Art Therapy Session with a Friend

On Tuesday night this week I met up with my friend at a bar to catch up and hang out. I've known this friend for over 2 years as he was my manager when I was a bartender pre- grad school. Once I sat down with him I said to myself that he was perfect to do an art therapy session with and I was mad at myself for not having materials to do a session. I started talking to him about art and he draws and paints regularly (I already know he is an artist because he is a fabulous mixologist).

We are sitting down waiting for our food and I ask him if he would feel comfortable doing an art therapy activity. He said yea of course. I found whatever I could in my bag which consisted of a pen and CVS receipt. I gave both to my friend and gave him a few choices. I asked him to a draw a picture that tells a story or represents a feelings. He immediately said that I should be more specific, which I thought was interesting because he had no choices for materials and wanted a specific direction for his artwork. I told him that I thought giving him choices would make him feel more comfortable and he said "I'm comfortable with everything" in an intense joking manner. I knew that my friend is confident in his art abilities so I wasn't that concerned about his feelings of competency. I then told him maybe if he wanted to create a drawing that represented himself. He immediately liked it and started. He started making lines and dots and smudging them downwards. And within a few minutes his drawing looked like a human figure.

I asked my friend how it represented him and he said "it looks dead." (my friend is a little cynical/morbid in general) He said "its suppose to look skeletal like a zombie" He then described after some prompting that it represents him because "the better person I try to be, the more grotesque I look to those around me." He also described that the figure it looking up and the light source is above him which gives a person a skeletal, "hollow" look. He explained that as he looks up to the light (being a better person) all you see are shadows. I also asked him if he's ever created this before and he said variations of it. This made sense to me because he had a clear understanding and representation of himself. I also asked him if he felt empty as well as looked empty and he said he only looked empty and didn't feel empty.

This art therapy activity gave a glimpse into my friend's self-image, the image he wishes to have and the image that others have of him in his opinion. It helped me get to know my friend in a different way because I knew he doesn't talk about his emotions a lot. He still didn't really, it seemed more factual, but I didn't want to push him because he's my friend and I didn't want to feel uncomfortable either. I didn't know my friend felt that way about himself and that his trials at improving seem to fail in others' eyes. I wonder what would have come about had it been in an office or house and there were many choices for materials, paper, etc. It was interesting and insightful to communicate with my friend a different way than ever before.