Читать книгу The Creative Arts in Counseling - Samuel Gladding T., Samuel T. Gladding - Страница 95

When individuals enter a group, they often feel a great deal of tension. The other people are strangers, and everyone sometimes feels ill at ease about what to say or do. It is crucial that people feel relaxed in the group, and that the group provide a structure that is supportive, safe, and predictable, if members of the group and the group as a whole are going to function well (Gladding, 2020; Sandel & Johnson, 1996). In these situations some creative movement can help alleviate tension, break down barriers, and energize the group as a whole.

One way of promoting the formation of a group is train station, which comes from Playfair (https://www.playfair.com/), an organization dedicated to putting fun back into the workplace. In a train station, the group is divided in two. Half of the group is designated to be greeters and the other half passengers. The group is then given the following instructions: Each greeter has just received a phone call from a best friend from early childhood. It has now been a number of years since they have seen each other, but the former best friend is to arrive in a few hours at the train station in the city where the greeter now lives. After agreeing to meet the friend, the greeter is so excited that the greeter hangs up the phone without thinking to ask what the person who called looks like. Lacking this information, the greeter goes to the train station at the designated hour and decides that the best strategy to use in this situation is to move slowly but with enthusiasm toward the group of passengers now arriving. With arms waving, the greeters as a group move in slow motion as if running though a field of wheat toward the passengers, who all display similar behaviors. As each greeter gets to a passenger, looks are exchanged but then both realize the person they are exchanging glances with is not the right person; both then look away and toward another person in the immediate area, who also turns out not to be the right person. This activity continues until all greeters and passengers have passed each other, after which participants are given a chance to voice how they experienced the exercise. They are then informed by the leader of the group that nothing they ever do in the group will be as embarrassing . . . or perhaps as much fun.