Introduction to Art Therapy

I backdated this post because it happened a while ago. As I'm new to doing this blog (reworking it from the static site it used to be), I'm pulling some material I think may be useful from my private journal entries and posting them here. This is one of those posts. I will talk more about all the issues I'm raising here on the blog.

One issue I'd like to raise is expanding what is traditionally thought of as "therapy". For many years I've done traditional "talking" psychotherapy and, every time I was in the hospital, I was exposed to "art therapy". I always found it helpful. Somehow the process allowed more of me to speak of our experiences. I began to realize that creating pictures is at least as valid as using words to describe experiences. I then began working with a therapist who encouraged me to do both: talk and art (and music). This shift led to the great change in my healing. Suddenly, the barriers were dropped and the parts of me who didn't do well with words had a place at the table.

Anyway, art therapy is all about a powerful experience for me. In the hospital, it begins with a directive by the therapist. Several patients sit around the room, think about the directive, choose their media, and then get 20 minutes or so draw on a large piece of paper. After the time is up, everyone hangs their art on a board and we go around and say something about what it means and about our process and we get feedback from others. It's really quite an experience.

For this particular group, the directive was to: (1) draw a container and (2) draw emotions, body sensations, and thoughts.

I had already been to Tai Chi that morning and, for a long time, I had been sitting and relaxing and finding that inner peace. So, I was in such a good state when it came time for art.

Unfortunately my scanner is smaller than I thought. But I captured most of the image. The container is a heart. I wanted to make the color pink for a certain part, but the closest I could find was a redish color. The container had to be a heart... for that's exactly what I felt. Originally I didn't want any container because I felt so connected to everything outside of me. But if there was to be a container, a heart would be more than adequate. My "mind's eye" is at the bottom. Simply observing. At top is a crude representation of how I visualize the flow of thoughts. I did make one fundamental error. The flow of thoughts is really right to left. But I forgot that until just after I put in the arrow. And this was not drawn with an erasable pencil. It was drawn with my charcoal pencil. Thoughts are kind of like waves. The waves serve to separate them. Really, it would be nice if I could find some way to put a space between each thought to separate further. But what I drew is more than an adequate representation.

Then, emotions and body sensations. When I am troubled, emotions and body sensations become very separate. The emotions take on a life of their own. And the body hurts. This was not the case yesterday. Nor today. I represented the emotions as also outside of me, as rays from the sun (which themselves are physically made of particles and waves). They are bathing my whole body, hence the yellow surrounding all around me. Note that the space the energy from the sun takes up is larger than my body. This is the sense that I am radiating energy. It exists in me and outside of me. The experience of a few weeks ago could be interpreted as the yellow in this image becoming so enormous that it filled up the whole universe. I chose the Sun because I needed to find something that people in the room could relate to. I couldn't draw a picture of the universe or of God or "consciousness".

I guess the moral of my post is that dealing with trauma and dealing with dissociated internal structures may require a more varied approach than just talk therapy.

I'd love to hear about what's worked for you.