Integrating Adventure Education to Spice Up Training Sessions and Augment Change Talk

MINT Forum

Richard Rutschman, Ed. D.Chicago Teachers’ Center

Northeastern Illinois University

Today’s SessionWHAT? Activities Useful for Training Sessions

– Increase interaction, emotional safety & energize participants– Insight on mind-brain

Activities To Reinforce MI Spirit & the Nuanced Skills of MI– Verbal & Non-Verbal Communication– Empathy (emotional attunement, mirror neurons)

Activities to Review Concepts Learned Way to Support/Guide Clients Through Change Process

HOW? Large Circles, Small Circles, Pairs, Pop-Corn Discussion

OUTCOME: Build “integrative neural fibers” as a result of our multi-modal interaction.

The Brain Simulation50 or more NeurotransmittersBalanced levels in accordance with what is going

on in the environment is criticalStress neuro-chemicals important but need to be

balanced and over abundant long term

Social exclusion [emotional threats] makes the same part of the brain light up as pain.

Praise [affirmations] makes the same part of the brain light up as winning a prize. Affirmations?

FEAR, RAGE or PANIC

Look at the words below, say out loud the COLOR not the word from left to

right:

Face and eye contact are hard wired into our neural circuits… Right brain perceives and sends messages through facial expressions, left brain through words.*

*Seigel, 2012. The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are (2nd Ed); Guilford Press: NY, p. 176-177

Activities to Enhance Learning

Finger Catch (hemispheres)Challenge by Choice (autonomy)Zones (self-determination/self-efficacy)Brain Simulation (environment affects mental

process, change)Webbing Circle Activities (overcoming fear,

relying on others for support)Finger Trust Walk (trust & rapport building for

therapeutic alliance)

Processing the Experience

Guiding Skills: a) head & heart/reflecting experience, b) generalizing/making meaning/evoking change talk, c) application/evoking commitment language)

Activities to Understand &

Reinforce MI Spirit & the Nuanced Skills of

MI

Attunement of mental states through nonverbal connection is a collaborative communication that

is needed on the part of therapists, parents and really in

all human relationships.*

*Seigel, 2012. The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are (2nd Ed); Guilford Press: NY, p. 94-95.

EmotionsEmotions serve to connect one mind to another.Emotional processing prepares the brain and the rest

of the body for action, to “evoke motion.”Emotions are critical to memory, learning and

decisionmakingNon-verbal communication conveys emotions (facial

expression, tone, posture, gestures)The circuits that connect emotions include the

Prefrontal Cortex with the Amygdala (tend to be on the right side of that vertical connection)

EmpathyEmpathy provides the attunement to

help a person organize their mind.* “Mirror properties in our brain enable us

to imagine empathically what is going on inside another person.”^

Mirror Neurons involve cells that are both motor and perceptually activated.

*Seigel, 2012, p. 175 ^Ibid, p. 165.

Mirror NeuronsEmpathy involves MirroringSubconscious MirroringSynchronic Integration

Activities to Understand & Reinforce MI Spirit & the

Nuanced Skills of MI Traps (Avoiding the Righting Reflex and other traps)

Verbal Communication/Reflection Activities Chiji Cards (Practice Affirmations and Reflective Listening)

Non-Verbal Communication—   Meeting Eyes (Energizer, Non-verbal communication) Screaming Toes “ “ Whose Go My Money? (Energizer, Non-verbal communication) Space Counting (reflective listening, collaborative communication) Lean Walk (Collaborative Communication, Guiding)

Exploration of EmpathyCollaborative-Integrative Conversation to Resolve

Ambivalence (connecting neural circuits)

The Importance of Neural Integration

Interpersonal Relationships/Communication are Essential to Neural Integration

Collaborative Communication

Collaborative Communication is Integrative, promoting growth of integrative fibers in the brain (Seigel, 2012)

Imagining change begins the process of rewiring the brain.

The Benefits of Neural Integration

Improves memoryMakes relationships strongerIncreases creativity and efficiencyIncreases resiliency and flexibilityImproves problem-solving skillsHelps a person create the life they want

Ways to Promote Neural Integration = MI

Balance nurturance and optimal stress (guide)Empathic attunement (empathy, affirmations,

reflection)Involvement of both affect and cognition

(reflective listening)Simultaneous activation of neural networks

(OARS/DARN CAT)Affect regulation (change steps/process)Co-construction of narratives (Reflective

Listening)Cozolino, L. (2011). The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, 2nd ed. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Activities to Review MI Concepts

Smith CirclesAll My FriendsFace-Off

Activity Descriptions/Contact

InformationTo obtain a copy of the activities:Go to Greenhandouts@gmail.com (as if it was your own account) password: greenhand forward the message to yourself.Contact me at r-rutschman@neiu.edu and request a copy or other request.

BibliographyAdventure Education/Therapy:Cavert, Chris & Steven Simpson (2010). The Chiji Guidebook.Wood ‘n’ Barnes Publishing, Bethany, OK.Cavert, Chris & L. Frank (1999). Games for Teachers. Wood ‘n’ Barnes Publishing, Bethany, OK.Frank, Laurie (2004). Journey Toward the Caring Classroom. Wood ‘n’ Barnes Publishing, Bethany, OK.Frank, L. .Carlin & J. Christ (2008). Leading Together. Wood ‘n’ Barnes Publishing, Bethany, OK.Lung, Maurie, Gary Stauffer and Tony Alvarez (2008). The Power of One (Adventure with one on one counseling). Wood ‘n’ Barnes Publishing, Bethany, OK.Gass, Michael (1993). Adventure Therapy. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, IO.Rohnke, Karl & Steve Butler (1995). Quicksilver: Adventure Games, Initiative Problems, Trust Activities. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, IO. Rohnke, (1989)Cowstails & Cobras II. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, IO.

BibliographyBrain-Mind/Neuroscience:Amen, Daniel (1998). Change Your Brain Change Your Life; Three Rivers Press: NY.Boleyn-Fitzgerald, Miriam (2010). Pictures of the Mind: What the new Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are; Pearson Education: NJ.Caine, Geoggrey and Renate N. Caine (2001). The Brain, Education, and the Competitive Edge; Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland.Caine, Renate N. and G. Caine, C. McClintic and K. Klimek (2009). 12 Brain/Mind Learning Principles in Action: Developing Executive Functions of the Human Brain; Corwin Press: Thousand Oaks, CA.Cozolino, Louis (2010). The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Healing the Social Brain; Norton: NY.Handson, Rick (2009). Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of happiness, love and Wisdom; New Harbinger Publications: Oakland, CA.

Bibliography

Jensen, Eric (19998). Teaching with the Brain in Mind, ASCD, Alexandria, VA.Horstman, Judith (2009). The Scientific American Day in the Life of Your Brain: A 24 Hour Journal of What’s Happening in Your Brain; Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.Pink, Daniel (2006). A Whole New Mind; Riverhead Books: NY.Restak, Richard (2006). The Naked Brain: How the Emerging Neuroscience is Changing How We Live, Work and Love; Three Rivers Press: NY.Schwartz, Jeffery and Sharon Begley (2003). The Mind & The Brain: Neoplasticity and the Power of Mental Force; HarperCollins: NY.Seigel, Daniel (2012). The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are (2nd Ed); Guilford Press: NY.Seigel, Daniel (2011). Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation; Bantom Books: NY.Strauch, Barbara (2003). The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries About the Teenage Brain Tell Us about Our Kids; Anchor Books: NY.