ABSTRACT

This exercise develops skills in thinking about choices, and clarifies for each individual life situations where he or she can make choices and life situations where choices are made for him or her. It develops feelings of self-control and personal power, and teaches the process of brainstorming. The exercise changed by asking each group member to talk about what happens after he/she makes a choice. It can be a frustrating exercise for those persons who tend to utilize only a very limited repertoire of behaviors and who do not want those behaviors challenged. Children and adolescents often see themselves as having very limited choices, or perhaps as having no choices at all. Also, many children and adolescents have not been taught how to make choices, or how to use the process of "brainstorming" to increase their awareness of the choices available to them.