Topic Tuesday // Art & Creativity // Tues 9th November, 7:00-8:30PM AEDT

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@Former-Member wrote:

What do you know about art therapy? Do you have any experiences with art therapy?

One time, for example, I made a piece of clay and when asked what I was making I didn’t know. I then realised it kind of looked like a baby. My Art Therapist then supported me to talk to the clay like it was me when I was little...

Have any of you every tried Art Therapy or would like to give it a go?

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To be honest, @Former-Member , stories like that, where you have a therapist inserting their own interpretations and biases into things, really put me off - particularly given my previous terrible experiance with therapy and the way my therapist tried to bend me to fit her own agenda; I just have no trust for that profession whatsoever now.

I remember one time when I was in the 8th grade, in English class we all had to write a poem. The teacher really liked mine, so she read it out to the class and started dissecting it and explaining it's meaning to everyone... and she got it all wrong! The meanings she was applying to my words were totally off-base to what I'd actually intended. I was just a kid, so I didn't feel brave enough to contradict teacher.

But it just goes to show the pitfalls in having other people interpret creative expressions and assign their own meanings to it. Normally that's fair enough, but when it's guiding therapy... there's a lot of potential for subtle biases to cause major problems, if you know what I mean?

Hi @BPDSurvivor @what is mindful art? @1stepup61

Oh @cloudcore

It helps us to express ourselves

To explore colours and textures

To use whatever we can to make things

My step sons had soo much fun making things out of stuff lying around

The children I looked after taugh them imagination through plat and exploring

@Former-Member , @Paperdaisy , @BPDSurvivor , @nony

We will be posting some resources at the end that might be helpful also😊

Journalling and creative writing is a super helpful Art Therapy tool @1stepup61 !

Something my Art Therapist has got me to do is to write about events in a fictionalised way. So I might write what I imagine someone else's perspective on an event was. So this is a fun and really enriching spin on it.

But I totally agree, playing like a kid is so important which is why I finger paint! Maybe you could incorporate both and write a journal and then paint it with water colours like a kid? (I did this with my wedding vowels) 🙂

It's so comforting when you find something that might be really helpful. I hope he can find something that works for him😊 @Anastasia

@Paperdaisy 🙏❣️

@chibam , that sounds like a really invalidating experience, and your distrust is completely understandable. It can be hard when a therapist applies what works for others to all their clients, we're all very different! I hope you have found supports that work better for you now

Hi @chibam

In this situation with the Art Therapist the Art Therapist did not interpret at all. It was me who said it was a baby.

Art Therapists are really just facilitating discussion and using art to open up that discussion. A good Art Therapist will not interpret at all. It's not like the movies where they say ''ooh you used red you must be angry'' they are much more inclined to say ''what does the red represent to you? Does the red have anything to say to you?''

I hope that clears up any misgivings you might have a little bit. Art Therapy has been a wonderful tool for me and can be for many people. But I understand if you don't feel it is right for you right now based on your experience 🙂

@1stepup61 ❤

Colouring in is great .

Diamond painting I have not tried yet but @Emelia8 has

Working with water colours is good too @Former-Member , @cloudcore , @Paperdaisy