Art Therapy Group Directives in Short-term Residential Treatment
I ran an open art therapy group for teens who were in a short-term residential placement. This group was co-ed and met twice a week for an hour and 15 minutes.
Below are some of the directives I used with the short-term groups. I share these directives with art therapists: if you are not trained in art therapy, please only consider trying these directives with an art therapist co-facilitator or supervisor.
In the short-term facility anything that could possibly be used to cut or grate or hurt oneself was banned, so my supplies were limited to very basic ones: markers, paints, oil pastels, and dry pastels. The plain and colored pencils had to be accounted for at the end of group. No scissors without supervision, erasers taken off the end of pencils, etc.
With these factors in mind I worked more thematically than process-oriented. This group was open and the group members varied every session, so only projects that could be completed in an hour were possible.
1. What brought you here? Draw an image that represents some of the internal and/or external factors that led to your placement. Only share as much as you feel comfortable and feel free to represent those factors artistically, using abstraction and metaphor.
2. Who are you? Draw or paint an image of who you are outside of the factors that led to your placement. You are so much more than your symptoms: share other aspects of yourself with the group through your art.
3. What keeps you going? Make an image of what/where/who gives you strength. You are alive in spite of everything that has happened to you: how? Represent the strengths you have as well as the strength given to you by others.
4. Where does your power come from? Make an image of the power you carry inside. Optional: represent that power as an animal.
5. New ways of coping. Draw an image that will remind you of the new, healthy ways of coping that you have learned here. If drawing these are too difficult, write a fun, colorful list that you will want to keep.
6. What do you want to leave behind? Draw an image of what you would like to leave here when you return home: the behaviors, the feelings, the beliefs about yourself and the world. Optional: draw first an image of a container, and then draw inside of that container everything you want to leave behind.
As I write these, I realize that these directives could be used as writing prompts for non-art therapy groups or for a creative writing/poetry group.
In my next post I will share directives I used for a long-term, closed art therapy group with a DBT theme.
Below are some of the directives I used with the short-term groups. I share these directives with art therapists: if you are not trained in art therapy, please only consider trying these directives with an art therapist co-facilitator or supervisor.
In the short-term facility anything that could possibly be used to cut or grate or hurt oneself was banned, so my supplies were limited to very basic ones: markers, paints, oil pastels, and dry pastels. The plain and colored pencils had to be accounted for at the end of group. No scissors without supervision, erasers taken off the end of pencils, etc.
With these factors in mind I worked more thematically than process-oriented. This group was open and the group members varied every session, so only projects that could be completed in an hour were possible.
1. What brought you here? Draw an image that represents some of the internal and/or external factors that led to your placement. Only share as much as you feel comfortable and feel free to represent those factors artistically, using abstraction and metaphor.
2. Who are you? Draw or paint an image of who you are outside of the factors that led to your placement. You are so much more than your symptoms: share other aspects of yourself with the group through your art.
3. What keeps you going? Make an image of what/where/who gives you strength. You are alive in spite of everything that has happened to you: how? Represent the strengths you have as well as the strength given to you by others.
4. Where does your power come from? Make an image of the power you carry inside. Optional: represent that power as an animal.
5. New ways of coping. Draw an image that will remind you of the new, healthy ways of coping that you have learned here. If drawing these are too difficult, write a fun, colorful list that you will want to keep.
6. What do you want to leave behind? Draw an image of what you would like to leave here when you return home: the behaviors, the feelings, the beliefs about yourself and the world. Optional: draw first an image of a container, and then draw inside of that container everything you want to leave behind.
As I write these, I realize that these directives could be used as writing prompts for non-art therapy groups or for a creative writing/poetry group.
In my next post I will share directives I used for a long-term, closed art therapy group with a DBT theme.
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