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    Why Do I Matter and Who Cares

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    Yungston
    This document provides an overview of an exercise for clients at risk of suicide called "Why Do I Matter and Who Cares?". The goals of the exercise are to accurately assess how important the client is to others, examine evidence that others care, and create a support plan. It involves having clients identify ways others have helped them, how they have helped others, who would say their life matters, creating a plan to help others, and identifying supports to approach when troubled. The therapist should process the exercise with the client to address feelings of worthlessness and social isolation.

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    Why Do I Matter and Who Cares

    Uploaded by

    Yungston
    360 views6 pages
    This document provides an overview of an exercise for clients at risk of suicide called "Why Do I Matter and Who Cares?". The goals of the exercise are to accurately assess how important the client is to others, examine evidence that others care, and create a support plan. It involves having clients identify ways others have helped them, how they have helped others, who would say their life matters, creating a plan to help others, and identifying supports to approach when troubled. The therapist should process the exercise with the client to address feelings of worthlessness and social isolation.

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    This document provides an overview of an exercise for clients at risk of suicide called "Why Do I Matter and Who Cares?". The goals of the exercise are to accurately assess how important the client is to others, examine evidence that others care, and create a support plan. It involves having clients identify ways others have helped them, how they have helped others, who would say their life matters, creating a plan to help others, and identifying supports to approach when troubled. The therapist should process the exercise with the client to address feelings of worthlessness and social isolation.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    360 views6 pages

    Why Do I Matter and Who Cares

    Uploaded by

    Yungston
    This document provides an overview of an exercise for clients at risk of suicide called "Why Do I Matter and Who Cares?". The goals of the exercise are to accurately assess how important the client is to others, examine evidence that others care, and create a support plan. It involves having clients identify ways others have helped them, how they have helped others, who would say their life matters, creating a plan to help others, and identifying supports to approach when troubled. The therapist should process the exercise with the client to address feelings of worthlessness and social isolation.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
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    The key takeaways are to help clients correct distorted perceptions of their self-worth by having them identify situations where others value them and care about them.

    The purpose of this exercise is to accurately assess how important the client is to others, examine evidence that others care, and create a plan to identify supportive others and reach out for their emotional support.

    The exercise involves reflecting on how others have helped the client, how the client has helped others, what others would say about how important the client's life is, asking others what abilities the client has to help others, and creating a plan to help others.

    Therapists Overview

    WHY DO I MATTER AND WHO CARES?

    GOALS OF THE EXERCISE


    1. Accurately assess the clients importance in other peoples lives. 2. Examine evidence in others behavior to identify caring and concern. 3. Create a plan to identify concerned others and reach out for their emotional support. 4. Resolve preoccupation with death, and eliminate addictive or suicidal thought/ behaviors.

    ADDITIONAL PROBLEMS FOR WHICH THIS EXERCISE MAY BE USEFUL


    Borderline Traits Depression

    SUGGESTIONS FOR PROCESSING THIS EXERCISE WITH CLIENT


    The Why Do I Matter and Who Cares? activity is aimed at clients at risk for suicidal gestures or attempts, and at others suffering from interpersonal isolation and feelings of worthlessness. It leads clients to correct distorted perceptions of their worth by having them survey situations in which they are valued. It includes an assessment of actions by others indicating that they care about the client, and creation of a safety plan the client will use to reach out for support. This exercise is suitable for individual or group use, in session or as homework. Follow-up can include keeping a journal and reporting to the therapist and group on outcomes of plans developed in this exercise, as well as bibliotherapy tapping the extensive literature on depression, and videotherapy using films like Ordinary People recommended in the book Rent Two Films and Lets Talk in the Morning, by John W. Hesley and Jan G. Hesley, also published by John Wiley & Sons.

    EXERCISE XLI.B

    WHY DO I MATTER AND WHO CARES?

    When we are experiencing depression, we often feel worthless. We may become convinced that our lives dont matter and no one understands or cares how we feel, or even that others would be better off without us. These feelings and perceptions are normal in depression, but they arent accurate, and they can be dangerous. This exercise will help you get a true picture of whether your life matters and others truly care about you, and create a plan to form stronger connections with people to whom you are important and get their emotional support. 1. First, think of things that others have done for you that have been helpful and important in your life. These others may have been family members, friends, teachers, faith leaders, employers, team coaches, or anyone else who has really helped you along the way. Please give three examples, describing who they were, what they did for you, and why it mattered.

    2.

    Now reflect on whether youve done similar things for others. Name three people whose lives youve touched in a good way, and describe what you did.

    EXERCISE XLI.B

    3.

    What do you think these people would say if someone asked them whether your life is important to them?

    4.

    Ask three other people (friends or family members) the following question, and record their responses here: If I were going to do something to help other people, what are some abilities I have or things I could do that would be helpful, and who could I help?

    5.

    Please use this space to create a simple plan to start doing one thing for other people during the next two weeks, either based on a suggestion in response to question 4 or to another idea.

    6.

    What people do you believe, at this moment, really understand and care about your feelings?

    7.

    Please think of someone you see in meetings, or in your faith community, or in another setting who seems to have a lot of life experiences like your own and is a wise and gentle person. Its best to choose a person, like a program sponsor, for whom you feel respect but no romantic attraction. Your task during the next week is to approach this person and tell him/her that you would like to talk and get some feedback on issues youre working on. Set a time and place when you can talk for at least an hour without interruptions. When you talk, tell this person about whats

    EXERCISE XLI.B

    happening in your life and how you feel about it, and ask whether he/she has ever felt the same way. After you do this, please record the other persons responses, and how you felt after the conversation, in this space.

    8.

    The last part of this assignment is to create a plan to reach out for emotional support when you need it, as we all do sometimes. Please list five people you can talk to if you are feeling troubled, confused, or discouraged, and write about how you will approach each of them, in advance, to ask for this support. Name How I Will Ask for Support

    Be sure to bring this handout back to your next therapy session, and be prepared to talk about your thoughts and feelings about the exercise.

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