Mind Explorer Club

🎯 Objective: Build agency and experiential evidence of capability.

🔑 Key Questions: "If a movie camera filmed you acting brave, what would you be doing?"

5 Spitting in the Soup: "The Soup-Spitter Trick"

Insight

Exposing the goal or hidden payoff of a symptom so it loses its unconscious appeal.

Say This To The Child:

"Slamming your door is a sneaky soup-spitter! You do it so dad stops asking you to clean. Now that we both see the trick, is slamming the door still fun?"

🎯 Objective: Reveal the private logic or hidden payoff (Attention, Power, Avoidance).

🔑 Key Questions: "What does that behavior get you? Let's find a cleaner soup!"

6 Catching Oneself: "Catching the Pixie"

Awareness

Helping clients gain metacognitive awareness of when they repeat maladaptive behaviors.

Say This To The Child:

"Next time you start feeling that heavy, hot feeling in your shoulders, that's your cue! Imagine a funny little Pixie of Grumpiness landed on you. Just whisper: 'Gotcha! I see you!'"

🎯 Objective: Develop mindfulness, interrupt self-defeating loops.

🔑 Key Questions: "How does your body tell you a pixie is landing? What is your warning buzzer?"

7 Push-Button Technique: "The Mind Remote"

Cognitive Control

Demonstrating that thoughts create feelings by shifting between pleasant and unpleasant memories.

Say This To The Child:

"Let's play a video game! Button A loads your happiest screen. Feel that warm sunshine. Click! Button B loads a screen where you felt nervous. Feel that cold chill. Who holds the remote?"

🎯 Objective: Empower the child with the truth that thoughts generate feelings.

🔑 Key Questions: "Did the sun actually rise when we clicked Button A? No? You made the sunshine!"

Mind Explorer Club • Session Guides Page 2

Adlerian Card 6

PIXIE CATCHER

Catching Oneself

Kid Analogy:

"Waving Off Sneaky Pixies"

Interactive Steps:

• Identify somatic buzzers (tummy squeeze, tight jaw).
• Call out the specific self-defeating thought.
• Practice saying 'Aha!' and changing the path.

"Aha! I caught you whispering that I can't do it!"

Adlerian Card 7

MIND REMOTE

Push-Button Technique

Kid Analogy:

"The Emotion Remote Control"

Interactive Steps:

• Define Button A (happy) and Button B (nervous).
• Physically click imaginary controller buttons.
• Notice emotional somatic changes in real-time.

"Who holds the controller to your feelings? You!"

Explorer Club

QUICK INDEX

Therapeutic Progression Guide

1. Build Alliance: Encouragement

2. Explore World: Map & Snapshot

3. Create Insight: Pixies & Soups

4. Re-Orient: Capes & Remotes

"Encourage, assess, understand, re-educate."

Mind Explorer Club • Adlerian Counselor Deck Page 2