OT 532: Co-Facilitation of a Group Session (Using Your Time Wisely)

For the first group co-facilitation, Cameron, Gracie, and I lead a group targeting professionalism, specifically dealing with time management skills.

Introduction: We started out with an icebreaker activity where the group members had to line themselves up from youngest to oldest, without talking. Then we had the group members identify things they do that they consider wasting time, as well as a strategy that they currently use to manage their time wisely.

Activity: Next, we gave the group members $86,400 in "pretend money" that represented the number of seconds in the day, which translated to how much time they spent

Sharing: Each of the group members shared what they could "buy" with their money, such as paying off loans, putting a down payment on a house, or buying a car.

Processing: This translated into how the group members spent their time, and lead to a discussion of what they learned from the activity, and what they learned about how another person spent their money.

Generalizing: The co-facilitators listed specific examples of how time management skills are important to have as OT students, and asked group members to give their own examples.

Application: Lastly, the group identified how they could apply the knowledge they learned from the group into their daily lives.

Summary: Thanking the group members for attendance and participation, and closing of the group session.

For me, the most important thing that I learned after helping to facilitate the group session was that I spend my time in very similar ways as my peers. Before leading this group, I thought I was the only person that spent way too much time watching Netflix, or perusing social media when I should be studying. This might be because I am so worried about myself and what other people think of me, that I don't tend to focus on what other people think of themselves. This is similar to how I view my level of productivity in general, because I feel like I am never doing enough, or that I could be doing more, and that everyone is so much more productive than I am. I learned that everyone struggles to be productive and manage their time in one way or another, and that I am not alone.

After helping co-lead this group and hear from my peers about the same struggles they have with managing time, I can better relate to my peers and realize that I am more similar to my peers than I previously thought. This makes me feel human, because no one is perfect, and we should give grace to every client we work with. Our clients are human too, and they may face many similar, or even radically different struggles than we do as practitioners. Moving forward, it is important to remove biases and judgment from the way we view our clients so we can see our clients through a clearer lens, and we can treat them the way the would like to be treated - just like everyone else.