Last night was the group screening process for the crisis intervention training program that I recently joined.
Our facilitators explained that the screening process would begin run from 7pm-10pm and would consist of several group activities designed to guage how we interacted with others in a group setting.
First up was an exercise they called “Power Word Circle”. We arranged the group into two circles, one inside the other. The inner circle facing out, and the outer circle facing in, so that each member of the outer circle was paired with a member of the inner circle. We were told to sit facing each other and to relax. The facilitator said that the group would be given a single word and one member of each pair had to explore their feelings about that word for 3 minutes. During that time, the other member of the pair could not respond verbally to anything the other person said. At the end of the three minutes, the other member of the paid got their turn to talk for three minutes.
I was paired with one of the older guys. The word was “friend.” He talked first, and was very articulate in his feelings. I went next and talked about the nature of friendship, blah blah.
When our time was up, the facilitator made the outer circle get up and move one chair to the right, such that everyone now had a new partner for the next word. This time, I got the OTHER older guy. The word was “mother.” Same thing again, talk for 3 minutes each, move chairs. My next partner was an ~21 year old girl and our word was “anger.” Swap partners.
Next was a ~18 year old girl and our word was “masturbation.” I kid you not. I had to go first. It was pretty awkward at first, but as I started talking and observing her body language, I picked up on the fact that she was completely comfortable talking about this and would have been responding verbally if it hadn’t been against the rules. I talked about how masturbation was a cultural taboo yet a necessary part of life, how it was stigmatized by some parents to the detriment of their children’s sexual health, how most everyone does it yet not many people are comfortable talking about it, yada yada. When it was her turn to talk she was very open and frank about her feelings and didn’t seem at all embarrassed by the fact that I was a guy and at least 10 years older than her.
Swap partners. My next partner was a ~21 year old guy and our word was “suicide.” We both talked about how suicide had touched our lives and why we wanted to volunteer for the crisis intervention program. It was interesting to talk so frankly about something that is usually very hard to talk about. We seemed to have similar goals and reasons for joining the program. He was quite articulate and smart for being so young.
That was the last word of the power word circle exercise. One of the facilitators brought in a bunch of throw pillows and told us to scatter around the room and get as comfortable as possible because we were going to do a relaxation exercise. They dimmed the lights and did a 10 minute hypnosis/deep breathing tension release exercise which actually helped quite a bit. I was impressed. After that, we broke for 15 minutes.
I grabbed a coke and mingled. The “masturbation” girl and I (omg, I can’t believe I’m calling her the “masturbation” girl…) shared a quick glance and smile as if to say, “wow…did we really just spend 6 minutes talking about masturbation with each other? How random is that?” She said something like “Thanks for making that easy.”
After returning from the break, we talked about what we learned from the power word circle and how it related to crisis intervention counseling. About how being quiet and listening is an important skill to have and about how we felt talking about some potentially difficult topics with strangers.
After the debrief was over, we split into two groups for the second group exercise.. one group went to another room, my group stayed put. We did the Alligator River Story, which his an exercise in situational ethics. I had seen this before in grad school and it is mentioned on their website as part of the screening process, so it wasn’t a surprise. We did the exercise, ranked the relative moral culpability of each person and discussed our ranking as a group.
The other group returned and they broke us into groups of 4. We were then given more information about the characters in the story and the reasons for their actions and asked to come to a group consensus about how to re-rank their actions.
Once we were done, we broke back into one large group in a circle and talked about what we learned from the story, the consensus building, etc. About how it was important to not assume that your relative morality was the same as others, etc.
The facilitators explained that the next step in the process was an official invitation to join training which would come tomorrow. They collected our phone numbers and preferred times for them to call, and thanked us for our time. I’m expecting a call with the bad news in the next 4 hours or so.
In reflection, I was probably far too assertive and free to offer my opinions in both exercises. If I was the screener, I probably wouldn’t offer me a place in the training due to the fact that I’m a problem solver and tend to offer advice/opinions, which is kinda frowned upon in crisis intervention. Several times I caught myself being more assertive than I should have been, taking leadership roles where I should have been more passive, etc. I dunno… maybe my personality type just isn’t cut out for this.
I hope I am accepted officially, but I’m not holding my breath. I’ll know for sure in the next few hours.