Under Construction - MHWA Retreat

I feel like I try to be really generous with the rewards for MMHC. A person only has to complete 20 of the 30 tasks per month to receive a merit badge. If they manage to complete all of them, they get a merit badge and an awardicon. It’s not like I’m saying that no one gets prizes unless they complete every task.

As far as the exclusive group MB goes (which was commissioned yesterday!), if we feel as a group that asking the challenge to be completed 3 times in 12 months is asking too much, I’m willing to adjust that.

I know that I push myself hard. I expect a lot from myself, but I try not to project that on other people. At the same time though, I do want to push people a little bit. It’s like, if I’m in group therapy and they ask me something like, “What’s your self-care plan for this week?” And I say, “Well, I dunno. Haven’t really thought about it. Guess just do whatever... hang out and stuff.” They’re not like, “Okay, awesome, next person!” They’ll say, “Okay, you haven’t thought about it. Go ahead and think about it now and we’ll loop back around to you.”

If they just accepted that as a complete answer and moved on, I would get nothing out of the group. I understand that this isn’t group therapy and I’m much more lenient than they are in group therapy, but I do want to push people slightly out of their comfort zone. I do want to make people think.

I actively try to not make the challenge too intense though. That’s why every week I have tasks that are like “do something kind for yourself and tell us what you did.” Or, “do a good deed around WDC and tell us what you did.” Those are as simple as, “I sent a cNote to a friend.” That takes less than 2 minutes to do and is a valid, completed task.

My goal is to mix those very easy tasks in with tasks that require a little more introspection and thought. But when a person runs through all the written tasks with 2 or 3 generic sentences in half an hour, that doesn’t read to me like something that is effectively pushing that person toward self-improvement.

And that’s what this is really about. It’s not that I don’t want to give out MBs or Awardicons. I do that with my own GPs all the time.

I’m being a dick about it because I want to push people toward genuine reflection and improvement. I don’t want people floating like zombies through a mental health challenge the way I’ve floated through most of my life. If it isn’t making you think, if it isn’t challenging, if it isn’t thought-provoking... then I’m doing something wrong.

Best,

Charlie


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