FINAL BLOG - MOCK SESSION

For my mock session I decided to do a session with my best friend, someone that I have know for almost a decade. I lay out all the art supplies and he chose to work with acrylic paints enthusiastically. 

Given our previous conversation about his artistic ability or lack of it, I decided to reproduce our ink blot in-class exercise.

I noted how while he was doing the exercise he was very worried about skill and ability and had to reassure him that it was not about that, he also had a a hard time keeping quiet, he asked a lot of questions about the meaning, if that would be judged, if he had to use one side of the paper, if he had to do symmetrical figures etc. Honestly I was annoyed by how many questions he was asking, specially since I didn't know how to answer all of them

His work was very meticulous and measured, he was surprised when he saw the ink image that resulted after folding the page, he said he had not anticipated that to happen, and was truly quite shocked about it.

This is what he made. 

When he shared his image he explained that there were two soccer players confronting each other and so he decided to paint one happy and another one sad. He also emphasized the shoes' brands. He expressed that throughout the exercise he felt he was slacking ability and felt intimidated by it, he also expressed that he did not want to draw anything that would reveal too much about him. He is really passionate about soccer and that came through in his work.

For me it was a difficult client, just because of all the questions he kept asking. I also felt that knowing the person so well game me an unfair insight and perhaps a biased perception of his work and process. I was surprised of how meticulous he was in the work and had other expectations of his work, so in a sense I wasn't sure how to deal with this. I felt also intimidated to play this "therapist" role with someone that knows me too well, I was aware that he could also be making judgments about my role. 

Overall it was interesting and fun, but in general it made me feel that I need to practice more in getting more comfortable in this space and also to remember that art therapy is not always for deep trauma, and that pieces will not always reflect something deep or profound. The little things and the superficial things can also be very useful.