January 10, 2000                                "D" day:  43 minute periods.

Objectives:

• To gain skills in shifting one's perception of another event, a person, or even one's self, toward a more positive perspective by practicing "Alternative Interpretations."

• To gain skills relaying important emotional information to another person effectively by practicing "I" Messages.

• Review some techniques for building rapport with a client by quickly reading through a short dialogue.

Anticipatory Set:

• Perform A/B sharing for 30 seconds each on the subject of any problems you may be having with your project.

Learning Activity:

• Next, ask students to turn to a new page in their project notebooks and focus towards the overhead.  Display the page Alternative Interpretations and go through it with the class.  This should only take a few minutes.  This technique is taken from the book Handbook of Cognitive Therapy Techniques.
• Now, ask the students to practice the technique by completing the answers from the Alternative Interpretations Exercise sheet.  This activity should be given 9 minutes.

Learning Activity:

• Now, ask students to take a 1 minute break and then refocus towards the front, also request the aid of two volunteers.  While the students are breaking, present the two volunteers with the short dialogue featuring the techniques of dissociation, Neuro-linguistic programming, and rapport building.  Sections of this dialogue are taken from The First Session in Brief Therapy (pages 14-22).

Learning Activity:

• Last, students are to find partner to practice "I" Messaging with other people.  Project the overhead entitled "I" Messages.