During my internship and practicum in grad school, I worked as a substance abuse counselor, and I developed several group activities for facilitating groups. One of those activities was what I call: “The Valued Heart.” While the Valued Heart can take some time to initially create, I have used it several times over the last couple of years and have had some deep group discussions.
RELATED: Cost of Addiction Group Activity
Creating a Valued Heart:
Supplies:
- Cardboard or paper heart
- Scissors
- Laminating paper
- Tape
- Permanent Marker
Construct:
- Construct a cardboard or paper heart, and cut it into different size puzzle pieces. I drew a heart on an old copy paper box. Then, I outlined puzzle pieces within the heart and cut it out.
- I painted each piece a different color.
- Then, I took self-laminating sheets and just cover the top of the puzzle.
- Tape the pieces to the flip chart.
For this post, I used blue card stock paper to quickly put together the activity. You could just cut shapes out, but I like the puzzle design because it illustrates how the things we value are interconnected.
Valued Heart Group Activity:
To begin, ask members: “What do you value?” Members list things the value (freedom, independence, safety, friends, family, career, etc.). On one of the pieces, write DAA (drugs and alcohol). Ask members to consider how much they value their substance of choice.
- What would it look like for DAA to be completely removed?
- What would you have to do to fill in the hole left behind?
- When you started using DAA, was there something missing? Or was one of your values taken and you replaced it with DAA?
- What do you value most on this board? How does DAA affect the other pieces of your heart?
- Remind members that if DAA remains something that they value, it will overtake the other things they value, and they can lose friends, family, freedom, independence, etc.
- What do you value most on this board? How does DAA affect the other pieces of your heart?
Further Considerations
Because this activity has brought up several deep, meaningful conversations, I’ve had a group member share that they lost “safety” as a teenager when she was sexually assaulted by a family member, and she used DAA to replace that value. I’ve had other members share how they felt like there was always something missing, and they used DAA to fill the void.
After losing a piece to my heart, I have left that space empty. As human beings, I think we always have something missing or something we want more of. It’s important to stress that to group members, have them identify what is missing, and how they will use coping skills to keep from relapsing.
RELATED: Cycle of Addiction Group Activity
I’ve only used this activity in substance abuse treatment groups, but I believe the Valued Heart could be used in several different groups to have members identify and express values that they hold.
To clean the Valued Heart, I use nail polish remover to remove the permanent marker. Dry Erase markers were actually harder to clean. For the first two times I facilitated this activity, I hadn’t laminated the pieces yet, so I just repainted them.
Any thoughts or additional questions? Leave them in the comments!
I tried this activity today.
It was great! Thanks for sharing
Glad you were able to use this resource! Thanks for stopping by!
Hello. I was able to use this for my assignment regarding substance abuse activities for adults but sadly, our teacher said that it is not a preferable activity for them due to the fact that they need an engaging activity than this one. But thanks for the source.
This activity has a lot of different ways to engage clients because there are so many discussion topics that can come out through this activity and the questions asked. I’ve used in three SA groups and have had some deep sharing come from it, but I understand that your teacher may have a difference of opinion on the value of this activity. There are many roads to recovery and treatment! Thanks for stopping by!