TABLE II.

Select JTDC Activities

Activity category	Example activities
Reflective/ introspective	Self-talk: Students are taught about how the mind always tries to make sense of what is going on and how these thoughts drive our behavior. For example, the counselor might hold out his hand and see how people respond. He then explains how the students’ minds have an automatic interpretation of and reaction to his outstretched hand.
	Hot Button Situations: Students talk about situations that make them upset. They describe the situation and their thoughts in that situation. They identify elements of “hot” self-talk that leads to negative consequences and they identify hot button situations that trigger these thoughts.
	Camera Check: Students imagine a hot button situation and then describe how they would navigate it. They then imagine the situation again from a neutral outsider perspective.
	Rational Self-Analysis (RSA): After antisocial behavior, students complete an RSA, writing down the facts of the incident, identifying what self-talk/feelings led to the behavior, reporting what a camera would have seen, and brainstorming alternative/more adaptive self-talk. Youth then process their RSA with staff and discuss the new self-talk options they have developed.
Skill-building	Goal Setting: Students are encouraged to make one concrete statement about something they want to do better or differently.
	Goals and Choices: Students discuss what they want versus what they need. And they discuss how goals, wants, and needs are always set internally. No one else can set them for you. Students talk about “big wins” that they want to achieve and think about how they can break down long-term goals into shorter, more manageable pieces to help them achieve their goals.
	Keeping Cool When You Get Angry: Students discuss how situations can drive angry self-talk, which leads to negative outcomes. They are taught about various cognitive distortions. They then learn techniques to physically calm down and to replace negative or angry thoughts.
Skill-building	Me Mode and We Mode: Students discuss elements of self-talk that are focused only on one's own needs instead of other people's needs.
	Problem Solving: Students are given a 6-step approach for solving problems that involves identifying the problem, thinking about several solutions, and picking the best solution.
Stories and discussion	Thinking Patterns: Students are shown several optical illusions that can be seen in two ways. A lesson follows about how the mind sometimes only sees one interpretation or how it only sees what it expects to see. Students fill out a sheet on their expectations about their lives and basic rules for their lives.
	Moral Development Groups: Students are presented with morally ambiguous situations, and are asked to identify various potential outcomes for themselves and others based on different responses.
Other	Drugs and Alcohol: Students use the framework they've developed to specifically focus on situations involving drugs and alcohol.