Source: Liebman, M. Art therapy for groups.
Materials: paper, choice of drawing utensils
Procedure: 1. Each person starts with one piece of paper. 2. Ask participants to think of something beautiful and find a way to represent it with the art materials in a short amount of time (2-3 minutes). 3. Ask each person to pass his/her drawing to the right. 4. Ask the new owners of the drawings to notice the beauty of the picture. Then tell them to ask permission from the artist to mess up the picture. 5. The new owner finds a way to make the original picture less beautiful, or ugly. 6. Next the picture is handed back to its original owner. The owner must find a way to make the picture beautiful once again.
Processing questions: Describe the changes that this picture has undergone. How did you make it beautiful again? What emotions did you experience during this intervention? Can you think of an example of a time in your life when someone made a mess of something you had worked hard to "make beautiful"? What did you do to make it beautiful again? Did anything positive come from the mess up?
Rationale: to stimulate a discussion about creative problem solving, to bring light to the positives that a negative situation can bring
2 comments:
Wow, Thank you so much for starting this blog! I just graduated in Art Therapy/counseling in May and wish I would have thought of documenting activities and interventions like this. I am currently working in field, and will be checking out your blog for ideas!
Thanks Sara!! I led this activity with our adult PH group and it was terrific. We were able to link the overall message to all of the significant changes that are currenly occuring "messing up their lives" and it was empowering for them to realize that they can still make it positive and beautiful again. April
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