Art Therapy

[IwannawishuaKIWIchristmas]

Hi all... just wondering if anyone has had any experience with art therapy - either as a client or someone using it with kids. I have been asked to use it with a particular boy (will be very loosely because I've never done it before) so basically looking for any advice I can find. It seems to be quite a specialised area. I've been googling and found a couple of good articles. Hoping someone here can make some suggestions too. Tx

I use art therapy with Ds2...he has Autism. I couldnt find any therapists in my area so I sort of make it up as I go along! Ive got a job working at his school...start in January. 20 hours a week in the art dept, so hopefully I'll learn lots and can pass on info then

I use this sitehere
First project I did with DS2 was making an "all about me" scrapbook....just let him go and the book he made was fab. We used it as a base to start talking about how he feels about himself...great for boosting his self esteem and self worth. We put loads of piccies in it of all the things he can do...very visual reminder of all the positives in his life. When things get a bit hairy I pull the book out and we sit and look at all the good things he can do.

fab... thanks for the link and congrats on the job! I am doing a couple of similar projects with kids so will think about how I can adapt this idea for this particular kid. The big thing for him is his 'darkness'. Everything he does is accentuated. Writing is forced so it is very black and he chooses dark colours for drawing and art. The culmination of my time with him will see the murals in the stairwell re-painted. They are quite boring (IMO) just a wiggly caterpillar worm sort of thing so I think I will re-design those too to make them more exciting / appealing. I would love to hear how your job progresses after January and, potentially, share ideas. B x x

I know what you mean beetroot... I do feel a bit helpless in that respect. But, my priority is to mentor this boy and art therapy has been suggested as a method for our sessions. I think that our project of repainting the stairwell will be a massive esteem boost (which is something this boy is not lacking). I will CAT you over the weekend. I am at work and should be working instead of 'researching'!!

I did find a couple of interesting articles on the Young Minds site if you want a read:

www.youngminds.org.uk/magazine/76/hindley.php

and /71/murphy.php

there are lots of people professionally trained in this and not wanting to belittle your motives but it is a shame that they are not being used here

Whilst I agree that specific training should be sought, I can honestly say that when you have a child with such profound communication difficulties you will try anything to open the door to their world.

My Ds has extreme problems relating his feelings and emotions....through colour, pictures and using different textures we have built up our own stash of visual prompts that we use daily.
Sandpaper being the most fav at the moment...christmas is such a "buzzy" time for little ones and the organisation in schools gets so disrupted...J comes home each night and gets his sandpaper book out...fine grade = not such a bad day, the thick gritty sandpaper = a cr@p day that he cant deal with.

I'm not going to start analysing all of J's hand drawn piccies...many are far to distorted to reperesent anything at all!...but through his books that he hs made we have seen his self esteem soar..."I made that all by myself and took it to school for show and tell and the teacher wrote in home school dairy it was marvellous...what does marvellous mean mom???"...that you are a wonderful, fantastic child whom I adore! Beats when he was in mainstream and would get no recognition at all for the scrawly piccies he handed in.
His books help us to understand his feelings, emotions etc...something its taken us a long time to work out, and as parents that makes you feel sh*t. DS1 who is NT, well just one look at his face and I can tell if he's happy or pi55ed off...cant do that with Jand we need to use what ever we can to help us to understand our child.

Hope all goes well for you and the child you are working with....BTW Kiwi..just emailed you re fibres

\link}http://www.mulberrybush.oxon.sch.uk/prj65/html/65_3.htm\what a fab school}
Thanks for the link Kiwi...very interesting reading....now a job there would be blooming fantastic.

argh