Paper Bag House

I have been making many GREAT therapy idea discoveries through Pinterest 
Don't know what Pinterest is? You should! It's fantastic!


What is Pinterest? "Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests." -from Pinterest's help section


From my days as a substance abuse counselor..."Hi, my name is Carly, and I'm a Pinterest addict." There, I said it :)


Okay anyway, the point of my post today is this:


Many of the friends I follow on Pinterest are teachers, and they pin many ideas that are also really helpful to me as a therapist. I also just see fun art activities and other creative things that can be easily used as therapeutic activities.

Image courtesy of Snippety Gibbet

My latest discovery is Paper Bag Houses. Such a great tool for helping kids talk about their home environment, neighborhood, environmental stressors, etc. And only paper, scissors, glue, and of course paper bags are required!


I don't know if it will work, but just in case, here is a link to my 'Therapy' board on Pinterest so you can see all of the ideas I've pinned. Many of the teacher-centered ideas are for staff at the schools I work at, to help maintain a positive relationship with them :)

Relaxation Tool

Image source: Here We Are Together Blog

Saw this great idea on Here We Are Together's blog, which you can link directly to here. 


Text directly from Here We Are Together about her Mind Jar:
A Mind Jar is a meditation tool to use whenever a child feels stressed, overwhelmed or upset. 
Imagine the glitter as your thoughts. When you shake the jar, imagine your head full of whirling thoughts, then watch them slowly settle while you calm down. 


My thought would be to basically use the jar as a relaxation tool with my students, as she mentions. 


Her recipe for making one is as follows:
We mixed 1 tablespoon of pink glitter-glue with about 1 cup of hot water, then added pink food colouring and a tiny tub of glitter.