I have spent many years working with groups in a therapeutic setting and the last 17 years have been mostly psycho-educational. The manner that I facilitate groups in this process starts with a lot of direction (ed), as the clients/patients open to sharing so do the boundaries (meaning less direction). Below is an image of a handout I have used. One day a client mentioned that how others see him is totally different than how he sees himself. So, I added another part (asking folks to write on the back of the page): “how do you think others see you positively/negatively.
At the end of groups, I often ask what was it like doing this activity (useful, annoying, stupid, ect). Folks nearly always reported for this handout that it was useful. The addition of how others see us opened a whole new conversation about the perceptions of others.
CreativeTherapyTools 