What's Your Price? A Reverse Auction Game About Values and Choices
- Kenneth Pecoraro
- 15 hours ago
- 2 min read
Using Values to Build Motivation Through Meaningful Discussion
What would someone have to offer you to give up your favorite hobby? Lie to protect a stranger? Walk away from your biggest dream? Betray someone you love?
Questions like these are at the heart of the new What's Your Price? group activity.
At first, the activity starts like a game. Participants compete in a reverse auction by lowering the amount of money they would accept to do a series of funny, uncomfortable, and increasingly difficult scenarios. The laughter and friendly competition make it a great icebreaker and an effective way to build group cohesion.
But beneath the humor is something much deeper. VIDEO INTRO
As participants begin saying things like "I could never do that," or "No amount of money would be enough," they begin revealing something far more important than their price, they begin revealing their values.
For clinicians, those moments create excellent opportunities for discussion. Rather than focusing only on the fictional scenarios, the conversation can shift toward questions such as:
What matters most to you?
What would you never compromise?
How have your experiences shaped your priorities?
What in your life is truly priceless?
These conversations can naturally lead into discussions about integrity, relationships, recovery, personal growth, and the choices we make every day.
One of the central ideas behind this activity is that our choices reveal our values. Understanding what people value can also help explain many of the decisions they make, both healthy and unhealthy. Whether someone is working through substance use, mental health challenges, or major life transitions, reconnecting with personal values can become a powerful source of motivation for positive change.
Like many Taking the Escalator activities, What's Your Price? is designed to be engaging first, while quietly opening the door to deeper therapeutic conversations. Sometimes the best discussions begin with a question that seems simple on the surface.
Because in the end, the real question isn't "What's your price?"
It's "What in your life is truly priceless?"
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