Art therapy is a regulated
mental health profession
using the creative process
to enhance a patient's
experience in a safe
environment, structured by
the therapist, who
facilitates, helps
facilitate that process
for the client.
Art therapy, it really
is all about how to give
voice to things that may
be unspeakable for one
reason or another,
and again, having the
therapeutic benefit of
the client feeling as if
they're not the only
person in the world who's
ever felt this way, and
that somebody else can
understand what's
happened to them.
Having the art is a way to
see the future to see who
they are, and to express
themselves, is really
helpful ... and how people
are seeing who they are,
compared to how they feel
on the inside, compared to
the exterior self.
It's about the process,
the art-making, not the
final product.
A lot of these kids do
have histories of trauma
and so the ability to, the
way the art making process
taps into that nonverbal
part of the brain and
helps them to eventually
uncover some of the more
deeply seeded traumatic
experience they've been
through.
And then through working
with an art therapist who
facilitates the process of
let's bring that material
forward to a verbal level,
where they could start to
work it out and move past
some of that traumatic
history.
We do it in such a way
that not only are we
meeting people where they
are, but we're trying to
make sure that we're using
the art so that they feel
their particular lens is
reflected and respected,
so no matter what their
cultural, racial, ethnic
background is, that they
can see that art can be a
vehicle for them to
explore whatever the
presenting concerns are.
The notion that there is
something wrong with them
is sort of an anathema to
adolescents, they really
don't like that idea, so
they're angry about their
life circumstances,
and they're angry that
somebody's told them they
have to get some help.
The work so again is how
to help them take the
feeling that's in here,
honor it, believe that it
has reason to be there.
It's not because they're
a bad kid, that they have
reasons why they
feel the way they do.
The work was all about
how to take this feeling
that's inside, get it out
in a visible form, and
then have the therapeutic
benefit of somebody else
in the world getting
it and being able to
understand what had been
communicated visually.
What comes to mind is a
case that I currently have
with a young girl who is
now five, but at the age
of three, she was playing
on a balcony and a stray
bullet, you know she's
living in a community
where there's community
violence, and she was shot
in the leg.
And her response to that
trauma was to stop talking
to anyone but
immediate family.
I mean, despite the fact
that she very, did not
talk to me in the
beginning, she responded
to art making and I met
her where she was and
allowed her to draw
whatever she wanted to do.
She eventually at the
beginning of this school
year transformed into this
typical youngster who
talks to her teachers,
went back to the previous
teacher, talked to her,
and again, I'm like, what
did I do other than allow
her to kind of tell her
story along
with the family?
I used some art-making
activities to even engage
the family and what that
whole experience was like
for them and to go, kind
of step by step through a
series of drawings
to tell their story.
People are experiencing
all kinds of different
traumas, but one thing
that has kept me going, no
matter how challenging
these cases are, is the
response to using
art therapy.
