Therapeutic Activities for Youth

Ideas for therapeutic activities should come from the young person, rather than having an activity prescribed or mandated. Listen for his passions in conversation or ask what he loves to do. Ask about times she felt passionate about something or what she wants to do someday. Explain that you are looking for an activity that would have therapeutic benefit; he may have an idea, and being empowered to choose will provide additional therapeutic benefit. It's okay to suggest ideas, but do not force activities.

The Arts

• Artistic self-expression can offer a young person a voice for things he can't verbalize, and getting to express this voice will empower him to find out who he is. He may want to create visual art, such as drawings, paintings, sculpture, masks, digital art or collage. He may want to perform in a play, be a DJ, play an instrument or join a band. He may want to start a blog or a zine (a grass-roots, Xerox-copied magazine) or write journals or poems to perform at poetry slams. If he's unsure at first, provide ideas, prompts or assignments, but your job is to provide support and step out of the way.
  Respect his privacy if he doesn't want to share what he's created. If he does share, avoid judging his ideas. Artistic expression is healthy, so long as the young person is voicing what is true for himself. Even if you don't like what he expresses, do not ask him to stop or to express something else.

Home and Backyard Arts

• The young person may feel inspired to create something around the house---a meal for dinner, a deck for the backyard, a repaired clock, computer or car engine. She may want to take up gardening or designing and sewing her own clothes. These activities have as much therapeutic value as the fine arts, plus the benefit of letting her see how she can contribute to herself and others.

Exercise

• Exercise improves mood and relieves depression. Playing a sport also teaches discipline and provides young people the chance to set goals and achieve measurable results. The youth in question may choose to participate in individual sports such as tennis, karate, skateboarding, yoga, swimming, weightlifting or track or team sports such as basketball, football, baseball, volleyball, soccer, hockey or lacrosse. Both types have therapeutic value. Group sports provide the extra benefit of learning about friendship and teamwork.

Community Involvement

• There are many organizations youth may be interested in participating in: a club at school, a church youth group, or a social cause such as an environmental group, Bikes not Bombs, Amnesty International or a political organization. He may want to get involved on the local level, such as by organizing a neighborhood recycling program or activities at a skate park. If you hear him complain about the way something in the world is, ask what he could do about it. He may not have an immediate answer, but asking the question offers him access to seeing that despair is always an oppurtunity to being a contribution to the world.

Group Therapies

• Some therapeutic activities for groups include going on a hike or doing a ropes course; hosting a sweat lodge; creating a mural; creating costumes for and performing a play; hosting a poetry slam; writing letters to improve a relationship and reading the letters out loud to the group; having group members create time lines with marks to represent significant events in their lives; creating a website, chat room, or blog to support each other or celebrate something everyone believes in; creating a journal or anthology of group members' writing published by a copy shop or an online print-on-demand publisher; or nature writing.

  Instead of telling the group what to do, listen to their conversations for ideas you could suggest or ask what activities they would like to take part in. Rather than prescribing an activity without the group's willingness or understanding of its value, provide the space for them come up with something on their own. You could offer a guideline or stipulation, such as that the activity be for the good of the group or the community. Let the group vote to ensure everyone is willing and give those not willing the chance to be heard. Wait to go forward until everyone who voted against the idea grants consent for the group to move forward---the plan may need to be altered or a compromise agreed upon first.