ME and my resources
Here you find the three tools and a step-by-step introduction for each of them.
If you are a counsellor, please find the Guide for Professional Use at this link.
My situation
To clarify the setting and the key factors contributing and connected to the problems and involved actors
My plan
Includes re-orientation in regards to private life but also professional development, depending on the situation of the user.
My solutions
To detect possible risks and set necessary steps for prevention
After working with this toolset, you should have
- a better overview of your personal situation
- evaluated stable and critical points and involved parties
- identified possible resources for the future
Before starting to work with this tool assure that you check to have
- enough time (about an hour) to work and reflect without being limited by upcoming obligations
- enough and safe space to work without interruptions and being disturbed in your process
- allow to get yourself familiar with technical requirements for using the online tool
- you can use this tool alone or if you have a person of confidence, you can also invite others to do it with you.
Step 1
Start in the middle: choose a symbol that represents your current situation.
Step 2
Choose other symbols for the other topics/fields. You can start with which ever field you want to start, you can also put one symbol or more, as you think it is good to represent your situation.
Step 3
- After choosing the symbols, please check all fields if the presentation is complete or if you want to add or amend something.
- Reflect for yourself on the meaning of all chosen symbols, what do they stand for, how would you explain them to others?
- Reflect for yourself on your feelings and emotions in this moment. Are you aware of any specific feelings? How would you explain your feelings in this moment to others? Are there symbols, you feel more comfortable with? Are there symbols you feel uncomfortable?
Step 4
Look on your presentation and rate the different areas in your life with the help of connection pieces, which symbolize 3 different levels (stable connection, less stable connection, weak connection)
Either solid ground, thick ice or thin ice.
- Solid ground; I feel very stable and safe here
- Thick Ice; I feel somewhat stable and safe but I feel a little wobbly
- Thin Ice; I am very shaky and the ice could break at any moment
Step 5
When you finish this process, reflect and try to respond to the following questions:
- Are there specific persons involved, who could also support you in the future, to cope with challenges that may occur? Please name them clearly and keep them in mind.
- Is there something visible that you would like to see and you are happy about?
- Is there something visible that you would like to avoid in the future? How you could do that? What would you have to change so that it does not occur again? What and who could be helpful for you?
Additional, in regards to unstable (unsafe) situations:
- Has there been periods with more stability before? What would be needed to reach a stable situation again?
- Have you already experienced similar unstable situations before? What do they have in common? Are there situations of dependencies in this presentation? What helped in these previous situations?
- To get in a more stable position, what is needed and what could you contribute with your own resources? What or who else could also be helpful?
Step 6
Think about what you see in your presentation and decide which symbols can be personal abilities and resources which can help you to move forward and find solutions in the future. Also think about helpful persons, represented by these or additional symbols.
Put these symbols to the field foreseen for “my resources”. A clear definition of these resources will help you to assess successful coping strategies for strengthening resilience in the next tool.
Relationship / Family
Relationship/Family
Occupation / Education
Occupation/Education
Living conditions
Living conditions
My situation
Choose a symbol that represents your current situation.
Health
Health
Support
Support
What else?
What else?
My resources
After working with this toolset, you should have
- an overview on possible tracks to follow
- an idea which one seems best to choose
- a clear idea on next steps to follow to achieve own goals
Before starting to work with this tool assure that you check to have
- enough time (about an hour) to work and reflect without being limited by upcoming obligations
- enough and safe space to work without interruptions and being disturbed in your process
- allow to get yourself familiar with technical requirements for using the online tool
- you can use this tool alone or if you have a person of confidence, you can also invite others to do it with you.
Step 1
In the prior tool you defined areas of instability and personal resources. Now let’s go on with these reflections and turn development needs in concrete steps to reach your aim.
As a first step, please select the symbols you chose as “My Resources” in the first tool and add them in the “My resources” section here.
Depending on the prior defined needs this tool can be used for the definition of next steps to stabilize one area, but also to generate a whole life plan. But maybe this will be too ambitious at the beginning. Better to start with the most urgent topics which you want to solve. The clearer you have your “small” goal the more effective you can plan your next steps. This tool may also be used multiple times in different sessions to address different topics.
Step 2
Looking on the template of tool 1, what is the most urgent aim you want to achieve?
Setting goals is an important step towards self-responsibility. It is important that goals are clear, measurable, attractive, realistic and formulated with a timeline. This means:
I want a job with a reasonable income = not a goal, but it might be “In the next 2 months I will inform myself on qualification needed and job vacancies in my region to find a job which safes me a stable income (minimum monthly salary I need is…) Write you goal as clear as possible in the field “My aim”.
It is important to define this goal as clear as possible, as only if it is very clear it may provide you orientation and help you to define necessary actions. If you have problems in the following steps it might be that your aim definition was not precise enough.
Step 3
If you have your goal clear you may use this template in two different ways. Either there is only one way to reach it and you may simply define different steps or if you think that there might be different ways to achieve the aim, you can use the two sides of the footprints as different options and evaluate them against each other.
As it is easier to reach an aim if you set smaller sub-goals you want to achieve within a certain period, it is helpful to define specific steps you want to reach by which means and within which period. Be always as precise as possible and add a deadline to each step. This allows you to control your tasks.
To represent your steps add symbols to the blue fields and add a certain date as a deadline by which you want to achieve these steps. In case that during the elaboration of your activity plan you realize that your plans need to be changed, feel free to move the symbols and adapt dates.
Step 4
- Double check if all steps are really clear in regards to what you want to do /achieve by when
- Double check if they are really realistic or if adaptations need to be done
- Do an agreement with yourself to fulfill these tasks
- Think on an award for yourself in case you achieve it
My resources
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
My aim
After working with this toolset, you should have
- an overview on possible risks, what may occur and prevent you from reaching the aim
- an idea on how to cope with these challenges in the way that there might already be a plan B
- a clear idea on how to improve the personal situation in the future and plan changes
Before starting to work with this tool assure that you check to have
- enough time to work and reflect without being limited by upcoming obligations
- enough and safe space to work without interruptions and being disturbed in your process
- allow to get yourself familiar with technical requirements for using the online tool
- you can use this tool alone or if you have a person of confidence, you can also invite others to do it with you.
Step 1
Transfer your planned steps from the template from tool 2 to this one.
Step 2
Here to some extent negative thinking is required. Do a short brainstorming on what might go wrong, which obstacles you might find. Collect the problems which might occur in the red fields. Just add key words to name the problem. This step helps you do think on alternative solutions in the next step.
Step 3
Now go to the green fields and try to think on a Plan B. This might be additional support of somebody, something new you should investigate, or an alternative path, which you did not think of before. Here also key words are enough. It should just help you to remind the solution in case you need it.
Step 4
When you have finalized your steps so far, you can print the template. The yellow part is for a checkup after the deadline you gave yourself to reach your aim. Here you can take note if you reached your aim and how.
Steps
Obstacles
What might happen?
Plan B
How to overcome?
Result
At the end...