ECCAY RESOURCES

The ECCAY resources can help professionals to use in practice the solution focused knowledge they have just acquired.

Exercise nr. 2

Guardian Angel

Minimum number of participants	Average time length	Individual setting	Group setting	Special Equipment	Unit	Online	Challenge/ competition
6	it may vary a lot	no	yes	yes	1, 3, 5	no	no

It is a group activity in which each participant starts taking care of another group member (the protegee) for a set period of time, without being noticed.

At the end of the set period of time each participant can try to guess who his/her Guardian Angel has been.

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Aim / Benefits

The exercise trains people to take care of each other by leading one step behind, in a way that the protegee cannot notice.
It also facilitates the development of a solution oriented approach, as each Guardian Angel needs to promptly intervene to take care of his/her protegee.
Consequently, the exercise facilitates the development of the Guardian Angel’s personal agency.

UNIT(s) related

Unit 1,3,5

Why?
This exercise can be related to Unit 1 as it is a way to explain and help experience the Solution Focused approach, according to which helping relationships aim to facilitate the finding and construction of solutions.
Also, it helps participants practice their personal agency, as in the role of Guardian Angels they need to be proactive in helping their protegees.
It can be related to Unit 3, as participants can experience the quality of relationships as mutual influence and cooperative systems.
It can be related to Unit 5, as it helps self-reflection at individual and group level. In fact, the Guardian Angels can reflect on the way they acted and the thoughts/ideas/feelings they had while helping their protegees.

How to do the exercise

Step 1 / Preparation:

Every participant writes his/her name on a piece of paper that will be folded and put in a bag.

Then each member extracts one piece of paper from the bag and becomes the Guardian Angel of the person whose name they picked up.

If a member extracts the piece with his/her own name, he/she is allowed to put it in the bag again and pick up another one.

The duration of the exercise needs to be established a priori.

We suggest a fairly long period to give participants the opportunity to take action over time.

Practically speaking, this exercise can be done as a background of other activities.

For instance, it can be done as a background during one or more group sessions, where the Guardian Angels support their protegees in doing the activities and exercises the facilitator proposes to the group.

It can be run as a continuous background activity even for a week or more.

This could help the group to dive deeper in the attitude of leading by being one step behind.

Step 2

During the set time, every Guardian Angel tries to help his/her protegee without being noticed.

Final step / Conclusion:

At the end of the established period, all participants gather together and each member tells what happened to him/her that he/she considers interesting.

Then everybody tries to guess who might have been the Guardian Angel of the person who talked.

At the end of the sharing, each Guardian Angel will reveal himself by handing over the piece of paper he/she picked in the beginning.

Debrief

If you decide to apply the ECCAY framework, and consistently with the Solution Focused Approach, it may be helpful to have participants reflect on what has changed in their attitude towards the other group members, after they took the role of Guardian Angels.

Here are some questions you could ask:
●       What was it like for you to support others while trying not to be seen?
●       How was it to you trying to take care of your protegee handling his/her problems?
●       What personal resources did you manage to apply while helping your protegee?
●       How was it for you knowing that you can be supported in a subtle and discreet way?
●       How is it for you knowing that you can have social resources helping you? And if you consider this, who among the people you know can be social resources for you, this moment of your life?
● Imagine being your own Guradian Angel: How would you act in order to take care of yourself?

Tips and Tricks

From time to time, remind the participants that, beside the activities the group is doing in that moment/session, there is the Guardian Angel in the background.
Do not oblige anyone in taking the role of Guardian Angel.
Since it is an activity that considers a greater amount of attention, let every member be free to participate or not.
You can decide whether to know who the Guardian Angels are and who they are taking care of, or not.
What is important is that you can facilitate a discussion at the end of the activity, in which all participants can share their experience.

Specific materials

●       Easy-to-fold paper curlers
●       pens
●       a bag to hold the cards

On-line version

None.

Bibliography - Sitography