But recently, I started Brene Brown's Living Brave Semester. And one of the "Arenas," (Arena = area of life where you want to practice courage and authenticity) that I identified was: I want to be a braver counselor. A brave counselor is one who is present, truthful, and willing to use her gifts, skills, and wisdom in order to help students foster necessary acceptance and change.
How does a person get back in the arena once she has left it? Perhaps the answer is returning to the fundamentals and beginning to put them into practice.
What are the "Basics" of art therapy?
- Trusting the process and believing that the Process will always show up - no matter what
- Owning the belief that art-making is meaning-making, and that we are here to create and contribute
- Meeting the student where he is
- Creating a nonjudgmental space where "failure" becomes a valued part of the learning process
- Having art supplies prepared and available
- Practicing the willingness to take small risks through our art-making-- in the hope that we will develop a friendly attitude toward playful exploration and risk-taking in our daily lives
- Recalling some of the essential Art Therapy intervention strategies and regarding these strategies as a starting place or fodder for intuitive modification.
- Mad, Sad, Glad, Scared
- Create a Safe Place
- Trauma Tree
- Creative Lifelines
- Scribble Chase
- Mandalas
- Magazine Photo Collage
- Family Sculpture
- Person-in-Tree Assessment
- How I see myself/ How others see me
- Bridging Emotions
- Bridge Drawing
- Haptic Self Symbol
- Art Journaling
- Artful acts of kindness
In making the list of some of what I consider to be essential intervention strategies, I realize I haven't done formal posts on some of these directives. It's good to have some immediate inspiration for future posts!
