Post-group Facilitation Reflection #2

I facilitated my group session on the topic “leisure exploration” yesterday.  As a whole, I feel like the session and activity took longer than expected, but I think that the members in my group enjoyed it.  Kiera even took a picture of her vision board and posted it on her social media!  I was much more calm and relaxed this time despite leading the session alone. This is a huge improvement because I usually am so nervous and mess up my words. It also made me feel good when Professor Sasse told me that this was a great activity and that making collages is a good idea for group sessions.

 I began the session by stating the purpose of the session and introducing myself. I made sure to outline the whole session and tell all of the members what would be occurring in the session before we began. I bought magazines in advance, and I set up all of the materials in advance. I adapted a leisure inventory checklist and printed these in advance for the group as well.  After outlining the session, my group participated in a warm-up activity.  Next, we completed leisure inventory checklists, shared some information about them, and then completed the main activity. Members shared their vision boards, and we had a quick discussion.

I think the most important part of my activity was the application portion.  I tried to make this activity relevant to the member’s current life but also wanted to make it useful to their practice as OTs in the future. After sharing all of the vision boards, I asked members how they would encourage leisure or adapt leisure activities for their clients in the future. My group members came up with some good ideas of leisure activities that can be adaptable such as gardening, cooking, and walking. I wish that we had more time in my group session to examine the similarities and differences between the group members and explore more activities that can be adapted. 

To improve this group session, time management could have been monitored more closely. The activity took way longer for some members than for others, so I needed to come up with something for the group members to do while waiting for everyone to finish. I really wish we had more time to have a longer discussion at the end, but it was important for members to share their vision boards.  Some of the strengths of the session were that I was prepared for the activity, and my members enjoyed it.  However, I feel like I could have made sure that members were more on task to get through the activity faster.

            Despite the time management issue,  I think my life skills group session went well.  One goal I had from the last group facilitation was that I clearly state the outline of the session upfront. I made sure that I did this, and I think that my public speaking improved. In the future, I will make sure that I use more time management skills and adapt the activity so that we can touch on all aspects of the activity without running out of time.