there was a twelve-year-old boy that I
worked with at a time victim center
his sister who is my client also
disclosed that their father sexually
abused her this boy was so angry at the
sister for ruining their family he was
angry at his dad and very ashamed by
what he did he felt tremendous amount of
pressure because now he was the only
male in this house and in his culture
that was a huge deal
he was very guarded with me and refused
to talk we’d have session after session
where he wouldn’t he wouldn’t
communicate he wouldn’t talk he wouldn’t
do any art just 45 minutes of nothing so
one day I took him to the conference
room and I had large paper out of 18 by
24 inch size and some white paint
brushes and some paints he eventually
started to paint he started painting
stroke after stroke filling page after
page of color he were quietly but
intensely after a few minutes you could
just see his whole body soften and relax
from that point on he was able to talk
about his abuse his sisters abuse as
well as participate in art therapy
sessions this boy needed the large paper
to feel safe enough to let out all of
the emotions I had and that is our
it’s based on the belief that
self-expression can be helpful in
resolving inner conflicts developing
interpersonal skills managing behaviors
lowering your stress and improving your
self-awareness many people will need a
reminder that having artistic talent is
not necessary and participation in our
therapy our therapies purpose is not to
produce impressive artwork but rather to
explore the emotional content of that
art painting is a very loose idiom
though it does have the ability to
transform a session it allows a client
to create something that becomes a
stepping stone for further further
discussions many people are familiar
with drawing and using this medium can
minimize any apprehension that someone
might feel in using as compared to using
other materials when you think about a
drawing you think about pencil drawing
particularly you think about the line
quality that it is the structure that it
gives on the page a pencil can give some
way more control then compared to a
chalk pastel for example sculpture can
provide a client with a
multi-dimensional way to view themselves
to view their artwork but also to view
their life in their struggles working
with some sculptural mediums allows for
a very kinesthetic experience for
collage work is a very passive form of
creating as you’re using magazine images
and word titles to express your thoughts
and feelings on a page once the collage
is completed there’s always an
opportunity to discuss this further with
the person and discuss what the meaning
writing can be used in a few forms of
therapeutic value I often have clients
create a list of keywords that may
describe their relationship struggles or
any other struggle or situation that
they might be dealing with and from that
list they can create a poem or write
further about it I also have many
clients maintain a more internal where
they’ll draw an image and then write
about it and this can always be explored
further in sessions to help them relate
this to their current situations or
whatever it is that they’re struggling
with a needing assistance with art
therapy is a three way process and it’s
often referred to as having a third hand
the three components are the client the
therapist and the created image but
someone struggles in creating their
feelings and thoughts into words the
creative process can be extremely useful
in providing a unique means of
according to the World Health
Organization there are 450 million
people worldwide suffering with a mental
illness there are 40 million adults in
the US that’s one in five suffering with
anxiety 300 million people of all ages
around the world suffering with
depression and because of these high
numbers and if depression is not treated
and left mistreated or not treated
people can turn to suicide there’s 800
million thousand people who die by
suicide each year because of these high
numbers alternative therapies are needed
and I believe that our therapy has the
power to help some manage their mental
Arthur Murray has the ability to calm a
nervous system when we are focused on
creating our tension shifts from those
ruminating thoughts to our creative
thoughts this shift allows the nervous
system a chance to regulate itself which
in turn allows the space in our brain
that we need to process or challenging
experiences if participating in our
therapy can help someone manage their
depression and lower the risk of suicide
then it’s a success and if it can help
someone live life with less anxiety
without that constant worry then again
Alicia has been suffering with social
phobia
she constantly worries about being
judged by her peers to the point where
she becomes unable to interact with them
in a preliminary session she drew a
picture about her anxiety the red marks
she discusses indicating the anxiety she
feels in her neck and her chest the
black marks indicate her sense of
suffocation and her difficulty breathing
the blue marks indicate her sadness at
not being able to interact with her
peers the way she wishes she could in
the same session she came up with a list
of key words about her anxiety and she
wrote about them her words were pointed
she wrote about presenting a faith
Alicia because she’s so afraid to share
who she really is having this fake
Alicia be rejected by her peers is far
less devastating than having her true
self be rejected in this last image she
talks about feeling disconnected and she
describes the outer edge the external as
her peers her school life and her home
life there’s a lot going on and the
internal she talks about it being her
disconnected from the external different
Rene is a ten-year-old who has a long
history of abuse and neglect
in one session she began this booklet
about an incident that occurred while
she was with her abusive mom it’s always
amazing to me when a child who’s
experienced so much trauma has the
ability to to process any of it on any
level and for this child the ORAC holds
the key for her to continue to grow and
heal and to process all the experiences
she had to go through Rene only
completed the first chapter of that
booklet and most likely that was because
that was all she could tolerate at that
moment but she has since been able to
top to talk more about that incident and
other abuse incidents that have happened
to her his last images about her dad and
her relationship with him and how he
constantly disappoints her through this
medium she begins to process these
complex emotions and tries to find ways
to make sense of all of her experiences
trying to find the strength the courage
and the confidence she needs to continue
after completing her second year of
college Bethany’s mother died very
suddenly she speaks about her initial
shock and her tremendous grief that she
feels about her mom Gemma’s support of
her friends but at the age of 19 none of
them had the experience of losing a
loved one of this magnitude she talks
about her deep penetrating sadness and
how she would through from many social
situations because she felt that no one
understood her no one could relate to
her in talking about this painting she
did she talks about this woman not
having a mouth for any recognizable
fingers and she equates this to some of
the things that she misses most about
her mom she’s no longer able to talk to
her mom hear her voice listen to her mom
sing and she’s no longer able to touch
her mom he held by her mom forever even
get a hug from her Bethany couldn’t
verbalize these frustrations and
yearnings directly but was able to
describe them through the aspects of
Diane is a 29 year old living in
suburbia with her husband one day on her
way to work she hears of the horrifying
news that two planes hit the World Trade
Center her life is altered forever as
you might guess Diane’s husband is in
the building’s in the aftermath of the
following days her worst nightmares are
realized
Diane’s emotions range from deep sadness
– weeping uncontrollable to extreme rage
at what happened to her husband she
experienced nightmares excessive worry
had a deep penetrating sense loneliness
and suicidal ideation Diane found by
creating aura was a challenge for her
she had so much emotion that she had
she was haunted by heart in this
painting she talks about this woman
being vulnerable frightened and fearful
unable to see the person who was tearing
after this painting she switched mediums
and began working with the clay where
she talks about feeling a very powerful
release from it she created this
sculpture of Ground Zero
not only for heard of this sculpture
represent the devastation on the site
and the devastation in her own life but
it represents all the unanswered
questions that she was left about her
and now we have Michelle’s story the
disintegration of her marriage left me
self carrying a sense of failure and a
tremendous amount of anxiety anxious
about starting over in a new home in the
neighborhood and at the single mom her
art allowed her to talk about the
transitions and phases that she went
through over the course of several years
when discussing these masks she talks
about the different faces that she’s had
some of the man she talks about this
childlike innocence and yet others she
talks about the intensity of the emotion
that she felt every step of the way and
still she shares thoughts about another
mouse or two that describes her strength
and she found and that got her through
the tough times and yet one match she
talks more about and describes it as
grotesque and speaks of the uncoupling
act being a process that created many
highly mental mental illness is often
seen as a weakness and those with mental
health issues or mental illnesses often
carry yourself shame one way to address
this stigma is to educate people on
mental health mental illnesses and the
various treatment modalities available
to them as we have heard from the
statistics there are millions and
millions with mental illnesses and
unfortunately as we hear quite
frequently in the media so many people
are feeling so deeply disturbed that
they take their own life three of the
case presentations that I have shared
with you all today happen to be a one
woman’s life journey and that woman is
me I am a woman whose mother died at age
19 I am the woman whose husband
tragically died on 9/11 and I am the
woman who’s had to reinvent herself yet
again after getting a divorce I’m here
to say that yes I’ve struggled with
depression and anxiety from time to time
and that’s not needed so bad that even
suicide was a thought but it has not
defined Who I am
I’ve been able to overcome these issues
with the proper health including therapy
support systems of a great family and
friendships yoga and meditation and yes
of course
creating art and art therapy
interventions dealing with my own
difficulties in healthy ways has proven
to make me a better family member a
better friend and by far absolutely a
there is hope for anyone struggling in
silence and I encourage everyone to
reach out to someone who might be
struggling to lend an ear someone who
might need to talk maybe go the extra
mile and help son
get hooked up with services who might be
deadened by depression or frozen by fear
and unable to do it themselves connect
with people in real time face to face
not just through a text message if you
or someone you know is suffering I hope
that I’ve offered you some hope for
brighter days and if the methods and
techniques discussed here today resonate
with you and you’d like more information
about art therapy or to find an art
therapist reach out to the American Art
Therapy Association and they would be happy to help thank you for your time
worked with at a time victim center
his sister who is my client also
disclosed that their father sexually
abused her this boy was so angry at the
sister for ruining their family he was
angry at his dad and very ashamed by
what he did he felt tremendous amount of
pressure because now he was the only
male in this house and in his culture
that was a huge deal
he was very guarded with me and refused
to talk we’d have session after session
where he wouldn’t he wouldn’t
communicate he wouldn’t talk he wouldn’t
do any art just 45 minutes of nothing so
one day I took him to the conference
room and I had large paper out of 18 by
24 inch size and some white paint
brushes and some paints he eventually
started to paint he started painting
stroke after stroke filling page after
page of color he were quietly but
intensely after a few minutes you could
just see his whole body soften and relax
from that point on he was able to talk
about his abuse his sisters abuse as
well as participate in art therapy
sessions this boy needed the large paper
to feel safe enough to let out all of
the emotions I had and that is our
it’s based on the belief that
self-expression can be helpful in
resolving inner conflicts developing
interpersonal skills managing behaviors
lowering your stress and improving your
self-awareness many people will need a
reminder that having artistic talent is
not necessary and participation in our
therapy our therapies purpose is not to
produce impressive artwork but rather to
explore the emotional content of that
art painting is a very loose idiom
though it does have the ability to
transform a session it allows a client
to create something that becomes a
stepping stone for further further
discussions many people are familiar
with drawing and using this medium can
minimize any apprehension that someone
might feel in using as compared to using
other materials when you think about a
drawing you think about pencil drawing
particularly you think about the line
quality that it is the structure that it
gives on the page a pencil can give some
way more control then compared to a
chalk pastel for example sculpture can
provide a client with a
multi-dimensional way to view themselves
to view their artwork but also to view
their life in their struggles working
with some sculptural mediums allows for
a very kinesthetic experience for
collage work is a very passive form of
creating as you’re using magazine images
and word titles to express your thoughts
and feelings on a page once the collage
is completed there’s always an
opportunity to discuss this further with
the person and discuss what the meaning
writing can be used in a few forms of
therapeutic value I often have clients
create a list of keywords that may
describe their relationship struggles or
any other struggle or situation that
they might be dealing with and from that
list they can create a poem or write
further about it I also have many
clients maintain a more internal where
they’ll draw an image and then write
about it and this can always be explored
further in sessions to help them relate
this to their current situations or
whatever it is that they’re struggling
with a needing assistance with art
therapy is a three way process and it’s
often referred to as having a third hand
the three components are the client the
therapist and the created image but
someone struggles in creating their
feelings and thoughts into words the
creative process can be extremely useful
in providing a unique means of
according to the World Health
Organization there are 450 million
people worldwide suffering with a mental
illness there are 40 million adults in
the US that’s one in five suffering with
anxiety 300 million people of all ages
around the world suffering with
depression and because of these high
numbers and if depression is not treated
and left mistreated or not treated
people can turn to suicide there’s 800
million thousand people who die by
suicide each year because of these high
numbers alternative therapies are needed
and I believe that our therapy has the
power to help some manage their mental
Arthur Murray has the ability to calm a
nervous system when we are focused on
creating our tension shifts from those
ruminating thoughts to our creative
thoughts this shift allows the nervous
system a chance to regulate itself which
in turn allows the space in our brain
that we need to process or challenging
experiences if participating in our
therapy can help someone manage their
depression and lower the risk of suicide
then it’s a success and if it can help
someone live life with less anxiety
without that constant worry then again
Alicia has been suffering with social
phobia
she constantly worries about being
judged by her peers to the point where
she becomes unable to interact with them
in a preliminary session she drew a
picture about her anxiety the red marks
she discusses indicating the anxiety she
feels in her neck and her chest the
black marks indicate her sense of
suffocation and her difficulty breathing
the blue marks indicate her sadness at
not being able to interact with her
peers the way she wishes she could in
the same session she came up with a list
of key words about her anxiety and she
wrote about them her words were pointed
she wrote about presenting a faith
Alicia because she’s so afraid to share
who she really is having this fake
Alicia be rejected by her peers is far
less devastating than having her true
self be rejected in this last image she
talks about feeling disconnected and she
describes the outer edge the external as
her peers her school life and her home
life there’s a lot going on and the
internal she talks about it being her
disconnected from the external different
Rene is a ten-year-old who has a long
history of abuse and neglect
in one session she began this booklet
about an incident that occurred while
she was with her abusive mom it’s always
amazing to me when a child who’s
experienced so much trauma has the
ability to to process any of it on any
level and for this child the ORAC holds
the key for her to continue to grow and
heal and to process all the experiences
she had to go through Rene only
completed the first chapter of that
booklet and most likely that was because
that was all she could tolerate at that
moment but she has since been able to
top to talk more about that incident and
other abuse incidents that have happened
to her his last images about her dad and
her relationship with him and how he
constantly disappoints her through this
medium she begins to process these
complex emotions and tries to find ways
to make sense of all of her experiences
trying to find the strength the courage
and the confidence she needs to continue
after completing her second year of
college Bethany’s mother died very
suddenly she speaks about her initial
shock and her tremendous grief that she
feels about her mom Gemma’s support of
her friends but at the age of 19 none of
them had the experience of losing a
loved one of this magnitude she talks
about her deep penetrating sadness and
how she would through from many social
situations because she felt that no one
understood her no one could relate to
her in talking about this painting she
did she talks about this woman not
having a mouth for any recognizable
fingers and she equates this to some of
the things that she misses most about
her mom she’s no longer able to talk to
her mom hear her voice listen to her mom
sing and she’s no longer able to touch
her mom he held by her mom forever even
get a hug from her Bethany couldn’t
verbalize these frustrations and
yearnings directly but was able to
describe them through the aspects of
Diane is a 29 year old living in
suburbia with her husband one day on her
way to work she hears of the horrifying
news that two planes hit the World Trade
Center her life is altered forever as
you might guess Diane’s husband is in
the building’s in the aftermath of the
following days her worst nightmares are
realized
Diane’s emotions range from deep sadness
– weeping uncontrollable to extreme rage
at what happened to her husband she
experienced nightmares excessive worry
had a deep penetrating sense loneliness
and suicidal ideation Diane found by
creating aura was a challenge for her
she had so much emotion that she had
she was haunted by heart in this
painting she talks about this woman
being vulnerable frightened and fearful
unable to see the person who was tearing
after this painting she switched mediums
and began working with the clay where
she talks about feeling a very powerful
release from it she created this
sculpture of Ground Zero
not only for heard of this sculpture
represent the devastation on the site
and the devastation in her own life but
it represents all the unanswered
questions that she was left about her
and now we have Michelle’s story the
disintegration of her marriage left me
self carrying a sense of failure and a
tremendous amount of anxiety anxious
about starting over in a new home in the
neighborhood and at the single mom her
art allowed her to talk about the
transitions and phases that she went
through over the course of several years
when discussing these masks she talks
about the different faces that she’s had
some of the man she talks about this
childlike innocence and yet others she
talks about the intensity of the emotion
that she felt every step of the way and
still she shares thoughts about another
mouse or two that describes her strength
and she found and that got her through
the tough times and yet one match she
talks more about and describes it as
grotesque and speaks of the uncoupling
act being a process that created many
highly mental mental illness is often
seen as a weakness and those with mental
health issues or mental illnesses often
carry yourself shame one way to address
this stigma is to educate people on
mental health mental illnesses and the
various treatment modalities available
to them as we have heard from the
statistics there are millions and
millions with mental illnesses and
unfortunately as we hear quite
frequently in the media so many people
are feeling so deeply disturbed that
they take their own life three of the
case presentations that I have shared
with you all today happen to be a one
woman’s life journey and that woman is
me I am a woman whose mother died at age
19 I am the woman whose husband
tragically died on 9/11 and I am the
woman who’s had to reinvent herself yet
again after getting a divorce I’m here
to say that yes I’ve struggled with
depression and anxiety from time to time
and that’s not needed so bad that even
suicide was a thought but it has not
defined Who I am
I’ve been able to overcome these issues
with the proper health including therapy
support systems of a great family and
friendships yoga and meditation and yes
of course
creating art and art therapy
interventions dealing with my own
difficulties in healthy ways has proven
to make me a better family member a
better friend and by far absolutely a
there is hope for anyone struggling in
silence and I encourage everyone to
reach out to someone who might be
struggling to lend an ear someone who
might need to talk maybe go the extra
mile and help son
get hooked up with services who might be
deadened by depression or frozen by fear
and unable to do it themselves connect
with people in real time face to face
not just through a text message if you
or someone you know is suffering I hope
that I’ve offered you some hope for
brighter days and if the methods and
techniques discussed here today resonate
with you and you’d like more information
about art therapy or to find an art
therapist reach out to the American Art
Therapy Association and they would be happy to help thank you for your time
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