Active Interventions for Kids and Teens: Adding Adventures and Fun to Counseling

by Jeffrey S. Ashby

This engaging guide contains 50 action-oriented activities that can be used time and time again in groups with children, adolescents, and adults. Combining fun with proven adventure therapy strategies, the activities are designed to stimulate learning, promote social and emotional development and insight, cultivate strategic skills, foster change, and encourage teamwork. For quick and easy use, each activity lists age range, game rules, goals and objectives, materials required, modification suggestions, and post-activity processing and discussion questions. Additionally, helpful matrixes organize the activities by type, goals, objectives, and grade levels to help group leaders find the right activity at the right time, whether in school or mental health settings.

The authors also include 'how to' chapters with lots of practical suggestions for leading the activities in ways that are safe, enjoyable, and facilitative of the therapeutic goals; provide a rationale for using games and adventure therapy; discuss developmental considerations in treatment planning with children and teens; and offer their suggestions on how best to process and adapt the activities for maximum results.

224 pages, Spiral-bound

First published March 31, 2008

Reviews

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of creative activities for groups of kids, with a terrific foundational section about the art of leading therapeutic groups for kids and teens. The suggested processing questions alone give you a great foundation for group conversations. As a beginning therapist, I found this book invaluable for "getting my head in the game" in a way that none of my grad school classes could match. I will definitely be referring to this book in future years.
Most of these games do require a degree of self-regulation so you have to pick through them to find activities appropriate for kids with emotional disturbances.