Emotion UNO* is a fun and easy therapeutic activity to foster self-expression around feelings.

Therapeutic goal: Self-expression
Objective: To provide an opportunity for self-expression by discussing emotions and thoughts.

Age group: School age/Adolescent

Materials needed: UNO deck of cards

Procedure:

Tell the child that you all are going to play UNO, but add in a few new rules. If time allows, it may be appropriate to play a normal game of UNO before adding in the new rules to provide the child with a refresher on how to play the game.

Explain the new UNO rules to the child:

• Each time someone changes the color of the deck, they must talk about the emotion related to the new color. For example,
  • Yellow=happy
  • Blue=sad
  • Red= angry
  • Green=jealous or envious
• Can use prompts such as: “Talk about a time when you felt ____ while [in school/at home/with friends].”

Adaptations:

New rules (or prompts) can be adapted for each child depending on their developmental level as well as goals for therapy

You can also come up with different prompts for the extra cards in the deck, e.g.:

Wild card: talk about a fun memory

Reverse card: talk about a change you have liked or disliked; talk about an opposite feeling

*Adapted from Childlifechick.wordpress.com