Support Group Curriculum: 8 Weeks

Materials:
A notebook or journal for each member.
An individual bag, box or envelope for each group member.
Pencils and pens.

Session 1: Getting Started

Goals of the session: To begin the creation of a safe and healthy group environment and familiarize
participants with the group process and content.

1. Check-In:
a. Review “Hopes and Fears” via the Hopes and Fears Activity; Collectively discuss ground
rules and group expectations; review the flow of each meeting; Preview the topics that
will be covered during the 12 weeks but also open the floor to possible topics (this will be
done anonymously via notecards); Discuss the storing of materials (take home, at
Stepping Stone, etc.).
i. The Hopes and Fears activity will be a vision board that we keep and refer to at
the end to see how the participants have changed and how they have been able
to challenge their fears. We will also add on new hopes on the last session day
as a holistic way to discuss change, the future and healthy steps to take in
healing.
ii. Hopes and Fears Activity:
1. Ask participants to think about their hopes and fears for the group. What
would they like to accomplish? What, if anything, makes them anxious or
scared about being in the group? Be sure to tell participants that their
answers will be anonymous.
2. Have each participant write one hope and one fear on separate pieces of
paper. Participants should not write their names on the papers.
3. Once all of the papers have been deposited in the appropriate
containers, pass them around the room and have each participant read a
slip of paper from each container out loud.
4. After all of the papers have been read, give group members a few
minutes to discuss any observations or feelings about what was shared.
Use this discussion as an opportunity to introduce the importance of
group ground rules.

2. Learning and Discussion: The Healing Journey Discussion

a. Discuss how each person’s sexual abuse/assault is different which means each person’s
healing journey will be unique.
b. Explain that the group’s healing journey will not be linear and will vary. Even though we
are all having conversations together, the viewpoints will be coming from different stages
of healing.
c. Help the group understand why giving “advice” is not always helpful in the healing
process. They should share thoughts and experiences, but not helpful directives on how
other people should feel or cope. It can create shame around healing, someone’s
 experience or their desire to share. Speak to how listening is the key to support and
group success.
d. Talk to the group about “triggers” and normalize the reactions that participants might have
during some of our conversations. Let the group know what they can do if they feel
triggered and how they might respond/have other members respond to them if those
feelings arise.

3. Self-Care: Finding Inspiration

a. Have participants use the journal that each member received to brainstorm healthy
self-care ideas and/or things that inspire them. Ask them to draw or write out how they
plan to integrate these self-care practices or be inspired by their list during the week.
b. Some type of self-care “gift” to send home with them of some sort. Nail polish, nail file,
etc. or mini bottles of body lotion?
4. Check-Out:
a. Ask anyone if they would like to share their entries as a way for someone else to find
encouragement or inspiration.

Session 2: Messages from Media and Society

Goals of the Session: To address how the way our culture speaks about sexual violence affects the
participants and how we can combat that harmful messaging.

1. Check-In:
a. Have the participants do a general check-in about how they have been coping
and engaging in healthy behaviors since the last session.
b. Activity: Have the participants journal about the things that they see on social
media/hear about in music or radio/see on television that makes them feel
confident as women. Have them also journal about things that make them
uncomfortable or less-confident and who is posting those posts.

2. Learning and Discussion:

a. Show some examples of the messaging from film, television, music, and social
media that glamorize: sexually coercive acts, promote victim blaming and sexual
myths, conflate sex with violence, or show oversexualized images of teens and
women. Discuss how these could affect girls as they grow up.
b. Discuss how they promote negative ideas about sex and what they mean for
survivors. Then show positive sexual encounters, normalized consensual
behaviors and gender positivity in media culture. Open up the floor to a
discussion about how these images make participants feel and how images like
those could create positive change for women and survivors.
c. Also talk about what it means for participants to consume these images and how
to cope with media portrayal around sexual violence.

3. Self-Care Activity: Guide the participants through a journal activity where they describe
the type of female characters/role-models they would like to see depicted in the media.
Then have them identify the traits that they listed that are similar to their own traits,
whether fully actualized or something that they have been working on since they started
 in the group. Have them share how they are actually more similar to the role-models they
journaled about than they previously realized.

4. Check-Out: What was the one realization that you had from today’s session? What is
something that you might speak up about more, in terms of survivors and the media?
How can you use media in a way where you are not exposed to as many uncomfortable
posts, or things that make you feel less-confident? (unfollowing, filtering, changing the
things you “like”, cleanse from certain aspects of media that might be affecting you poorly,
stop doing things with media that make you feel less about yourself)

Session 3: Healthy Coping Strategies

Goal of the Session: To help teens learn to identify stressors and increase their healthy coping skills.

1. Check-In: When you are really upset, what is one thing that you do that helps you calm
down?
a. Check-In Activity: The Stress Ladder
i. Stress Ladder Activity:
1. Have participants write things that are stressful on post-its, one
item on each piece of paper. Ask them to think of a range of
stressful things, from slightly bothersome (running out of
toothpaste) to incredibly stressful (being in a serious car
accident).
2. Ask them to put the post-it notes on or near the appropriate rung
on the ladder, depending on how stressful the item seems to
them.
3. Read through the post-it notes from bottom to top.
4. Ask the participants if the items seem to be in the order they
would put them for themselves. If they feel that a certain item is
less or more stressful than where it is placed on the ladder,
remind them that how stressful something might be depends on
the individual and the circumstances, and there is no right or
wrong. For example, running out of toothpaste might be really
stressful if you were on your way to a job interview or a big date.

2. Learning and Discussion: Normalize and discuss stress and anxiety, i.e. physical and
mental effects, lack of support, different types of stress, etc. and the importance of
healthy coping skills.
a. Ask the group for examples of unhealthy coping skills (use the pre-screeners to
identify previous self-harm by a participant) and write them up on the white
board. Leave space between the items.
i. Be sure to include:
1. Alcohol and Drug Abuse
2. Lashing out
3. Self-harm behaviors
4. Avoidance
5. Compulsive behavior
6. Sleeping a lot/Isolating
 7. Binge eating
8. Excessive risk-taking
b. Have the group describe the purposes of these behaviors, i.e. reduce anxiety,
makes you feel safer at the time, etc.
c. Have participants work in pairs and write one positive and negative effect of the
behaviors. Let the participants know that even unhealthy coping behaviors serve
a purpose, that they are in fact survival skills that many people fall into. And that
there is no shame in discussing and getting help for these behaviors.
d. Have the participants identify (to themselves ONLY) or write in their journal about
these negative coping mechanisms and have them reflect on the following
questions:
i. How did this behavior get me through my trauma or its aftermath?
ii. What problems has the behavior caused for me or could cause for me
later?
e. Remind the participants that what makes healthy coping mechanisms important
is that they allow you to do the same thing as the negative, i.e. reduce anxiety,
feel safer, get your feelings out, etc., but without the negative aftereffects.
f. An exercise where they write in their journal, “Instead of doing ________
(negative coping mechanism), I will do _______ (positive coping mechanism).
Help them realize they can easily put something beneficial for them in place of
the negative one. Then they will have something else to do instead of running
back to the negative coping mechanism. (Does not have to be shared, can be
kept to themselves unless they would like to share)
g. Use COPE as a tool to discuss positive and healthy coping mechanisms that
replace the negative mechanisms the participants identified earlier. Hand out
fun-sized cards with the COPE plan on it so that participants can stick it
somewhere as a reminder!
i. COPE Plan for Teens:
1. C = Calm
a. Health habits
b. Exercise
c. Nature
d. Meditation
e. Breathing
2. O = Open
a. Safe adult(s)
b. Assertiveness skills
c. Self-honesty
d. Support group
3. P = Playful
a. Fun activities
b. Sense of humor
c. Do what you love
d. Improve your mood
4. E = Encouraging
a. Positive friends
b. Self-encouragement
c. Encouraging adults
d. Encourage others
 3. Self-Care Activity: Ask participants to journal 4 unique plans with each one having at
least one action step.The plans include:
i. My plan for increasing calming activities
ii. My plan for increasing openness activities
iii. My plan for increasing playful activities
iv. My plan for increasing encouraging activities

4. Check-Out: Have participants share how they would like to use some of the strategies of
COPE.

Session 4: Guilt and Shame

Goal of session: Provide participants with tools to counteract shame and self-blame/guilt.

1. Check-In: What is one thing a friend, family member, or mentor has done for you that
really made your day?
a. Changed, But Still You activity:
i. Ask the participants to take a piece of paper and write their first names
on it in big, bold letters.
ii. Then ask them to wad up the paper into a ball and put the crumpled
paper under their chair.
iii. The activity will be concluded at the end of the session.

2. Learning and Discussion:

a. Give the group prompts about Kirsten and Keith, both survivors of sexual abuse,
and make it very clear that these are both fictional accounts.
b. Ask participants to identify some negative things people might say about both
Kirsten and Keith.
c. Ask participants whether or not they think the perceptions that they identified are
fair and accurate.
d. Discuss how reactions to these two people change based on their gender.
Explain what “stigma” is and how victims are often unfairly stigmatized as a result
of false perceptions. Help the group understand that some people only know
about or have heard about the falsehoods when growing their understanding of
sexual assault.
e. Facilitate a conversation on the possible consequences of that, including:
i. Fear of disclosure
ii. Unsupportive responses by support systems
iii. Victim Blaming
iv. Self-blame
v. Lack of accountability for abusers
vi. Secondary victimization

3. Self-Care Activity:
a. Three Good Things
i. Have participants write three positive things about themselves in their
journals. Have them be as specific as possible, i.e. rather than “I am a
 good person,” we mean “I take the time to listen carefully when a friend
comes to me with a problem.”
ii. Have the participants go around the room and share one of the positive
things they said about themselves.
iii. Give them a notecard and some markers and let them pick their favorite
one. They can write it on the notecard, decorate it, and carry it with
them/put it somewhere special as a reminder whenever they need it.
b. Changed, But Still You, Pt. 2:
i. Have participants retrieve their crumpled papers. Ask them to take some
time to unravel them, smooth them out and lay them flat.
ii. Give them markers and have them decorate their name until they are
happy with how the letters look.
iii. Ask the following questions when they are done:
1. Does your paper look the same as it did before it was crumpled?
2. Will you ever be able to get it to look the same?
3. Can you still read your name?
4. Do you like the way your name looks now with the decoration?
iv. Draw parallels to the process of unraveling the paper to their healing
journey and the experience of survivors. Let the group discuss this if they
have extra thoughts.

4. Check-Out: This session is about being your own best friend and being able to support
yourself and show yourself love. We talked about how friends and family can do things
that lift us and our spirits. What is one way that you can do that for yourself in the coming
week?

Session 5: Creating Boundaries

Goal of the Session: To help the participants understand what it means to identify and enforce boundaries
for their own safety and comfort.

1. Check-In: Group Share

a. Ask the group to share about a time when they stood up for someone else or
themselves. Why was this important? How did that action make you feel?
b. They can journal this and then share it with the group if they choose.
c. Activity: Silent Discovery
i. This activity allows participants to see how their boundaries can be
different from someone else’s and how important it is to communicate
about those limits.
1. Participants will stand in a line behind a piece of tape. There will
be other tape lines on the floor. Let them know that they are
standing at “VERY UNCOMFORTABLE/NO” on the scale and
that the last line is “VERY COMFORTABLE/YES.” The lines in
between represent increasing feelings of comfortability. Ask them
a series of questions, having them move to the lines that they
most identify with in terms of comfortability.
a. The questions include:
i. Is it okay for someone to read your journal?
 ii. How would you feel if someone came to your
house and started going through your dresser
drawers?
iii. Would you go up to a stranger and give them a
bear hug?
iv. Would you talk to your math teacher about
someone that you were interested in dating?
v. How would you feel if someone stood right up on
your back while you stood in line at the store?
vi. How would you feel about someone looking
through your text messages?
ii. Discuss how these questions made them feel and what they noticed
about how their boundaries changed with each new question.

2. Learning and Discussion: How Do Sexual Abuse and Assault Affect Survivors’
Boundaries?
a. Discuss how survivors may not trust themselves to set boundaries if they feel like
they complied with their abuser or their efforts to stop abuse had negative
consequences.
b. Ask the group why they think boundaries are important and what healthy vs.
unhealthy boundaries might look like. Address the following points here:
i. Boundaries help us with intentional decision making, especially in
uncomfortable and unexpected situations.
ii. Establishing our own boundaries helps us to be aware of other people’s
boundaries as well. Respecting other people’s wishes while honoring our
own is essential to the development of healthy relationships.
iii. Also, introduce the concept that boundary setting is not only needed in
interpersonal relationships but also in the online world that the
participants navigate.

3. Self-Care Activity:
a. The Boundary Board Activity:
i. Participants will draw a boundary map. Have each participant draw a
series of circles descending in size like a target sign.
ii. The smallest, most inner circle is for the individual participant and no one
else should be listed there. Ask participants to write in where they would
put people in their lives, based on how close the people are to them.
They should have at least 4 or 5 layers to their target diagram.
iii. They can name people as individuals like “Michelle” or “my dad” or can
choose to list groups of people “soccer team mates” or “teachers.”
b. After the silent portion of the activity, have the participants discuss how they
placed the people on their board and some ways that they could move someone
in their support system to a different “level.”
c. Ask questions such as:
i. Do you move people from one circle to another? Is that an easy or a hard
thing to do?
ii. Can you see the path some people took to get to the circle you keep
them in now? How did they end up where you put them?
 iii. If you don’t like where someone is now, do you feel like you could move
them to a different level?
d. Give big kudos to each participant's ideas on advocating for themselves and their
boundaries.

4. Check-Out: What is something that you discovered about yourself today? Journal with
the option to group share.

Session 6: Dating and Relationships

Goal of the session: To help participants identify the components of healthy and unhealthy relationships
and to reinforce each person’s right to sexual boundaries via consent.

1. Check-In: Share one thing that is important to you in a dating relationship, whether you
are currently in one or not/have ever been in one, etc.

2. Learning and Discussion:

a. Let the group know that when you are talking about sexual activity, there is a
range of discussion (i.e. not just intercourse). Acknowledge that everyone has
different experiences and feelings around sexual activity and each person is valid
in their experience.
b. Discuss some of the boundaries from the previous season in regard to sexual
activity. Open to conversation about respect in terms of boundaries leading to
greater respect in moments of physical intimacy.
c. Highlight the importance of open and consistent communication.
d. Ask participants what consent is. Discuss consent and why it is so critical in a
sexual relationship.
e. Have participants share if they ever feel uncomfortable asking for consent and
some of the awkwardness that teens experience in that conversation. Highlight
the reason why that communication is, again, so critical, ways it can be enjoyable
and how to have a consent conversation in ways that make people comfortable.
Use PBIV Bystander Intervention framework. ← Should we include this in the
outline? Could not find it in the curriculum papers

3. Self-Care Activity: Nutritional Label

a. Give each participant a blank nutritional label to write on. Have them complete
the label with the ingredients of a good relationship for them. This can be in a
future relationship, a current dating relationship, etc. Ask them to be thinking
about consent and boundaries as they complete this silent thought activity. This
should allow them space to think critically about their relationships in a positive,
healthy way with goals for a respectful future.

4. Check Out: What is one way you can practice (non-sexual) consent before the next
session? Ask participants to share.

Session 7: Trust and Building Support Systems

Goal of the session: To help participants identify individuals who can support them and provide positive
mentorship while planting the seed that participants can also offer support to others.

1. Check In
a. Name one person you admire (living or dead, celebrity or everyday person) and
the most important thing you admire about that person.
b. Activity: The Traveler
i. Set up a small obstacle course using simple objects. Make sure the
objects would not harm someone who trips over it. Have a starting line
and a finish line. Have a dark bandanna or scarf to be used as a
blindfold.
ii. Ask for a volunteer who is willing to be the Traveler, which involves being
blindfolded and led to the obstacle course by holding the Guide’s arm.
Ask for another group member to volunteer as the Guide.
iii. Blindfold the Traveler. Have the Guide offer an arm to the Traveler, and
slowly guide the Traveler to the obstacle course area starting line.
iv. Bring the group to the obstacle course area. Everyone but the Traveler
and the Guide should stand back and observe. Observers are not
allowed to talk during this exercise.
v. The Traveler stands at the starting line and the Guide stands nearby but
out of the way. The Guide does not touch the Traveler and the Traveler
lets go of the Guide’s arm. Using verbal instructions only, the Guide gives
directions to guide the Traveler through the obstacle course. Another
group member or the facilitator can stand by as a spotter in case the
Traveler trips, but this should not be mentioned to the Traveler in
advance.
vi. The Guide’s goal is to get the Traveler to the finish line without touching
or running into any obstacles.
vii. After the exercise, have the Traveler take off the blindfold, and have the
group sit down together to debrief the activity.
viii. Ask the Traveler what the experience was like; ask the Guide what it was
like’ and ask the group what it was like to observe.
ix. Discuss the challenges of each of the roles. For example, struggling with
concerns about vulnerability, trust, fear, anxiety, making mistakes, feeling
helpful, frustration in being an observer, etc.

2. Learning and Discussion: Open to group conversation.

a. Who are the supporters in your life?
b. How do you decide that they are good supports for you? Have them discuss
actions, words or positive interactions that have led them to feel that way about
their support systems.
c. What do you do when your support systems might let you down? Can you care
for someone and decide that you don’t want them in your support circle?
d. How do you think you can offer support and be that person for someone else? Do
you think that is something you’re ready for? Discuss being able to say no and
get someone the support they need outside of the participant if they say are not
ready.

3. Self-Care Activity: Comfort Containers

 a. Preparation: Purchase small jars and have slips of paper of different colors that
will later be placed within the jars.
b. Ask the participants to write down their support people on slips of people, even
people who are not present in their life every day. If the participants are
comfortable, they can also write comforting words to one another. All of these
slips, by the participant and from others, will be placed in each person’s jar.
Discuss that they can access these reminders of people who support them, love
them, actively listen to them and make them feel comfortable at times when they
might be feeling anxious or isolated.

4. Check Out: Ask people how the self-care activity made people feel about themselves or
their support systems. Ask how folks might be able to engage with their system if they
need support before the next meeting. Remind the participants about next week’s
session.

Session 8: Preparing for the Future/Closing

Goal of the Session: To provide an opportunity to review and celebrate progress, reinforce hope for the
future, and allow participants to say goodbye to one another.

1. Check In: Future Goal Setting

a. A Letter from Myself Activity
i. Using a pre-written list for participants, have each person select
stationary and write a letter to themselves 5 years in the future. It can
include: Where are you living? Who is in your life? What are you doing
(work, school, etc.)? How are your relationships? What gives you the
most satisfaction?
ii. If the participants say they can't write or don’t know how best to write
this, give them the option of making a drawing or putting words on the
page without sentences, like “Time with Family” or “Working as a
Mechanic.”
iii. Invite the participants to share anything that they have written once they
are finished. Make it clear that this is a challenge by choice and not a
“Group Share.”

2. Learning and Discussion:

a. Tell the group that what they just did with their letter writing was set long-term
goals. Sometimes, after trauma, people can have difficulty envisioning their
future. Address how, while they can’t control every moment of their life, they are
in control of their actions, feelings, responses, dreams and goals.
b. Ask the group if they have any examples of people (literary figures, celebrities,
historical figures, etc.) who have overcome hardships or trauma to lead powerful,
productive, happy lives.
c. Give the participants genuine praise for their choice to join and stay with this
group. Their choice took courage and that courage is going to help them achieve
their many goals.
 d. Going around the room, ask the participants to share one small thing that they
will do in the next week or two to achieve their goals.

3. Self-Care Activity: Pizza Party!

a. Materials: Bags, Books and Self-Care gifts, pens, cards.
b. This will be a celebratory time for the participants to pack up their notebooks, get
their gifts (pre-selected books and self-care materials) and write notes to one
another that they will place in Affirmation bags that they will get to take with them.
c. Bring out the vision board from the first session. Discuss how they feel that they
have changed since doing that board.

4. Check-Out: Any Final Thoughts/Things to Share?