SIX WRITTEN DIRECTIVE TECHNIQES FOR ART THERAPY EXCERCISES

by Linda Rumpf

TECHNIQUE: Playing with Playdough

PURPOSE: Engage in a kinesthetic and rhythmic expressive activity which can relax the mind and lead to expression of pent-up emotion, and clarity of thought.

POPULATION: Group (Adult)

MATERIALS: 1. Small work boards for clay projects, such as styrofoam trays, or Masonite boards. Or you can cover the table with a plastic tablecloth.

2. Small mixing bowl for each participant

3. Plastic Spoons for stirring

4. Measuring cups and a tablespoon

5. Flour, enough for two cups per person, plus some extra

6. Salt, enough for one cup per person

7. Oil, enough for one Tbsp per person.

8. Food coloring, assorted colors.

9. Water—enough to make dough out of the flour, and also access to water and towels for washing hands during and after project.

10. Seran wrap for covering unused portions of playdough, or protecting finished projects to take home.

DIRECTIONS: 1. Define KINESTHETIC: Kinesthetic awareness is sometimes referred to as “muscle memory.” It is basically our awareness of our own

movements. People who learn kinesthetically process information better while moving or using their body. Sometimes we trap tension in our body, and kinesthetic activities release it.

2. Explain to group members that they are going to take a break from intellectual processing, and have a “kinesthetic” art-making

experience.

3. Pass out bowls and spoons and pass around ingredients for mixing the dough.

4. When the dough is mixed, let everyone choose a food color and add a few drops to their dough.

5. Give group about twenty minutes to just play with their dough.

6. Give a ten minute warning before transitioning into conversation about what was experienced. These ten minutes will be used for finishing up with

the dough forms, cleaning up, and hand washing.

7. Facilitate discussion using the following questions:

a. How did it feel to play with the dough? Was it an enjoyable experience or an uncomfortable one?

b. Did anyone feel better or experience more mental clarity after this physical activity?

c. What images did people make out of the dough? Were any images significant in a way that a participant would like to share?

TASK COMPLEXITY: Low Complexity

TASK STRUCTURE: Low Structure

PPC COMPONENT: Process-oriented

ETC COMPONENT: Kinesthetic

GOALS: 1. To access unconscious, non-verbal representations-- past memories and feelings encoded through touch and movement-- and communicate

them through clay/playdough. To achieve, through expression of feelings, therapeutic distance which contributes to being able to process and integrate past experiences, esp. traumatic ones which the intellect may have repressed, or which the intellect may not been developmentally able to process at the time, such as in early childhood.

2. To provide an expressive outlet for those who tend to function better kinesthetically, and some practice with kinesthetic expression for

those who don’t usually process that way.

3. To enable the “encounter of constructive and destructive parts of the self,” through work with clay/playdough, which has the capacity

to be “done and undone” many times over, and to foster a “process of psychic change and identity formation.”

4. To tap into the historic ability of claywork to bring about essential forms which equal to symbolic representations of the self.

THERAPIST: Judith A. Rubin, PhD

PHOTOGRAPH OF ARTWORK: (next two pages)

TECHNIQUE: Fingerpainting

PURPOSE: Relaxation through rhythmic, sensory expressive experience, which can lead to experience of repressed affect. Improved sensory awareness which can

lead to cognitive understanding and processing of sensory experience. Ultimately, both the above could occur, leading to integration of sensory experience with both affective and cognitive functions.

POPULATION: Group (Adolescent)

MATERIALS: 1. Sheets of heavy paper at least 14x16.2. Fingerpaint in various colors3. Covering for tables4. Access to water and towels for washing up

DIRECTIONS: 1. Define FRACTALS: Mathematically repeating patterns which repeat at any scale. In a Yale study, fractals were shown to appear in transfers taken

of fingerpaintings. 3. Explain the process of painting without brushes, and give permission to use

hands, fingers and arms when applying paint to the paper. 4. Pass out the paper and paint and give about twenty minutes for painting.5. Give ten minute warning for finishing and washing up.6. Arrange paintings in a row, and have a discussion about them, inviting each

participant to comment on how they felt during the activity and what images or patterns that emerged for them.

7. Talk about and show pictures of universal repeated patterns and tell about fractals, in closing the discussion, to help teens transition back from

sensory and affective experience.

TASK COMPLEXITY: Low complexity

TASK STRUCTURE: Low structure

PPC COMPONENT: Process-Oriented

ETC COMPONENT: Sensory Component

GOALS: 1.Motility (inner movement) fostered by a fluid medium.2. Permission to regress, in a socially acceptable experience of “playing with

mud.”3. Encourage projective play and a fantasy experience where patterns and forms can arise from the unconscious, much as in cloud-gazing

THERAPIST: Ruth Faison Shaw

PHOTOGRAPH OF ARTWORK:

TECHNIQUE: Drawing from Nature

PURPOSE: Focusing attention outward, in observation of external phenomena, can lead to therapeutic distance from affect, and the ability to contain that affect.

Positive affect could be achieved through gaining skill and demonstrating mastery while rendering the desired image.

POPULATION: Individual (School-age child)

MATERIALS: 1. Highly controllable ‘black and white” drawing media, such as 4-B art pencils.2. Pink erasers3. Drawing Paper4. Tracing Paper5. Picture books containing natural phemomena, such as rock formations and

landscapes, animals, flowers and plants, people of different ages doing different activities, and diagrams or photos of human physiology.

6. A tablet computer for accessing desired images that are not found in the books.

DIRECTIONS: 1. Explain that the child is going to pick something from nature to draw. The image will be found in the books, or if they already have an idea of

something they want to draw, an image to work from can be found on the tablet.

2. Show the tracing paper and explain it is to help with copying a better outline of the form, if needed.

3. Allow twenty minutes for drawing.4. Therapist quietly observes while child draws.5. Give twenty minutes for drawing, and then a five minute warning before

stopping.6. The child may title and/or sign the drawing, if desired.7. The child may take a finished drawing with him, but if it is not finished, the

therapist may want to keep it for him, to finish next time.

TASK COMPLEXITY: High-Complexity (a number of steps and a lot of focus will be required to obtain a representational image)

TASK STRUCTURE: High-Structured (outcome is very directive, drawing is expected to look as much like the object copied as possible)

PPP COMPONENT: Product-oriented

ETC COMPONENT: Perceptive component

GOALS: 1. Contain affect.2. Create positive affect.3. Positive effect of natural images and forms on human psyche.

THERAPIST: Ian Siddons Heginworth (connection of humans to images from nature)

PHOTOGRAPH:

TECHNIQUE: Coloring with Oil Pastels

PURPOSE: Expression of Affect-- release of emotion-- leading to perception and cognition of inner feelings.

POPULATION: Individual (Adolescent)

MATERIALS: 1. Coloring books, or outlined drawings, or ability to print desired linear image off computer.

2. Oil pastels3. Heavy drawing paper.3. Water and paper towels for washing fingers afterwards

DIRECTIONS: 1. Let client choose an outlined image to color in. Encourage client to use brightly colored pastels as freely as desired. Offer blank paper, as well,

for freeform drawing.2. Allow twenty minutes for drawing, and then give a ten minute warning

before stopping.3. Give examples of how colors can symbolize different feelings, and can

actually make us feel certain ways, such as when McDonalds uses red and orange—which are energetic colors-- in their restaurants to stimulate

salivation. Talk with client about how the different colors “feel,” to them, and how they invest the drawing with potential emotional meaning.

4. Ask about the feelings potentially explored with the colors in their drawing.

TASK COMPLEXITY: Low

TASK STRUCTURE: Low

PPP COMPONENT: Person-centered

ETC COMPONENT: Affective

GOALS: 1.To express feelings through the use of color 2. To gain more awareness of the range of feelings one can express through

color. 3. To experience the healing properties of the colors themselves.

THERAPIST: Lianne Colot D’Herbois (modern color therapist)

PHOTOGRAPH OF ARTWORK:

TECHNIQUE: Body Diagrams

PURPOSE: Increased Self-Awareness and Expression of Feelings, Placement of Feelings in the Body, Cognition of feelings. Better understanding of each other’s

feelings between family members.POPULATION: Family

MATERIALS: 1.Assorted drawing media, such as Crayons, Colored Pencils, and Markers2. Paper

DIRECTIONS: 1.Instruct family members to each draw a body map of how they feel right now, paying attention to position of the body—standing, sitting, lying down,

flying, curled up, etc.—and also where feelings are located in the body.2. Afterward, let each family member give his drawing to another person, and

let them try to describe what is going on in the drawing, with artist correcting the observer, if necessary. TASK COMPLEXITY: Medium, depending on how detailed the drawings become.TASK STRUCTURE: Medium. Drawings are expected to contain recognizable human forms and

be discussed afterward.PPC COMPONENT: Person-orientedETC COMPONENT: CognitiveGOALS: 1. Foster awareness of immediate feelings

2. Communicate feelings for better understanding between family members.THERAPIST: Fritz Perls (gestalt therapy, communication of immediate feelings)

PHOTOGRAPH OF ARTWORK:

TECHNIQUE: Personal Symbols

PURPOSE: Representation of feelings and thoughts through finding archetypal symbols for ourselves, which can lead to healing and integration. Healing and

integration of the family unit through recognizing each other’s archetypal gestures, and finding relationship between them.POPULATION: FamilyMATERIALS: 1. Markers, crayons, or colored pencils

2. PaperDIRECTIONS: 1. Define: ARCHETYPE: a collectively inherited unconscious idea or image which

is expressed similarly, to mean a similar thing, in all human psyches.2. Ask participants to think about and design a personal symbol and repeat the

symbol in a pattern on the paper. 3. Discuss the family symbols as archetypes, and see if parallels exist or if any

grouping of the symbols is possible, and if a family symbol can be extracted which encompasses the individual symbols. Alternately, if symbols are un- groupable, participants can be asked to create a story to relate them to each other, with a prompt such as “These symbols are all friends who come from very different backgrounds…how did they meet?”TASK COMPLEXITY: LowTASK STRUCTURE: LowPPP COMPONENT: Person-orientedETC COMPONENT: SymbolicGOALS: 1. Increased self-awareness--more integrated and deeper sense of self.

2. Positive self-image3. Positive relational experience, acknowledgment, and mutual respect-building

between family members.4. Connection of individuals to the universal, to cause a transformed,

spiritualized emotional experience.THERAPIST: Carl Jung

PHOTOGRAPH OF ARTWORK: