In this activity the therapist asks you to think of a secret. The therapist will cover his or her eyes while you write your confession on a piece of paper. It is very important that you omit personal names or details that could jeopardize your reputation or anyone else's. Once finished, roll the paper up and use a string to fasten it shut, leaving one end of the string about forty centimeters long. Place the roll inside one of the glass bottles keeping the long end of the string outside of the bottle. Lastly, place a cork in the bottle and your bottle into the tank of water.
In exchange for writing your secret, you are given the chance to read someone else's. Pick one bottle.
While the writing of the secret is always carried out in private, the reading of it can be done publicly. The cathartic action of sharing a secret may be considered a secular substitute for the ritual of confession. The reading of the secret may produce some guilty pleasure similar to gossip, however, 'we care about the sin, not the sinner.' In this activity, we realize that no one is normal. Everyone has something to hide, and we may find resonance with stories familiar to us and learn how others feel about situations similar to our own