GROUP SESSION

Anamnesis*

• Client’s history.
• To be done before first session for ±30 minutes.
  • Presence of a caregiver during first anamnesis is required.
  • For accurate treatment plans and follow up’s, therapist may continue to request the presence of caregivers.

Introduction

• Children sit in circle, share names and how they feel.
• Children stand or sit (depending on physical capacities) each one introduces their name expressed with movement.
• Warm-up: body parts upper/lower, use of imagery such as, ‘lean your head to the side as if someone will kiss your cheeks’.
• Stretching: arms, torso, legs and hip joints.
• Breathing techniques: towards a sense of well-being.
• Grounding: physical consciousness of lower body part such as bending legs, touch knees, bend forward with arms and circling around with knees bended, bending and stretching legs, stamping feet on floor, etc. This provides physical self-awareness and a sense of being ‘here’ and ‘now’.
• Use of props: balls, colorful clothes, handkerchief’s, bamboo sticks, ropes, bean bags, etc.
• Body Scanning: visualization of the body guided verbally by the therapist. If client here allows self-touch or hands-on might be introduced.
• Self-awareness: therapist guides client with imagery work, storytelling, fantasy travels for children (i.e. Progressive Muscle Relaxation by Jacobson).
• Use of music: supports client to connect rhythmically to sound and own physical and emotional expression.

Session development**

• Partnering: children work in pairs, here touch might be introduced (i.e. walking hands in hands, supporting partners weight, etc.). This work provides trust (other and myself) and social integration.
• Mirroring interventions i.e. clients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
• Spatial awareness:
  • Using the circle or two lines facing each other: children cross the space in movement keeping the gaze of their partner: this supports children’s interaction, social interaction, spatial awareness.
  • Moving freely in space, in pairs, hands in hands or in small groups using e.g. waltz rhythm.
  • Moving in space: tapping at one’s shoulders and greeting each other, use of gaze, acquaintance of one self and the other, self-confidence, social integration and trust.
• Circle dances: might be introduced depending on children ages and specific cases. It reinforces focusing, concentration, group trust, social integration, camaraderie.
• Creativity and imagery: children are engaged to work with materials such as big pieces of cloth with which they create own stories and fantasy figures such as the knight, the princess, dragon ball, animals. This can be done in pairs or solo.
• Music and improvisation: changing rhythms, allowing children to improvise with their own movement, introducing themes that lead them to create short movement improvisations. This allows children to develop their own physical and emotional expression.

Closure

• Back to breathing, lower down the high emotional state and physical effort towards a more neutral state. Stretching, body parts, lower and upper, arms, torso and legs with a slower rhythm,
• Feedback: each participant tells how they feel during session.