10 Activities for Loneliness to Do With Your Clients in Therapy

Loneliness is an example of a natural, and often uncomfortable, emotion that we can all experience. Emotional loneliness can occur when our clients do not have a secure attachment to another person, and social loneliness occurs when they have limited to no social support. Healthy attachments and social support are important because they can help create a sense of belonging and community for our clients. Keep reading to learn 10 activities for loneliness to do in counseling.

Clients who experience prolonged loneliness can experience a range of health conditions. This can include medical conditions like heart disease, lung disease, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, atherosclerosis, stroke, and obesity. They may also be at a higher risk of mental health disorders, like anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders. Over time, loneliness can affect the way our clients think, behave, and interact with others, which can cause disruption to various areas of their lives.

Some of the notable behavior changes that can occur when someone is experiencing prolonged loneliness include social withdrawal, loss of interest in their hobbies, irritability, sensitivity to rejection, poor concentration, falling behind at work or school, and experiencing sleep disturbances. They may also have changes to their appearance, including their dress, grooming, and hygiene. 

How Loneliness Activities Can Help Your Clients

The first step to helping your clients is to learn more about their emotional experiences. You can do this with a variety of well-established tests and screenings like the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3), De Jong Geirveld Loneliness Scale, PROMIS Social Isolation and Social Support Scales, and mental health assessments like the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 for anxiety and depression.

Loneliness can appear with a range of mental health conditions as a root cause or as a result of other mental health symptoms. You can learn more about this with a comprehensive mental health screening and incorporate the information you gather into your treatment plan. You can use loneliness activities for adults and kids during various stages of treatment. Common focuses of loneliness activities include encouraging socialization, improving emotional expression, developing new coping skills, and improving self-awareness. Over time, your clients may find that their confidence and self-esteem have improved, which can make it easier to engage in social situations and connect with others.

Therapists and clinicians have been incorporating worksheets into their sessions to promote client engagement, guide sessions, and provide clients with a resource at home. You can find customizable worksheets at TherapyByPro designed for loneliness and a variety of other mental health conditions. Examples of popular loneliness worksheets include:

• Loneliness Worksheet Bundle
• Reframing Lonely Thoughts Worksheet
• SFBT The Miracle Question for Loneliness Worksheet
• Loneliness Triggers and Coping Skills Worksheet   

Loneliness Activities for Your Clients

When you incorporate loneliness activities into your sessions, you can personalize them to address your clients’ symptoms and goals. Loneliness is a universal feeling that can affect adults as well as children and teens. There will likely be notable differences between loneliness activities for kids and adults because of differences in their development, skill set, and life experiences. As you read through our list of loneliness activities, we encourage you to think about how you could modify them to fit the needs of your clients.

1. Journaling is a great therapeutic activity that can be used for a range of mental health conditions. For clients struggling with loneliness, you can use journaling to reinforce cognitive restructuring discussions from the session. You can have your client make four columns in their journal with the titles “Automatic thought,” “Evidence for,” “Evidence against,” and “Balanced thought.” Encourage your client to make note of negative self-talk, hopelessness, and rumination so that they can be reviewed in session. 
2. Behavioral activation is an activity from behavioral therapy that can be used to address isolation, inactivity, and depressive symptoms. For this, you will help your client create a schedule for their week that includes activities like making a phone call or getting a coffee with a friend. Ensure that your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Spend time processing their experience in the following sessions to address barriers or challenges they experienced, as well as reinforcing their successes.
3. Role-playing can be used as a loneliness activity for adults and kids. With personalization, you can use this with clients who experience social anxiety, avoidance behaviors, and low confidence in social settings. For this activity, you can encourage your client to initiate a social interaction or set a boundary, depending on their needs. Modeling can help clients recognize the importance of clear communication and body language. This loneliness activity can help clients feel more confident in social situations with practice. 
4. Meditations are a common therapeutic activity for clients who struggle with anxiety and depression. Loving-kindness meditations can be helpful for those who struggle with loneliness, self-criticism, and disconnection from others. For this activity, you will guide your client through meditation exercises, often using a script. Ensure that you have time after the meditation to process their experience and explore how it affected their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. 
5. Storytelling is a narrative therapy activity that can be used with clients who experience hopelessness, stuck narratives, and prolonged loneliness. You will prompt this activity by asking your client to write a story where they are the main character who is able to overcome loneliness. After they have completed their story, spend time exploring how their character progressed into a resilient person who overcame their loneliness. Highlight the coping skills, strengths, and other qualities that helped them.
6. A simple activity that can promote social engagement is volunteering. This can be impactful for those who struggle with isolation, low self-worth, and a lack of purpose. You can spend time helping them find a volunteer opportunity that aligns with their values, passions, or skills. This can include things like mentoring or spending time at the local food bank or animal shelter. You can support your client as they research, contact, and plan their volunteer work. You can process their experience in their following session and explore how this experience affected their thoughts, feelings, and emotions. 
7. Letter writing is another activity that can be used with clients experiencing a range of challenges and symptoms. You can ask your client to write a letter to someone in their life that they are grateful for. Encourage them to choose someone who may not be aware of the effect that they had on them. When they are finished, ask them to read the letter in session. They may choose to deliver the letter to the individual if they are comfortable doing so. Spend time exploring and processing the emotions that came up as they were writing this letter.
8. Puppet role-playing would be a modification to role-playing that is more appropriate for children who are experiencing shyness, social skill deficits, or concerns about peer rejection. For this, you will use puppets to act out scenarios like asking someone to play or sit with them at lunch. You will take turns with your client acting out the different sides of the scenarios, providing reinforcement when they use appropriate skills.
9. Children who struggle to verbalize their emotional experiences may benefit from an emotions card game that helps them learn to identify feelings. This includes feelings they experience as well as reading others’ body language. For this activity, you will provide your client with cards that show different faces. You can then ask them to show the ones that they have experienced, including loneliness. This can help you determine which coping skills they would benefit from learning.
10. If you’re running group sessions, you can incorporate activities that require cooperation. This can be helpful for children and adults, with the appropriate modifications. Those who struggle with low confidence in social settings, isolation, and struggle working with others can benefit from this activity. This activity uses teamwork to accomplish tasks like building a tower or playing a board game. At the end of the activity, ask questions about what helped them feel connected to others, and if there was anything that made it challenging to work with others. 

Final Thoughts On Choosing The Right Loneliness Activities for your Clients

Loneliness activities for adults can incorporate cognitive, social, and mindful approaches to target distorted thinking and to rebuild connections. When working with children, you may find that your activities are play-based and focus more on skill development, emotional expression. With personalization to your clients’ needs, you can help them find their voice, which can help them feel more confident in social situations that would reduce loneliness. Ultimately, loneliness activities not only address loneliness but also strengthen self-esteem and self-awareness, which can lead to lasting and supportive relationships.

 To learn more about working with clients struggling with loneliness and related mental health conditions, we encourage you to look for continuing education and other training opportunities within your field. 

Resources:

•  Yanguas J, Pinazo-Henandis S, Tarazona-Santabalbina FJ. The complexity of loneliness. Acta Biomed. 2018 Jun 7;89(2):302-314. doi: 10.23750/abm.v89i2.7404. PMID: 29957768; PMCID: PMC6179015.