Drama Triangle with the Denver Juvenile Diversion Program

I was asked to teach a five week pilot for the Denver Juvenile Diversion Counseling Program. The Denver District Attorney’s Juvenile Diversion Program works with eligible first-time juvenile offenders as an alternative to formal court proceedings. The kids are between the ages of 15 & 18 and there are six in the class. The class is 90 mins and we just completed class three of the five. I have been teaching the POF to the women at the Boulder County Jail for the past three years but I have not worked with this age group at this capacity. (I have coached young runners) It has been a real joy to work with these young people. When stating their intention for attending this program, all of them expressed a genuine interest in learning to meditate and work with their minds. One of the guys shared his intention to learn to work with his anger. Awesome! Last night we went over the Drama Triangle and Above the Line Below the Line. Radical Responsibility in the new workbook which I do not have yet. I used the facilitators guided posed. I have found it to be a little bit challenging to get them to contribute a whole lot to the discussions. I ask open ended questions and leave a lot of space but they just sit back a lot. Spontaneously I asked them to create a skit acting out the three roles of the drama triangle. It was brilliant! Three of the guys jumped at the opportunity. I gave them 5 minutes to create something and they went off into a corner with their heads together. They presented a short play about a kid opening his locker at school. Another kid came up and shoved him and started yelling at him. A third kid came up and said, “Hey man, no bullying. Leave this guy alone…” That was the gist of it but don’t think they will forget the three roles of the drama triangle. We later used the “victim” from the skit to discuss the Above the Line and Below the Line. I also encouraged them to consider personal experiences…. Next week I will teach the Empowerment Triangle and see if they are up for creating a skit with Challenger, Co-creator and Coach! Tracy