LESSON OVERVIEW
The main objectives of this lesson are to:
- read an article on therapy speak;
- talk about mental health and therapy;
- discuss the pros and cons of therapy speak.
With this lesson, students examine different opinions on therapy, discuss views on mental health and explore therapy speak (therapy language entering daily conversations). They also assess the pros and cons of therapy speak and say how they would respond to comments on changing perspectives about mental health.
This is a Critical Reading Club worksheet. With this format, students need to read an online article at home and do the exercises in the classroom. Learn more about how to use such worksheets and their benefits in our post.
ACTIVITIES
Before class, students read an article about therapy speak. Then, the lesson begins with a warm-up where students read different opinions on therapy (e.g. Therapy might be beneficial but is too costly for most people.), say which of them most people they know would probably support and explain why. After that, students discuss questions about changes in attitudes towards mental health. Then, they read examples of therapy speak (e.g. Please, respect my boundaries!; How toxic is that!; Trigger warning!; etc.), choose three of them and explain why they think the people might have said them. Following that, students look at some pros and cons of therapy speak (e.g. It helps people understand difficult experiences and emotions; If a term is used too often, it might lose its meaning; etc.). They also do tasks in which they say if they agree with the pros and cons, think of examples and add their own ideas. Finally, they say how they would respond to comments about mental health and therapy (e.g. People talk about their feelings constantly nowadays.).