Psychoeducational Introduction Group Plan
Amanda Littlefield
School of Behavioral Sciences, Liberty University
Psychoeducational Introduction Group Plan
Objectives
The objectives of this introductory session for my social skills group will equip students with
understanding their brain to help with the following:
•By the end of this introductory session, students will recognize their upstairs and
downstairs brain.
•By the end of this session, students will be able to give examples of times when they
“flipped the lid”.
•By the end of this introductory session, students will be able to demonstrate with their
hand the brain and label the parts of their brain that are responsible for the upstairs
brain and their downstairs brain.
•By the end of this session, students will be able to differentiate between triggers that
flip the lid on the upstairs brain and calming strategies to use for the downstairs brain.
•By the end of this session, students will be able to determine if they are using
appropriate calming strategies before they “flip the lid”.
•By the end of this session, the student will be able to encourage peers to develop
appropriate strategies for when their upstairs brain flips and they need to use their
downstairs brain and coping strategies to calm down.
Planned Activities
Planned activities for this introductory session will include:
Breathing Exercises
Therapist will guide the students through box breathing to calm the downstairs
brain and engage the upstairs.
The Brain Hand Model
•The therapist will demonstrate behavior by making a fist and describing that the
brain looks like the fist and demonstrate the upstairs brain when it is calm and
regulated.
•Next, the therapist will discuss what “flipping the lid” looks like by flipping the
upstairs of the brain.
•Therapist will then guide students through the same behavior and movements of
the brain by giving them examples of things that may make students “flip the
lid”.
Therapist will guide students through box breathing.
•When students have completed that, students will then get into pairs and the
teacher will cue the students when they are “angry”. Therapist will also
encourage students to practice box breathing.
Gratitude Activity
•For this activity the therapist will encourage the students think about one thing
they are grateful for (item, experience, person).
•Therapist will explain that they need to get their upstairs brain ready to work by
doing a movement activity.
•Therapist will instruct the students to touch five walls when the music starts and
when it stops they need to stop where they are.
•Therapist will play the music until the students are mixed up.
•Once the music stops, therapist instructs students to stop where they are and
point to the person closest to them and yell “I CHOOSE YOU!”
•Therapist then instructs the students to remember the beginning of class when
they were instructed to think of something they were grateful for. Once therapist
says go, the first student will share their gratitude and then the second student,
with zero comments.
•Therapist will repeat the steps a couple times before instructing students to
return to their seats.
Lecture
The therapist will discuss the two parts that help when handling tough emotions and
feelings. The therapist will do this by demonstrating with her hand what the brain looks like.
The therapist will show that holding up four fingers and then wrapping those fingers over the
thumb creates the image of a brain, showing the prefrontal cortex or the “upstairs” brain and
also the limbic system or “downstairs” brain. The therapist will explain the upstairs brain in
detail, mentioning what the prefrontal cortex is in charge of (decision making, focus, emotion
regulation, social relationship skills, and more). As Hinze et al. (2023) explain, middle schoolers
already experience a difficult time with focusing, relationships, social changes, physical changes.
Learning what is happening in their brain during the times of focus, decision making, regulating
emotions, and building and maintaining relationship is important for success.
The therapist will also explain in detail about the “downstairs” brain or the limbic system
(threat or no threat; fight, flight, or freeze). Learning about this part of the brain and how it can
help decrease stress is an important part of a psychoeducational group (Vogelaar et al., 2024). It
will be important to explain to students that sometimes this part of the brain says “hey this is a
threat” but really it is not a serious threat, for example, a test in school.
Therapist will help identify and define triggers with students that can create “big”
feelings (anger, fear, love, sadness). Explaining that triggers can come from all senses (sight,
hearing, tasting, touching, smells) and when someone hurts them is important for students to
understand. Discovering character strengths and the ability to use them daily increases
productivity and supports lifelong development (Yildirim & Kardas, 2024). Once students have
completed this, the therapist will then demonstrate by lifting the four fingers, “flipping the lid”,
and leaving the thumb exposed or the downstairs brain exposed. Therapist will then discuss
and demonstrate box breathing and explain how it can engage upstairs so that the downstairs
may begin to regulate or calm down.
Explaining that the limbic system structures are responsible for social non-verbal cues
(facial expressions) that judge others without them saying a word (Driver et al., 2022) is
important for adolescents to understand how the development of this part of the brain can
negatively impact social wellbeing. Participating in the partner activity will provide students
with a sense of social connectedness and practice for reading social cues. Social connectedness
taps into big feelings (Kannan & Veazie, 2022) and increases the willingness of opening up
whether that be directly or indirectly (Kim et al., 2022).
Tentative Schedule
•9:00 am – 9:05 am – Group members enter therapy room and fill out the check-in sheet.
•9:05 am – 9:10 am – Therapist will review expectations and rules.
•9:10 am – 9:15 am – Therapist will begin session with a mindfulness activity (Box
breathing).
•9:15 am – 9:25 am – Therapist will then begin lesson by explaining the topic of
discussion.
•9:25 am – 9:30 am – Therapist will have students do the gratitude activity to promote
learning and movement break.
•9:30 am – 9:40 am – Therapist will continue explaining the two parts of the brain and
how they are beneficial.
•9:40 am - 9:50 am – Therapist will begin the brain hand model (therapist; everyone;
partners)
•9:50 am – 10:00 am – Students will complete ticket out the door, listing three things
they learned and one question they have regarding the information learned in the
session.
References
Driver, C., Moore, L., Mohamed, A., Boyes, A., Sacks, D. D., Mills, L., McLoughlin, L. T.,
Lagopoulos, J., & Hermens, D. F. (2022). Structural connectivity and its association with
social connectedness in early adolescence. Behavioural Brain Research, 440, 114259.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2022.114259
Hinze, V., Montero-Marin, J., Blakemore, S., Byford, S., Dalgleish, T., Esposti, M. D.,
Greenberg, M. T.,
Jones, B. G., Slaghekke, Y., Ukoumunne, O. C., Viner, R. M., Williams, J. M. G., Ford,
T. J., & Kuyken, W. (2023). Student- and School-Level Factors Associated with Mental
Health and Well-Being in Early Adolescence. Journal of the American Academy of Child
& Adolescent Psychiatry, 63(2), 266–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2023.10.004
Kannan, V. D., & Veazie, P. J. (2022). US trends in social isolation, social engagement, and
companionship nationally and by age, sex, race/ethnicity, family income, and work
hours, 2003–2020. SSM - Population Health, 21, 101331.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101331
Kim, M., Jun, M., & Han, J. (2022). The relationship between needs, motivations and
information sharing behaviors on social media: focus on the self-connection and social
connection. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 35(1), 1–16.
https://doi.org/10.1108/apjml-01-2021-0066
Vogelaar, S., Miers, A. C., Saab, N., Dusseldorp, E., Van Loon, A. W. G., Creemers, H. E.,
Asscher, J. J., & Westenberg, P. M. (2024). Teaching Adolescents about Stress Using a
Universal School-Based Psychoeducation Program: A Cluster Randomised Controlled
Trial. School Mental Health, 16(2), 467–482. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-024-
09651z
Yıldırım, İ., & Kardaş, F. (2024). Examining the effectiveness of a positive Psychology-Based
psychoeducation program on adolescents’ character strengths. Erzincan Üniversitesi
Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 26(1), 92–103. https://doi.org/10.17556/erziefd.1411176
