Session 2: Acceptance, Empathy & Social Justice
2.4 Sculpture of Suffering
Learning Objectives:
- To increase awareness of the human tendency to suppress or avoid unwanted thoughts and feelings
- To recognize that despite best efforts, avoided thoughts and feelings can continue to persist
- To promote understanding of the cost of avoidance
- To facilitate skills of acceptance as an alternative to deal with difficult thoughts and feelings
Materials: Movable chairs for each participant
Time Required: 45 Minutes
Activities & Instructions
Instructions to Participants:
- Set-up:
Participants to sit in movable chairs in a circle with space in the middle of the room. During the exercise they would be instructed to get out of their chairs and place their chairs to form part of a Sculpture of Suffering and then remain standing during the debriefing discussion. Facilitators need to be mindful of participants who may have physical limitations to standing and mobility issues in this exercise. Facilitators remind participants NOT to touch or move the centre chair or someone else’s chair. - Recalling a stigmatizing experience:
- Facilitator says: “Most of us have encountered a difficulty or challenging event, a stigmatizing experience, or some experiences that had led to negative feelings for us. For example, we may have conflicts with a family member, or have lost something important to us. In this exercise, we will explore these situations, the difficult thoughts and feelings they evoke, and how we attempt to deal with these feelings and thoughts.”
- “Let us begin with a brief guided exercise. If you are willing, either close your eyes or lower your gaze to focus on a spot in front of you. Now bring your attention to your breath, take a few slow deep breaths … (facilitator waits and takes 2 deep breaths before continuing) …Now, see if you can allow your mind to wander back to some difficult situations you have encountered, choose one that you are willing to share… It can be a big event or a small event. See if you can recall who it involves … and allow yourself to be in touch with how you felt … it could be anger, sadness, disappointment, frustration, worries … and recall how you have coped with all that and how you managed the situation … and now, allow yourself to return to the present moment… reconnect with your breath once again … and come back to the present moment … and whenever you are ready, you may open your eyes.” (Facilitator gauges participants’ readiness [opening eyes] to begin the exercise.)
- Physicalize the internalized stigma and shame:
- Facilitator stands up and pushes her/his/their own chair to the centre of the group’s circle, and says, “You just recalled a difficult event and the negative thoughts or feelings that came with it. See if you can project your own unwanted negative thoughts or feelings on to this chair… if you felt anger, this chair now represents your anger … if you felt sadness, this chair represents your sadness … I will give you a moment to do that.” (Pause for a moment) “Now we will call this chair the “Chair of Unwanted Thoughts /Feelings.” (Facilitator tapes a sign –“Unwanted Thoughts/ Feelings” on the chair to remind participants what it represents.)
- Facilitator continues, “I would now invite all of you to take turns sharing a bit about the difficult situation, and the negative feelings that arose from that difficult situation and how you coped with it. What did you do to cope with the negative feelings? Since we have a fairly large group and one of our guiding principles is to share time, I would ask everyone to keep the sharing to 1 minute or less. Maybe just share in one sentence the situation, for example, my co-workers gossiped behind my back, and then your feelings and how you coped with these feelings. Who would like to share first?”
- Facilitator invites voluntary participant #1 to share her/his/their feelings and coping strategies by saying, “Can you tell us in one sentence about the situation? What negative thoughts or feelings came up for you?”
- (Facilitator acknowledges each participant’s feelings without making comment or judgment, summarizes back to participant to ensure at least 1 negative feeling was identified, and provides emotional support as needed.)
- Facilitator says, “Thank you for sharing. (If applicable, ask the next question) Would you please stand-up? Now let your chair represent your coping strategy. Your chair now is the ‘Chair of coping with unwanted thoughts or feelings’.”
- Facilitator continues, “Recall that the centre chair is your unwanted thoughts/feelings. Please show us how your coping strategy relates to your negative feelings by placing your ‘Chair of coping strategy’ in a way that presents its relationship to the centre ‘Chair of Unwanted Thoughts/Feelings’. You can position your own chair in any way you like, for example, upside down or on the side; place it anywhere you like in the room; or stack it on top of the centre chair or far away from it… However, you cannot move the centre chair and you also cannot move someone else’s chair. Is that clear?”
- Facilitator waits for participant to place her/his/their chair in relation to the Chair of Unwanted Feelings or Thoughts, and then says, “Thank you … can you please return to where you were seated before and remain standing there … Who would like to go next?”
- Facilitator repeats activity with the next volunteer until all participants have had a chance to share and place their chair of coping in in relation to the Chair of Unwanted Feelings and Thoughts to form the Sculpture of Suffering.
- Debriefing the Sculpture of Suffering:
After the Sculpture of Suffering is formed with all participants’ chairs , facilitator says, “I would like to invite all of you to take a moment to observe this overall sculpture that we have created when we placed our coping strategies in relation to the Chair of Unwanted Thoughts and Feelings.” (Participants remain standing.)
Debriefing Theme #1: Common experience of pain and suffering
Question: “What have you noticed in doing this exercise?”
Facilitator Script
- You may notice from this exercise that we all go through pain and suffering with our difficult thoughts and feelings. While each of our experiences may be different, as you listen to others’ sharing, do you find yourself sharing some of the common struggles and identify with each other’s pain? We are not alone.”
- “We are also very courageous and creative in our own ways in dealing with different struggles in life… we can learn to honor and celebrate our resiliencies, and learn from one another’s strategies.”
Debriefing Theme #2: Persistent Hurtful Thoughts and Feelings
Question: “What has happened to the Chair of Unwanted Thoughts and Feelings? Has it disappeared?”
Facilitator Notes and Scripts:
- Although the chair of unwanted thoughts and feelings may be surrounded or even buried, notice that it’s still there. When we talk about these events, the negative feelings may still be here today.”
- “So sometimes we think that the negative feelings would go away if we only try harder … or try different kinds of coping strategies … or if we go learn the latest coping strategy … It does not work like that here in this exercise.”
- “Regarding the various ‘coping strategies’, it’s not that we should not do them. Sometimes they do help us cope in that moment. However, when we rely on them to avoid, control, or eliminate our thoughts and feelings, you can see how this turns out…. Just like this Sculpture of Suffering, it keeps adding up to a very big thing that takes up most of our energy and the space in our lives.”
Debriefing Theme #3: Cost of our efforts to cope with Unwanted Thoughts and Feelings
Question: “What are the costs of our efforts to cope? Has the Chair of Unwanted Thoughts or Feelings disappeared, become smaller, or become a bigger sculpture overall?
Facilitator Notes and Scripts:
- “Let’s look at what the costs of our efforts to cope are? Has the Chair of Unwanted Thoughts or Feelings become smaller, or become a bigger sculpture overall?”
- “Notice that the Sculpture of Suffering has just taken over the space in the room and our collective energy and attention? Sometimes, we may find our lives revolve around trying to cope with our hurt and our pain, with our coping strategies adding to our suffering and taking up all of the space in our lives, with little room left for anything else.”
- “Notice – when the sculpture was up, were you able to sit? Instead of sitting comfortably as a group, we were left standing. We do expand and sacrifice our energy when we cope, just as we had to give up our own chair in this exercise.
- Physicalizing Acceptance of Painful Thoughts and Feelings:
Facilitator says, “Now I would like to invite you to take one last look at the Sculpture of Suffering, and then take back your own chair and sit around in a circle for our final debriefing.”
After all participants take their chairs back and sat down, leaving only the Chair of Unwanted Thoughts or Feelings in the middle of the room, facilitator says, “Now please take a look at the Chair of Unwanted Thoughts or Feelings, look at how it looks like now, and compare it to what it was like a moment ago, with all our coping strategies around, above, or next to it forming the big Sculpture of Suffering.”
Debriefing Theme #4: Mindfulness Acceptance
Question: “Look at the lone chair in the centre… what is it like now for you? What happens if we accept it as just being here and not let it take over our attention and energy?”
Facilitator Notes and Script:
- “What if we treat our unwanted feelings with mindful acceptance – just willing to have the feelings here with us? Notice the space it opens up in the centre. We do not have to be fused with it and get consumed by it – just as we don’t have to be sitting in the centre chair. We can sit right where we are, make room for the centre chair, and just simply observe it.”
- “When we talk about acceptance, it is our willingness to experience and not run away from what is already here, our internal thoughts and feelings.”
- “However, acceptance does not mean we need to love our negative emotions or thoughts. It also does not mean giving up. Most importantly, accepting the negative thoughts or feelings does not mean we are accepting the underlying oppression or social injustices that give rise to our suffering. Where possible, we should still work to change our situation and environment through our actions.”
Key Summary Points:
- We all experience challenging situations that evoke negative thoughts and feelings. Further, it is natural and being human that we all try our best to cope with them.
- While coping strategies can be helpful and some coping actions such as problem solving or getting help are inherently beneficial, the negative feelings nevertheless can persist.
- If we spend all our efforts in coping and avoiding our negative feelings, it can completely drain us, and our life will all be about coping, and this ends up increasing our suffering.
- One alternative is to observe and accept these negative feelings and thoughts mindfully, i.e., neither being consumed by them nor struggling against them, such as suppressing them or running away from them.
Source:
- Fung, K. P., & Zurowski, M. (2016). Chair sculpture of suffering exercise. In A. Peterkin & P. Brett-McLean (Eds.). Keeping reflection fresh: Top educators share their innovations in health professional education. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press.
- Inspired by “Box Full of Stuff Metaphor” in Hayes, S. C. Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. (pp. 136-138). New York: Guilford Press.
