Facilitator Reproducible Guided Self-Exploration Activities
Human beings are social by nature and need human interaction and connectedness. When people experience adequate levels of human interaction and connectedness, they feel a sense of satisfaction. On the other hand, when people are experiencing inadequate levels of interaction and connectedness, they feel lonely – something’s missing.
In our society filled with people who communicate primarily with a wide variety of technology, face-to-face social interaction has become less common, feelings of connectedness are rare, and people are lonelier than ever before. Technology can provide a false sense of being connected twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This feeling of virtual connection, however, may be deceiving, and people benefit with social face-to-face connections with other people.
Negative feelings of loneliness can lead to a variety of other health-related concerns and stress-related conditions including heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. In addition, is often related to addiction, various forms of anti-social behavior, disrupted sleep patterns and various mental-health conditions. People experiencing long-term (chronic) form of loneliness are more susceptible to experiencing these wider effects of loneliness. If your participants are experiencing any of these effects, suggest they see a medical professional.
In order to deal successfully with all of the types of loneliness, people must find creative ways of coping. The Coping with Loneliness Workbook provides assessments and self-guided activities to help participants learn useful skills for coping creatively with the various types of loneliness. Many choices of self-exploration activities are provided for participants to determine which best suit their unique needs.
The four chapters include:
- Level of Loneliness
- Personal Characteristics
- Coping with Loneliness
- Alone Time
This workbook is also available in PDF eBook format, making it simple to store on your computer or mobile device, and to access with a PDF viewer. The PDF format also allows you to easily print copies of the activities and worksheets during therapy and counseling sessions.
Coping with Loneliness Card Deck
Need a creative way to start your session? Use the Coping with Loneliness Card Deck. The open-ended questions will break the ice and stimulate conversation. Use them alone or in conjunction with the corresponding page in the book.
Sample Questions:
Loneliness can be emotionally painful. What emotions do you feel when you are lonely?
People experiencing loneliness often need to get out and meet people, but are afraid to do so. What are your fears about meeting new people?
When you are alone, in what ways do you find it beneficial, or not? Do you find alone time helpful for relaxing, thinking, enjoying your time with others more, or learning self-reliance?
