Art + Therapy = Art Therapy part 2

/climbs out of the chasm of doom......
/looks round sheepishly

Okay here is my explanation of what was going on in my head whilst I was doodling this: Just click the image to BIGGIFY and read Part One if you haven't already or need a refresher: Art + therapy =???

What was going on in my head the wordier version:

When I signed up to do the art workshop, I thought I would be much further along with catching up with all my assignments than I was. I knew there was going to be qualified therapists, trainee therapists etc at the workshop and was already feeling out of my depth. So when they said the first task was 'Draw how you are feeling right now' , my thoughts where:

•  Use a pen, you can draw well with that!
•  Ohhh white paper will look good
•  God I hope they don't ask me about assignments or placements
•  Urggh Assignments, that pile of doom haunting me
•  Wow I feel like crap now, must add some clouds
•  More rain!
•  Oh dear it looks too sad now, I do have fun sometimes!
•  Happy stuff?
•  Erm doodling, gardening, the sun? 
•  Lets Emphasise the two areas, by drawing a line round the middle bit
•  More rain!

Why do something like this:
By using my own doodle, I wanted to highlight just how much information you can get from a person, with a simple doodle. It opens up an avenue of conversation that you otherwise wouldn't have. There are no really wrong answers, just observations that may or may not lead the conversation somewhere. If you read the comments and/or left one in the previous post, you will see how much people saw in the doodle. I was quite honestly shocked that so many of you saw so much and were bloody spot on! Not just regular readers, but new readers left such thoughtful and thought provoking comments, that I can't thank you enough for taking the time to do that.

What now?
I have been at a crossroads for a while now, especially in regards to my studies and what to do next. I have not formulated a concrete plan of action yet, but I am closer to making some decisions! I have mentioned previously that I may retire this blog, but I am not going to do that. I know that was rather bloody cryptic, but I just wanted to say something and offer some explanation about why this blog has been so neglected as of late.


Doodle Stuff:
I have been doing a lot of stuff in the world of doodle, that I can't mention at the moment. Here is a sneak peak of something that I have been working on. As and when I can say more, I will! Honest.

Grammar Nazi:
I have a problem, a grammar problem. In an effort to improve the way that I write, I am trying to be more vigilant with grammar. One of the things I always seem to make a hash of, is the use to/too, but never two. I broke out in a grammar induced sweat, just writing those short sentences. I am not aiming for perfection, I like the stream of conciousness/ramble style of writing that seems to come naturally to me. Any tips on how to improve the editor within? At the moment I am using things like this to improve my inner homophone.


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Art + Therapy = ??

Apologies for the lack of postings of late, I sucketh greatly at the 'once a week' target I set for myself. Life got in the way and I wrote the posts in my head, instead of on here. The people that have read this blog for a long time, have begrudgingly got use to my erm erratic blogging schedule, but the new readers haven't. So I would just like to say thank you to the people that have always read this blog and thank you to the new folk that thought I had fell into chasm of doom and was unable to escape and blog.

Click it to biggify it

Last weekend I went to an Art Therapy Workshop, got a certificate and everything! I love certificates, especially my endeavour swimming ones .....

At the start of the session we were asked to write on post-it notes our Hopes and Fears about the session, you can see my answers in that first image.

What is on my mind?

After we talked briefly about Art Therapy, we where then set a task to draw what was on our mind at that very moment. In front of us there was a box full of material, different paper, colours, pen, pencils, chalks, paints, glue sticky things etc etc. After we chose our materials we were given twenty minutes or so to come up with a image.

Click to biggify

I challenge you:
My Challenge to you, is to tell me as much about the above drawing as possible, what do you think was on my mind? It is not a proper test, just an idea of how talking about a picture may work in a counselling/therapy session. I would love to know what you think! (really).
In the workshop we were split into groups of three and each had ten minutes to discuss and interpret each of our drawings. Then we went back to the group and discussed the experience as a whole.

Art means this to me:
I know that arty type things is not for everyone. It can evoke flashbacks to an evil teacher, disapproving parent or other lame adult figure, voicing their opinions that you just can't draw, so why bother? Why do people bother to sing in the shower? You know what type of singing I mean, that god awful killed a cat screeching hell noise. Why do people do it? Because they bloody love it! They know it sounds awful, but who gives a shit! Sure there is that small percentage of people that sound like a angel or one of the three tenors, but the rest of us plebs, just do it for the fun. The same applies to art, well it does for me.
Picking up a pencil and doodling can just be like that, FUN! It can also tap into that little person that lives inside, that little person wants to talk sometimes, they may want to tell their older self something that is buried away and they might think it is time to talk about that.The simplest stick figure in the world with a frown is telling you something, something that might be hard to talk about.

Obviously a one day workshop does not make me an Art Therapy Shaman, but I have witnessed the very powerful way in which it can work and I would love to learn more about it. For now I am going to use art in the way that I know and love, which is doodles.

Doodling enables me to tap into the little person that makes me doodle things like this....

Happy Clients  - The Therapist/Client relationship never really ends

Now was that worth waiting for or what? Maybe I should have took some more time off from blogging.....

I will do an Art Therapy Part Two if people seem interested and play along with the challenge.
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