Session with a Friend

I really enjoyed this exercise. I don't imagine that it would be as much fun doing this with a client! I invited a friend over to do this project with me. She is not involved in the MSW program, but her and I have been friends for many years and have a lot in common. We both have spent a lot of time working with children. She has expressed interest in Art Therapy and I have spent a lot of time talking about the course with her throughout the semester. She was a bit controlling from the beginning. "I can't draw" was her first response when I asked her if she would help me. I told her that I couldn't draw either, and it would just be a pencil and a piece of paper. Reluctantly she agreed to come over for a session.

"Why can't I use a pen?...I want to use a pen." These were some more examples of her resistance or desire to control the situation before we even began or she knew what she was drawing. I think that she felt a lot of pressure to do a good job with whatever her task was going to be. I told her that she had 15 minutes to draw a birds nest. I think that she felt uncomfortable with me watching her draw and laughed a few times and I laughed back, but tried to keep focused and serious.

I only had computer/printer paper in my apartment. I know that you are supposed to use quality materials with clients, and I think that this may have influenced the session. I don't think that it had a negative impact, but I think that if my materials were a little more professional, it may have changed the tone of the exercise a bit.

Observations that I made with her about her drawing included the fact that the nest is almost perfectly centered in the page. She drew the ledge, she said, to make it clear that it was a bird's nest. I think that I noticed the moment when she realized that the floating drawing in the middle of the paper may not look like a bird's nest to some people (I thought it clearly looked like a bird's nest and may be another example of her wanting to do a "good job" for the exercise). She also may have been uncomfortable with all of the empty space that was left after she finished the nest. Her strong shadowing/definition of the lines in the middle of the nest also may be an example of her trying to make the drawing obvious of what it is. She spent a lot of time and attention on that circle. When we were going through observations, I pointed out that she didn't include any eggs. This made her very defensive and uncomfortable and she told me that "it means that I don't want to care for anyone other than myself!!" and then told me that I only gave her 15 minutes, and that I didn't tell her to draw eggs only a nest. It was a humorous exchange. I unfortunately didn't feel comfortable exploring these feelings with my friend at the time. I explained to her that the drawing doesn't necessarily mean ANYTHING, but if it is making her think about certain things, maybe she should spend time thinking about them.

All in all, it was a very fun exercise, and I look forward to hopefully one day working somewhere where I can do this type of work with clients!