [elaboration, verification, production] to solve problems and generate or produce a positive outcome (Carson & Becker, 2004; Csikszentmihalyi, 1996; Witmer, 1985).
Practical Intelligence in Counseling
• Practical problem-solving
• The ability to identify real-world problems to everyday experiences with no clear definition, characterized by multiple solutions and various consequences with a possible best option available rather than a single right answer (Sternberg et al., 2000).
• Practical intellectual skills
• The ability to utilize intellect to identify and implement the best solution to these practical problems (Sternberg et al., 2000).
Successful Counseling
• Analytical intelligence used to incorporate every counseling theory, model, framework and approach to understand the core issue or problem and state as a concise and comprehensive hypothesis that can be tested and confirmed.
• Creative intelligence used to identify strengths and interests to build rapport and engage even the most defiant and oppositional clients in the change process.
• Practical intelligence used to understand both resources and skills to implement realistic strategies and include the right activity with the right client for the right reason at the right time and in the right way for positive and productive long-term change.
Macroprocessing• No loading• Limited instructions to allow participation in the activity to speak for itself
• Front loading• Instructions or meaning is established prior to the activity
• Back loading• Meaning is learned through reflection
• Front and back loading
• Metaphor• A statement about one experience resembles another; metaphoric emphasis is used to
transfer skills
• Paradox• Directives are established for clients to resist the counselor in order to change (Haley, 1987)
• Fletcher & Hinkle, 2002
Microprocessing
• Field Theory
• Understanding how individuals interact with their environment
• Phenomenological Inquiry
• Level 1: Awareness
• Level 2: Responsibility
• Level 3: Choice
• Level 4: Stay the same or experiment
• Level 5: Choice
• Level 6: Stay the same or transfer new learning to home or school
• Personal renewal/closure
Meaning Making Debrief & Transfer
• Meaning is created based on the information that is filtered or absorbed and allows us to understand or make sense of our experiences (Park, 2010)
• Cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal component where individuals actively construct perspectives by interpreting experiences (Kegan, 1982)
• Over time, children and adolescents organize experiences (subjective experiences) to develop expectations or meaning frameworks (schematas) (Kegan, 1994)
• When expectations are not met, inconsistent or inappropriate, there is a violation of the meaning framework (cognitive dissonance) and follows a certain pattern
• In order to cope, clients engage in compensatory behaviors (reasons for referral to counseling)