MINDFUL ART
witness the power of art to heal.........
art therapy
Sample Art Therapy Exercises
This page shows some samples of the type of exercises we complete in a session. Some are group based, some individual. All clients are different and we have a vast toolbox of exercises to suit everyone.
Forgiveness Box
Sara Roizen's Art Therapy Blogspot
"For the art therapy piece of the group I set up paint trays, acrylic, brushes, collage materials and textas. I then handed each person a small paper mache box. I asked the group to decorate the boxes on the inside and outside while thinking about a person or a few people that they would like to work on forgiving. The gold and copper paint were a popular paint color and the metallic paint helped imbue the boxes with a certain beauty. While working on the boxes, group members began to open up about past experiences with the people they were working to forgive........................
Make a Collage based on a quote
Collage your world
".... first look inside myself to see what feelings and images emerged when I thought of the quote; then to collect that type of imagery, and finally to narrow those down to only the few that truly captured its essence. Remember too, you don’t need to illustrate a quote; you can choose to tackle it in an abstract manner by building shapes, colours and textures around it. Instead of using pictures of people, places or things, here you might try to capture the feeling of the quote through colour, texture or simply random patterns and shapes that appeal to you.
Transformational Self Portrait Art Therapy Activity
Art Therapy Blog
Think of an experience or event from your past that still has a negative impact on your life today. It could be something big or small, recent or long ago. Think about what happened, how the event(s) played out, and how it affects you today. Feel free to write your thoughts down if you want. Now think about what you would like to change about yourself as a result of that negative experience. It could be a transformation related to your self-esteem, self-confidence, mental/emotional state, etc.As you may have guessed by the title, you’re going to create a self-portrait. This will be a little different than the typical self-portrait though. For this art therapy activity, you will be creating a transformational self-portrait mural. This can be a painting, drawing, collage, whatever you want. You can use any materials you’d like in any combination. Don’t feel like you have to restrict yourself…creativity is encouraged!
How To Draw Out Your Worst Fears
By Julie M. Elman
I explore other people's fears through their words and my visuals. The fear themes run the gamut and include failure, losing a child, the impulse to jump off high places, escalators, dying alone and needles. Participants in this project include neighbors, family members, colleagues, students and people I've never met. Since starting this project in 2012, I have become much more aware of how pervasive fear is in this world. I think often about how fear can be either crippling, or a driving force to motivate people to move past it. This project has resonated strongly with people, I've discovered — simply because of how deeply embedded fear is in most of our daily lives. Everyone can relate. If you'd like to send me a fear, please do so by filling out the form below. I can't guarantee I'll illustrate it, but I'll do my best.
Julie M. Elman
Body Stories with Collage
Expressive Art Therapy
Our bodies hold many stories, dreams, memories and purposes. Using collage to tell the story of our body, either in part or in whole, reveals what is hidden from our everyday thinking. Our bodies are a living metaphor of what we feel and think on subconscious and unconscious levels. Whatever we are unwilling to feel or acknowledge will be held in the "story" of our body.
Our body is our most reliable and truthful source of information. We can choose to see our body stories by focusing on the individual parts that need attention. Alternatively we can do a collage "body scan" of our entire body to see what areas of our body want to speak first.
Regina's Big Mistake
Being afraid to draw
Regina is so afraid of making a mistake on her art project that she won’t even pick up a crayon to get started. This story explores some of the ways that artists express themselves through their work, and takes a look at the creative process. Segments highlight a variety of art forms and the hidden artist in everyone. Regina would like to toss her paper each time she feels she has made an error. The other children are telling her she is copying their ideas. How often children feel someone is copying. All the children in the class are supposed to draw a jungle or a rain forest, so of course they will have similar ideas. Regina handles the copying complaints herself by adding to her picture, no teacher intervention required. With encouragement from the teacher, she finally has an excellent drawing because she keeps trying and working. What an important and nice lesson!
Discuss what it means to be an “artist. Include in the discussion, different types of artists and the different types of materials that artists use in creating their art. Listen to the video, the story of Regina's Big Mistake and have them draw the picture they “see” from hearing the words.