Art Therapy Collage Session

Hi everyone, today Katie from our class and I did an art therapy session together.  We made collages out of mostly random images and words and then took turns talking about how each item related to our lives.  Katie mostly focused on the past week, and I related my collage sections to anything in my life.  It was very interesting and I learned a lot.  I found that in the context of our session, the recent stuff was really some of the best stuff to talk about and I felt relief when talking about some things that had already been on my mind lately.  I think this kind of activity could be adapted in many ways to different clients and situations, and I was happy to get to see what it was like.  A nonrandom collage session could also be good and maybe better, and whatever materials there are to choose from already provide a little bit of the random element. I think this concept could also be a fun game to play just with a newspaper or magazine sometime and people could point to words or images and get to know each other.

From Darkness there was Light

I took a picture of the art we created on a black paper and changed the image from color to grayscale. The result blew me away! This looks like a birth canal...more so than the original image that hinted at that but not quite. I was thinking of something along the lines of an abyss or a spiral, but never associated it with the birth of something. Looking at this, I can relate to it in a very personal way. Being in New York has been somewhat like a rebirth for me and I feel that this art poignantly represents that for me.

From a No...to a maybe...to a Yes!

I decided to introduce some art materials to engage the students in the High School that I volunteer at. This is a group of 5-10 students aged 15-18 years old who have about an hour in their 'crew time' with their teacher. I co-lead the group with the teacher every Thursdays and last week, we decided that instead of talking, we would provide the students with the space to create anything that they wanted from a range of art materials, like paint, crayons, charcoal, sketch papers and colored papers.

In introducing the exercise, I was very vague about my instructions and said that this was a time for their own self expression and they could choose any of the materials and create anything that they wanted along the theme "change". On hindsight, I really should have put in more thought into struturing the activity especially since it was their first time trying out art in this context of crew time. Not surprisingly, there were 2 students who resisted the directives. There were some who seemed to like the openness in the structure and jumped right into drawing or painting in their own space. I remember feeling helpless when I sat next to a student who did not want to draw nor talk to me about what she was feeling.

Thankfully, at that point in time I remembered the activity that we did in class where we partnered and did the follower-leader exercise on a piece of paper. I remembered how the activity helped me to feel safe as it was predictable in a way and that it was also interactive without having to talk. I immediately picked up a paper and put it between us. I gave her a choice between purple and green crayons and asked her to pick a colour. (by now I realized that the lesser the options, the better it was in engaging her at first) She pointed at the green one. Feeling encouraged. I drew a line in the middle of the paper and asked her to follow my lead. She seemed curious enough to pick up the crayon and follow me. I made big shapes and went really slowly so that she had a sense of success in being able to follow my lead and create something together with her. When I sensed that she was beginning to relax, I asked if she would like to switch roles with me. She agreed! And so we continued the exercise and eventually I asked for her to draw in a way that she would lose me. And she did! She looked at me and said the most she has ever spoken to me in the class before, "I lost you!" We both laughed and in that moment I felt that a connection had been made.

It was a powerful moment as without having to say anything, she picked up another piece of paper and started to paint colours on her own. This was a poignant reminder to me that not everyone responds well too open a directive and that it is so important to ease them in with little successes in order to build trust and establish safety. I know that our class was also designed in a similar way where we worked our way up from easy clear directives and materials to more complicated and messy ones.

Response to Ink Blot Directive

This is one of my favourite creations from the semester. It was one which was totally spontaneous. I had no idea what image dripping the ink on the paper would create and liked that the exercise gave me the freedom to associate ideas to a random image. What I created looks like 2 lovers on a crescent moon in the night sky. I guess I must have been missing my partner and this exercise was a nice way of escaping into fantasy for me.

Reflections on Dance/Drama Therapy- Notes from Drama Therapist?

I really loved the drama therapy class before Thanksgiving. I felt like I got to interact with people in the class in a way that I hadn't before - I think the exercises speed up the process of bringing people, connecting, opening up. Through play and laughter we can access deep patterns and emotions relatively quickly. Did he leave notes of the activities we did, or did any one take good notes on them? I'd love to have a record of that.


I am left wondering: in what capacities can we incorporate methods from the various art therapies in our work without art-therapy specific licenses? Are there things we can't or shouldn't do? In this respect, how do we approach legal limits or organizational policy around touch, especially in drama or movement work? I know we started to talk about this in class, but I still feel unclear about it.


I wish we had gotten to spend the class today just moving! It makes me realize how wonderful it has been to learn through directly practicing in the course this semester. It's very frustrating to sit in chairs and think and talk about the power of moving and non-verbal work! I am definitely someone who experiences things in an embodied way and is very aware of storing memory and emotion in my body. I am definitely interested in incorporating movement/body based healing practices into whatever work I do. It is interesting to try to think about how to incorporate it into community organizing work (which I'm sure people are doing).


 I'm really interested in how group work can lead to organizing. For example, in my placement last year I ran a group for high school student's who felt bullied. Towards the end we started another group, for students who wanted to work on changing the school's culture of bullying. There was some overlap of who was in the group. I think it would have been interesting, if I had been there longer, to move the process group itself into an action group. I think art can be really powerful here- how can we use art to move from trauma into powerful action/social change work? That's something I am excited to explore/ learn from others about.

Got friends who are Art Therapy Curious?

Now that you have had a taste of art therapy, and with your final blog post you are getting your friends and family to try it...here's a great opportunity for other people you know to TRY ART THERAPY.

Starts next Monday!

Intro to Art Therapy Group: Self-Care and Self-Exploration
Starts Monday, December 8th
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm • Five Mondays

FEE: $200 for 5 sesssions. Includes ALL art materials.
REGISTER ONLINE 

Do you know someone who is curious about art therapy? This five week Art Therapy Group for Adults will introduce participants to the basic concepts of art therapy with a different project and art material each week. Each group will include a brief check-in with group members, ample time for a hands-on art project and an opportunity to process your artwork with the group. Prior art experience not required. Participants may opt to use their health insurance to pay for the group if you have any of the following plans: Cigna, Healthfirst, Oscar, HIP, or Emblem* (some plans vary on coverage).

Offered in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Spread the word!

Final Blog Post-Art Therapy Session

For my final assignment, I met with one of my clients. For confidential purposes, I'll call her Kelly.  She is a 20 year old junior and sees me at the college counseling center where I am placed. We have been meeting once a week for almost two months now.  She has been struggling with anxiety issues and I thought it would be interesting to see where an art therapy directive would take her.

At the beginning of our session, she clearly had some things she needed to get off her chest about relationship issues we had been talking about for the past few weeks. I felt as though coming out with an art directive right away would not have been the best thing since she is very much a talker and needs to get it out right away.  Although, it would've been interesting to see how the session would've been different if I had introduced the directive as we were sitting down to start the session. 

After we finished talking about what was on her mind, I asked if she would be up for doing an art therapy exercise and she immediately agreed.  I said that she could choose any color paper she wanted as well as any materials. Unfortunately, I did not have much to offer material wise.  I had a set of oil pastels and a 24 pack of colored pencils along with a few sheets of colored paper. However, she did not seem to mind.  The directive was to make an image that either tells a story, expresses a feeling, allows you to be/meditate/play with the materials or depicts a relationship. I told her she would have 20 minutes to complete it. She took a few seconds to think and started in on the work.  Kelly grabbed a beige piece of paper and drew two blue lines with a colored pencil--one straight and one squiggly.  She then started coloring in between the two lines ​with a​ dark blue colored pencil. After a minute or so of coloring, she said "So how was your Thanksgiving?...Oh, am I not supposed to talk while doing this?"  Honestly, I was not really sure what to say and told her that it was fine.  Granted, I was a little nervous so maybe she was doing it to make me feel comfortable.  However, I think she was a little nervous also and I wanted her to feel comfortable. And now that I am reflecting on this, I should've asked her if she would feel uncomfortable if we didn't talk rather than assume. 

As we continued the session, she colored in the space below the blue section with a light brown. That's when I started to see a beach.  I didn't say anything about it though. I then noticed her grabbing a light blue color from the oil pastels. I am not sure if this is right, but I am wondering if she started to feel more comfortable in what she was doing as she was experimenting with other materials. She also started talking about childhood at that point.  This action/choice of materials could illustrate her unconscious delving into her childhood. She then picked up the yellow pastel to create a sun and, as she was coloring in the yellow circle, realized that it was now green because the yellow was mixing with the blue pastel.  She was pretty upset with herself for that and wished she had made the sun first.  Then, she took the white pastel and made little squiggly lines on the water part. After she finished those, she stopped talking, looked at her paper, held it up and said she was done. 

​She then immediately volunteered that the picture was a beach and it was portraying her relationship with her mom.  She said, "You know when you write something in the sand and the shore comes up and washes it away? Well, that's how I feel about my relationship with my mom. No matter what I do, say, or how I mess up, she loves me anyway. She just lets it wash away. I don't know what I would do without her unconditional love."  I reflected how important it seems her mom is to her.  This opened up a whole conversation about how her relationship with her mom changed years ago after she found out her mom almost miscarried her a number of times.  It was a huge risk for her mom to continue with the pregnancy but she did anyways.  After years of feeling "like her mom hated her," knowing that her mom did this for her life completely changed their relationship.

I also pointed out that I noticed the varied length in lines as she was creating the water and how I was not sure what the white squiggles were.  She said that when she went to an island on a ​past ​vacation, the waves were very calming to her because they weren't very big. They also had foam at the break of each wave. 

She said that she really enjoyed this exercise and felt good except for the fact that she can't draw very well. She disclosed how much she does enjoy drawing but never does it because she doesn't like how it comes out. This definitely illustrates that she is very hard on herself.

I gave her the choice of taking the piece home with her or ​leaving it in my office.  She said she would take it home and hang it up. I suggested that maybe, if she felt up to it, she could show her mom as I'm sure she would appreciate it. She agreed and left. 

In reflecting on this session, there were a few things I wish I had done differently.  For one, I wish I had asked her if she would feel comfortable leaving the piece here so we could talk about it again. I feel as though there was more we could talk about, however the session was ending because the first half was spent talking. The other things I wish I did differently were not talking during the artwork as I mentioned above, providing more materials and proposing that we start the session with artwork.  It may not have worked out this time.  However, in another session with her, I would like to try starting with the art right away and seeing if she will focus more on the art itself as I think the talking may have interrupted her creative process.  Overall, it was an interesting session and I definitely look forward to seeing where it will take us next time if she agrees to doing another directive.