Musings on Variety and Flexibility
This summer has brought me pause, as I realize how important flexibility is in this art therapy work. With some clients I am doing very directive and structured trauma work with art directives that concretize the clients' process. With other clients I am using Gestalt methods merged into art therapy as a way to help them access what invisibly rules them. With yet other clients I am incorporating myth and transpersonal symbolism to explore the client's links to collective consciousness and spiritual themes. With younger clients I am teaching boundaries, esteem-building, and sometimes sex ed through art directives. With clients further along in their process, I may be focusing on new practices to subtly improve their lives, spending a lot of session checking in with them on how these practices are going and brainstorming ways to optimize the practices. Assessing accurately what a client needs has become second nature to the point of seeming intuitive to me. Of course there are times and clients that stump me, and I have to very intentionally and slowly determine what is best for them. I am grateful for the challenge of these times.
There is also the place each client is at in their work and their particular pace. Some clients work through their process very quickly, some very slowly, and most somewhere in the middle of fast and slow. I may have five clients doing trauma resolution, but each are at different places in that work. I may have a preteen client who takes two months to warm up and start sharing in session. I may have a client who is willing and able to plunge into deep processing in the very first session.
When I reflect on my work day, I am grateful for the stimulating variety in my client base and the different tacks I have to take to help each one. There is nothing rote about this process, and I deeply appreciate the nature of the work that keeps me creative and on my toes.
What remains consistent in all of this? My demeanor and my go-to tools of presence, reflection, and validation. Are there days when all I can do is arrive and listen, nodding my head? Well yes, but they are few and far between. I have a schedule that meets my personal needs very well, and I have a pretty good self-care regimen in place to boot. It took nine years in the field to achieve such an ideal work life, but I have done it, for now. For me it really takes constant maintenance of the personal life/work life balance to stay as flexible and creative a therapist as I can be.
There is also the place each client is at in their work and their particular pace. Some clients work through their process very quickly, some very slowly, and most somewhere in the middle of fast and slow. I may have five clients doing trauma resolution, but each are at different places in that work. I may have a preteen client who takes two months to warm up and start sharing in session. I may have a client who is willing and able to plunge into deep processing in the very first session.
When I reflect on my work day, I am grateful for the stimulating variety in my client base and the different tacks I have to take to help each one. There is nothing rote about this process, and I deeply appreciate the nature of the work that keeps me creative and on my toes.
What remains consistent in all of this? My demeanor and my go-to tools of presence, reflection, and validation. Are there days when all I can do is arrive and listen, nodding my head? Well yes, but they are few and far between. I have a schedule that meets my personal needs very well, and I have a pretty good self-care regimen in place to boot. It took nine years in the field to achieve such an ideal work life, but I have done it, for now. For me it really takes constant maintenance of the personal life/work life balance to stay as flexible and creative a therapist as I can be.
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