Make up a sound and describe your family with one hand movement! Just imagine a regular day at home and finish this sentence: My family is….
Today we met Assael Romanelli, a family therapist who loves meeting families and getting to know them to improve their lives and those around them. From the moment we all entered the room with Assael, we knew the activity was going to be interactive and more interesting than a lecture with basic statistics. Imagine yourself in a silent room with no furniture and with a complete stranger. Nobody is talking, just slowly stretching and you are told to make eye contact with another person and switch places.
This introductory activity is a good representation of our hour and a half as we each responded to activities distinctly with different thoughts. After each teenager represented their role in their specific family (not as a sister or daughter but as an addition to your home) and completed Assael’s initial statement, we were told to make group sculptures and describe our scene. It is very easy to know your own intentions and thoughts, but the challenge was to interact with others. All of these smaller sessions prepared us to interview Israeli families throughout our trip but as Assael stated, “Every family is unique, yet similar at the same time”.
The largest part and Step 3 of Assael’s program was to create family sculptures. One person was assigned to conduct 4-5 other teens to pose like their family members, without using words. The positioning of one man’s hand or another sister’s body makes a large difference. Each acting teen had to think of one sentence to summarize their role to the leading teen’s family with no background information. Each response is very subjective, with no accurate sentence.
Before we meet Assael again next week, after our weekend in Beit She’an, we will all spend time with our host families and have interviewed many more unique Israeli families. The tools and information we gained today helps each one of us to interact with Israelis with more courage and less fear as we gain personal experience to engage others back in America.