Carla van Kaldenkerken, supervisor and instructor for mediation in Berlin – www.stepberlin.de – generously provided us with the following ideas and suggestions.
“Here is a short outline of how to use these cards. Since the cards are cellophaned you can put them on the floor and let the client walk on them. I often use them in this way:
1. Initial situations
The cards are spread out across the floor. When using the small cards, I put them in the middle of a circle of chairs. The large cards I spread out all over the room, asking everybody to walk around and stand on the card he/she has chosen.
In this first encounter, the goal is to create a context that is different than the one from which the clients have just come from.
Usually, 3 main questions are relevant at this point:
- How am I currently feeling?
- What part of the other context is still with me?
- What do I want to talk about today?
The Gefühlsmonster® cards give clients an opportunity to make statements about their current condition. Standing on a card allows him/her to talk about the cause of emotions, or the current situation.
2. Flash-response activity
It is a good idea to get a first impression of a group’s mood during program transition points, such as before a self-recognition exercise or any other activity. The cards are spread across the floor and group members stand by those that currently best express their emotions.
3. Sociometry activities
Use individual cards for sociometry activities. I create a scale by putting two “emotion poles” on the ground and ask the group to line up along the scale.
4. Timeline for a client’s professional biography
When establishing a timeline for a client’s professional biography, these cards help the client talk about specific phases and events throughout his/herlife, and allow him/her to mark these with emotional qualities.”