Participants will be asked what OCD means for them and create a list of descriptive words. Using their list of words, participants will create a poem. In response to their OCD poem, participants will be asked to create an image using markers/crayons/colored pencils.
Middle schoolers will be asked to identify things/people/places/ideas that they value and would like to carry with them wherever they go. They will then create a turtle, incorporating these values into their shell represented through drawings, pictures, words, and designs with various art materials. Attendees will be encouraged to think about how much they can carry with them in their shell, if certain things can be left behind, whether or not these values will change with time, and what they discovered about themselves through this process.
Participants will be asked to think of a time in their life when they felt a sense of strength and empowerment. Participants will then be asked to embody what it had felt like and create a “pose” to share with the group. Participants will engage in a discussion around coping skills and create a list from ideas shared. Participants will then use this list to create 5x7 coping skills cards, which have a coping skill written on one side and images related to that skill on the opposite side.
As a group, participants will reflect on their experiences over the past few days while creating a large drawing together. Participants will find a partner to work with, with whom they will share something that they are struggling with. After sharing, partners will make each other a “compassion card” in regards to the struggles shared.