Over and over—probably because I have a friend who once told me “Redundancy works!”—I told my group class that ending groups is about “learning consolidation.” In other words, we want group members to learn something from group. At the end of each session, and especially during the final session, we want to facilitate experiences that will help group members take their key learning beyond group, and into their lives.
Because role-modeling is a central part of being a group leader, to close our group class, I gave my students a learning consolidation assignment. Although we had been in a group (of 34) together all semester, the “final paper” was, idiographic (like Adlerian theory); students got to do their final paper in their own way. I mentioned poetry as an option, and then told the story of my own risky graduate school strategy of responding to my Advanced Learning professor’s weekly homework prompts with limericks. Turned out, my professor loved the limericks, shared them with his wife who was a writer-aficionado, and I got an “A” in Advanced Learning, while polishing my limerick skills.
Several students took me seriously and sent me fun and creative final papers. But the very last paper I read, by Astrid Santana, was BEYOND MY WILDEST DREAMS! She incorporated Haiku, knock-knock jokes, and a few limericks into her reflections on our group counseling course. I was gobsmacked, and I think you will be too. Happily, I’m here to report that I have her permission to share the paper.
Because WordPress has some difficulty in handling Haiku, I’m excerpting a sampling of Astrid’s work: First, some Haiku; second, a knock-knock joke; third, a limerick. Thanks Astrid!!
Her whole paper is available in a pdf at the bottom of this post.
My Attempt at Brevity:
Reflections on My Reflections
By Astrid Santana
Universality
Even if it sinks,
we’re in this boat together.
I’m grateful for that.
Development of Socializing Techniques
Finally realizing
I was the asshole, and not
everybody else.
Imitative Behavior
They’re so curious,
insightful, calm, and funny.
Could I do this, too?
Phases of Group Therapy
Forming
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Hugo.
Hugo who?
Hugo first. I feel uncomfortable sitting in this circle and I don’t know if I want to be here
anymore.
*********************************
Yalom says it’s futile to resist
Visible pathology will always persist
John says our strengths do that, too
And that might be a clue
For helping the snakes in one’s head to desist.
And here’s Astrid’s whole glorious paper:
John Sommers-Flanagan 