Description:

This presentation will explore the utilization of brief experiential activities in helping clients to access and enhance their naturally occurring resources. Experiential activities help to increase client engagement and participation in therapy as well as connect them to aspect of self that are resourceful. In this session, participants will learn the philosophy behind utilizing in-session experiential activities and how these relate to bringing forth existing client resources. During the presentation, the presenter will explain the purpose of experiential activities and then will conduct a live demonstration of various experiential activities to help demonstrate the process of experiential techniques as well as the usefulness for clients.

Experiential activities can be used in any model and can be used as a means of integrating models. The presenter has engaged in developing various experiential techniques, which will be presented. By the end of the presentation, participants will have gained the philosophical underpinnings of using experiential activities as well as the fundamentals of several experiential techniques that have proven useful for the presenter in his work with supervisees, individuals, couples, and families.

Educational Objectives:

1. List three reasons that experiential activities are useful for marriage and family therapists.
2. Describe how experiential activities can help clients to access existing resources.
3. List one or more experiential activities one could utilize with clients.

*Sessions may be edited for content and to preserve confidentiality*