- What was my attitude towards the authority? When and how was I able to
make myself listened? - How was I seeing myself then? How am I seeing myself now?
Exercises for child counselling
Mountains and valleys / drawing exercise (adapted from Shapiro, 1998)
Instructions: Draw a horizontal line that represents your life. At one end, write down your
birth date and at the other the date of today. Draw „mountains” above the line for all nice,
positive events in your life, and „valleys” under the line for the sad, ugly moments in
your life. Try and remember as many events of both kinds as you can.
The counsellor could do qualitative interpretations.
Life quadrants
Fill in the quadrants with the required information. Describe in key words the issues in
your life in each of these times.
My life 10 years ago My life 5 years agoMy life now My life 5 year from nowThe periods could vary in terms of the client’s age and counselling purpose. This exercise
allows the client a coherent image of the past-present-future, useful in career planning.
Example 1
Part I: My preschool years (my family, where I lived, early memories, friends, likes and
dislikes).
Part II: My school years (elementary, grade school, high school, university, teachers,
friends, subject matters, liked and disliked activities, significant events, experiences,
travels, concerns, decisions).
Part III: My adult years (where I lived, work experiences, friends and family, travels,
hobbies, continuing education, concerns, decisions).
Part IV: The current me.
Part V: My future plans.