OT 532 Post Group Facilitation Reflection #2

I give myself a 9/10 on my introduction.  It was chaotic at 11 am when the facilitation was supposed to begin, and I had came from a 10:30 am meeting directly before the facilitation.  When beginning the group I did not give (in my opinion) a clear introduction of what we would or should cover during the session at hand.  The warm up, time frame, and clear communication went well.

I give myself a 9/10 on the main activity.  I feel like the activity was explained clearly and accomplished the goals I set in the protocol, but I would still like to have a more creative way in the future for the group members to design their physical activity routines (such as a board game or a fun way to motivate them to fill out the routine).  I did ask the group for feedback on the exercise options I provided them, and received great feedback on what to add and possibly take off for future groups I may have.  I feel as if the timing, materials, and environment were appropriate for the given activity.

I give myself a 10/10 on sharing.  I feel like we went even a little over time because the group members seemed comfortable and enjoyed sharing their thoughts, routines, habits and goals with me which made me feel good as a facilitator.  I tried to make good eye contact with each group member when sharing as well as I tried to provide examples of my weaknesses and bad habits in relation to physical activity.

I give myself a 10/10 on processing.  When I asked each group member to fill out the habit worksheet and share what habit or barrier could keep them from engaging in their physical activity routine, each member was able to process through their thoughts and share.

I give myself a 9/10 on generalizing.  I would have liked to have spent a bit more time discussing with each group member one activity that they could do at home (more occupation-context based) to help them generalize that physical activity can be free and be vacuuming and doing laundry that day.  It does not have to always be structured and jogging or doing zumba. Overall though, I know we did discuss in the group that physical activity could be things as simple as walking your dog, or doing some squats at home.  The group members seemed to be catching on to the generalization during this session.

I give myself a 10/10 on group motivation.  I would use the term for Fridays sessions Fri-yay to describe the feeling of my group.  I began with a high energy warm up to hope to provide the group with a positive feeling and morale.  Everyone was excited that it was Friday and to have the weekend ahead of them! They were motivated to not only complete the warm up and main activity but also to engage in discussion pertaining to the activities and their interests.   

Limit setting I give myself a 10/10.  I feel like I stayed on track with timing and allowed each group member more than enough time to share and I tried to not cut anyone off when they were talking.  I as well tried to not let the group stray off topic for more than one minute, directing the attention to the next group member sharing. 

I give myself a 10/10 on application.  I used many examples (including personal) and showed how physical activity can relate to everyday life.

 I give myself a 9/10 on summary because sometime I feel awkward repeating back to my classmates what we covered and why it is important.  Although I know these are not my "peers" but they are group members during my facilitation, it can be tough sometimes to role play with my peers.

Overall I gave myself a 86/90 because there is always room for improvement.  I will give feedback and say designing a group protocol and then facilitating it in a group was intimidating and difficult, but rewarding once it was over.  I really think this is a great class to prepare us as students for our mental health field works and feel more empowered and comfortable looking toward my 3 month mental health rotation.  Thank you both for helping me and my peers through this process, and it all really is starting to make sense! 

Leadership Summit Lauren Newell Leiser

     I did my leadership summit with Lauren O'brian and Katherine Manning.  We both facilitated on the same date, and we thought that would be a good group to bring together for this summit.  During my time with Lauren and Katherine, we discussed the FoR, activity ideas, and narrowed down topics for our group facilitations.

I had picked MOHO and PEO as my FoR's for Health Management and Maintenance, and at the time I had not decided on physical activity for my group session.  Thus we spent our time brainstorming on how to fit all of health management and maintenance within an hour group session.  After talking to Katherine and Lauren, I realized that narrowing down my topic may be in my best practice because trying to work on sleep, stress, mental health, physical health, and nutrition in an hour would be too much for myself as the facilitator and for my group members.  We discussed doing a questionnaire for my protocol, but I could not find online a good holistic questionnaire for physical activity, and I wanted the group members to leave feeling empowered and not bad about themselves from my group session. Thus I opted for no questionnaire.  I as well gave suggestions to Lauren to have each member go around and verbally communicate their stress levels at the beginning of her session and I told Katherine that a questionnaire or inventory for her session may be a good idea.  Katherine's session was over leisure and Lauren's was over stress management.  My protocol was in the baby stages when we met, so I never shared with them the activities I did for my group facilitation.

     Ultimately, I found this to be a rich experience.  I enjoyed hearing about what my peers ideas were for leading their group activities, and it really helped me to look at FoR's through another students lens.  I appreciated the girls time and honesty as I was developing my protocol and feel like it helped me form a productive and successful group facilitation for the other group members.  I would recommend keeping the leadership summit for future students, and also like that you both provided us with time during class to meet together for this summit if needed. 

OT 532 Professionalism Co-facilitation Group Evaluation

     Valerie and I were the facilitators for the group, Pursuing Positivity!  I would give myself a 9/10 on the introduction section.  The time and planning put into the introduction was a 10/10, but the way the day played out effected the efficiency of the intro.  The intro started off a little unfocused, and we had a warm up planned.  Several of our group members had a tough (hectic morning) and reflecting back on the introduction phase of our group session, it would have been a good choice to give the group 5 minutes to each go around and say how they were doing, and why they were good or bad that day.  We opted to begin the group with an ice breaker warm up, which was the feelings m and m game.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it, but were still a bit distracted with their own thoughts (noticeably). 

     I give myself a 8/10 on the main activity, the positivity petals.  I think that the activity was a good idea, but we should have gone around in a circle and asked each person to share what their group members wrote about them.  This would have required each group member to be present in the moment, and to take a moment and be proud of how their peers view them.  Having our group members speak out loud about their flowers could bring a positive spirit/nature to the group, and we did not have them do that.  The best part about this activity was to take a moment as the facilitators and look around at each group member and see them smiling down at their flower and what other people said about them.  The down fall to this activity is that someone could say something hateful, or fail to be able to find something nice to say to another group member in a different clinical setting or environment.  This may be an activity that is best for a cohesive and established group moving forward (as our group is). 

     I give myself and our group a 10/10 on sharing.  As facilitators we were patient and calm, thinking on our toes if the group was not responding to the questions that we asked.  We understood that thinking positively on a Monday may be difficult, and sharing your feelings can take time to become comfortable doing.  Ultimately, I was very impressed at how everyone around the middle of the group session began opening up and sharing their own stories and feelings towards the questions and topic of the day. 

     I give myself a 9/10 on processing.  We went into our group session with 3-4 good questions to help process through each group members feelings and thoughts.  I do not think we could have been anymore prepared with the questions,  I would have liked to have seen a little more depth in the feedback and responses shared, and there is space always to improve so this is why I gave myself a 9/10. 

     I give myself a 10/10 on generalizing.  We took the time to specifically ask our group members which technique or strategy they can use to build self confidence and ultimately use positive thinking daily.  This was a slow start to being answered, but I feel like each group members response was meaningful and authentic and they really thought through either the strategy they do or could use moving forward to deal with negative thoughts. 

     I give myself a 9/10 on group motivation.  Sometimes I struggle with wanting to be too positive or "cheerleader type of motivation", when in all reality I accepted the conditions on Monday.  Like several group members shared, they had experienced a tough morning, and we had picked fieldwork locations not even an hour before the group session was held.  Asking the group members to transition quickly from (what could have been a negative experience for each member depending on if they got the FW they wanted) was asking a lot.  I did try and motivate the group, but I am sure deep down I was thinking about the stresses of the week as well.  I always feel like I can improve on being present for all moments 100 percent. 

     I give myself a 10/10 on limit setting.  I try and always hear each group member, and offer a meaningful response, smile, eye contact, or nod for them to know I am hearing them and they have my undivided attention.  Valerie and I did stay on schedule, and we did not let the conversation veer off topic onto other topic and we kept the group busy, focused, and challenged with questions. 

     I give myself a 9/10 on application.  I think it could have been nice to have a question directly stating for each group member to say one area in their life they can "apply positive thinking" now that I reflect back on the group session.  This would be a client centered question, allowing each of them to answer they way it was most applicable to their lives. 

     I give us a 10/10 on summary.  We summarized what we covered during the session, why it was important, and even gave the group members one last chance at the end to say anything else that was on their mind before we officially wrapped up the session. 

     In conclusion, I know that Professor Sasse already covered this with Valerie and I in person (which I appreciated).  Professor Sasse acknowledged that Monday (especially right after FW selections were picked was a tough time) to have a group session, especially about positive thinking.  I also know that she acknowledged that we had to work extra hard at times during our session to get out group member motivated to engage and talk with us.  I would be false if I said I walked away from our session feeling 100 percent, but I will say I feel like it was a real life situation.  This group session helped me see the reality of what group session will/may be like during my community health rotation, and for this I am grateful.  I am welcome to any feedback on things I can do better, things you directly saw were weaknesses, and strengths of my group leadership style.  The feedback will only help me moving forward to be the best practitioner I can be.  I give myself an overall score of 84/90 points on my leadership evaluation.