Jenga and Radical Acceptance
Jenga is a classic game that is played in private settings, groups, and therapy offices all over.
In my office, Jenga is frequently utilized to support clients in developing impulse control, critical thinking skills, and has excellent turn-taking opportunities. It also allows for the ownership of responsibility, as if the tower falls on your turn, it is likely that you are responsible. However, there is another area that we can utilize to consider the helpfulness of Jenga in the therapeutic setting: that of a quick mental exercise.
Imagine for a moment, that you are playing the game yourself.
Pick a block you can see from the tower. Any area you want. How do you decide which block to take? You can start high, or low, and observe with all your rods and cones at once, however until you touch the block, you may not know. Once your fingers touch the block, then you feel whether your choice was a correct one. The blocks are manufactured with varying tolerances, which ends up being a cornerstone of the game: some blocks are loose, and can be removed easily. Others are rigid, held down by their peers above, and as you tap out on the block, the whole tower moves.
Which block are you likely to take first?
Enter Radical Acceptance
The concept of radical acceptance is a skill based in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which teaches us to stop fighting unavoidable facts of reality. It is commonly brought up in other domains, including the Serenity Prayer:
" God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference. "
In practical terms, radical acceptance is the understanding that not everything in our lives is capable of being dealt with, and our attention is often best served in those places where we can enact real change.
If we apply radical acceptance to the game of Jenga, we can see the logical components are already inherent in the game! You are looking for blocks that you can move, and avoiding ones that cause the tower to rock back and forth. If you try to move a loose block, chances are you'll get it out. If you try to move a block that is being held down, you are liable to bring the rest of the tower crashing down around you. This understanding about the game can be generalized to other parts of life, and I find makes a great way to integrate a therapeutic concept into a session activity.