Session 1: ​Being a girl in today’s society

This first session serves as an introduction to this great empowering teen girls group. The girls are allowed to tell us about themselves, get to know each other, and participate in a name game ice breaker activity. Once well acquainted, the girls will complete a questionnaire to examine the types of issues they are facing. And finally, we will establish a set of rules for the group that everyone must follow, and discuss the topics we will be discussing in the upcoming sessions.

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Session 2: ​Establishing a positive body image

In this session we have the girls explore how they feel about their bodies, encourage them to engage in self-praise, and help them learn to develop a positive overall body image. It’s important for the girls to remember that attractiveness is not and should not be based on physical appearance and emphasize the value in focusing more on your personal qualities rather than just their looks because their appearance does NOT equal their self-worth.

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Session 3: ​Establishing a positive mindset

This session evaluates self-criticism, negative self-talk, and how these self-perceptions can impact us. We encourage them to become aware of how they can change their negative self-perceptions into positive ones. We aim to help them learn to let go of unrealistic expectations that leave them feeling less than and to rather focus on setting goals that will increase their self-esteem and uplift them.

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Session 5: ​Making & keeping friends

Healthy friendships can offer many positive benefits for teenage girls. In this session, we will go over forming friendships and relationships that are positive, encouraging, and supportive, in addition to thinking about what kind of qualities they would look for in these relationships and which qualities are unhealthy. We discuss strategies for making friends, how to be a good friend and also how to know when it may be time to end a friendship.

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Session 6: ​Establishing independence

The goal of this session is to teach the girls how and when to use problem-solving skills, to help them practice doing so in everyday life and how to avoid getting themselves into risky situations. We also discuss how we can use these problem-solving skills when we find ourselves in a bad situation.

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Session 7: ​Let’s Talk about sex and risky business

This session discusses basic knowledge, facts and common myths about sex and sexual development while helping the girls practice and build confidence in their problem-solving skills and how to avoid succumbing to peer pressure. We then emphasize refusal skills and discuss why and how the girls should remain drug and alcohol-free, and how risky behaviors like substance use can overlap with sexual activity and the risks of that occurring.

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Session 8: ​Sexting & Self-Disclosure

In this session, we examine what self-disclosure is and how it can feel to share something that is both personal and private to you with another person, and how it feels when that trust is broken. We then discuss what is considered sexting, the legal implications of it as well as other consequences and ways to stay smart and not engage in sexting.

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Session 9: ​When it all seems like too much 

The topic of this session is especially important in this day and age. The goal of this session is to identify and promote help-seeking behaviors for situations that they are struggling with a problem that is too serious to handle alone. We discuss where and how they can get help and resources when something is wrong. We also help them create a “Personal Yellow Pages” list of trusted adults and resources they can reach out to when needed.

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Session 10: ​Planning for the future

Finally in our last session together, we discuss the girls' futures and encourage them to establish healthy goals for themselves and learn how to attempt to achieve them. We aim to build their confidence and enthusiasm for the future and commemorate our last session together.

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Session 11: Coping With a crisis

This session closely aligns with the previous discussion of what to do when it all seems like too much. In addition to encouraging the girls to make a list of support people to reach out to when struggling, this session discusses different coping mechanisms, distracting skills and self-care that they can use when in a crisis or experiencing strong emotions.

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