The Circle Ended, A Circle Renewed...

The group drumming session for staff at my library was this past Friday, and I felt that it was a success!

This was my first “real” HealthRhythms group drumming session, which I tailored to fit the needs of the staff of my library. The guiding idea for the session was to decompress as a group, and to end the semester “on a good note”. From the start, I wanted the flavor of the session to be fun, play, celebration, and the chance to be together in a different-than-usual setting. Besides participants’ initial nervousness about drumming and team building activities, I also envisioned there would be lots of healthy laughter and a good beat (and there was!)

Interspersed throughout the experiential exercise, I tried to play the theme of how each person’s drumming symbolized their unique “voice” they brought to the group. While I didn't necessarily talk about “team work”, I think that this experience created more positive feelings among the group that can improve their work in the future.

I was especially thankful of the chance to continue to deepen my facilitation skills. Judging from the participant evaluations (brief questions about what they did and didn’t like about the exercise, as well as general comments), people enjoyed the exercise. They talked about the session as fun, celebratory, and a chance to “come together” as a group, and these were some of the purposes I set for the session. I also noticed that I was much less nervous than previous times practicing the method, and I looked forward to the day of the session. Because of this experience, I feel more confident about my ability to facilitate group drumming sessions in the future.