Starting Your First Art Therapy Session with School Age Children

How Do You Start Your First Art Therapy Session?
A similar question was posed to me in 2001 by Carmela Wenger, LMFT, RPT-S, for Volume 1, Issue 2 of the California Association for Play Therapy Newsletter. I was surprised by the positive response and requests for the paper. Since it was deemed useful, I have revised the article to focus on art therapy with young children, school age children, and adolescents. This is the second of three articles.

by Linda Chapman, MA, ATR-BC

School age children, with greater cognitive and language ability, may feel shame and guilt over behaviors or events that have occurred, or about participating in therapy. Therefore, establishing a safe physical and psychological environment is crucial.

I begin with a brief tour of the art room, pointing out media and toys and creating an atmosphere of exploration and creativity. I make a point of stating “kids who have been hurt, lost someone special or have other difficult things in life often have feelings that have no words, and art and play can be another way of expressing feelings, either directly or in other ways, using art.”

I then mention my role as the person who keeps the room and the people in it safe, and discuss that the child can say or create anything. I then mention confidentiality and reporting laws in a developmentally appropriate manner.

For acute trauma, in my experience, school age children benefit from creating a visual narrative of events followed by a verbal narrative using the images to illustrate the story. I may suggest creating a story of events, and if the child is resistant or avoids particular toys, care is taken not to imply a preferred course of action. Rather, the child is encouraged to utilize the art media or toys as desired to create a sense of control and safety in the therapy. Great effort is made to depathologize reactions and behaviors associated with the traumatic event or loss. In normalizing children’s experiences, they typically become less fearful, less anxious, and less defensive.

With chronically traumatized school age children, my initial goal is to validate and normalize the child’s reactions and behaviors. I use a non-directive approach as the child must establish a sense of control lover the environment and therapy to control the expression and containment of traumatic material.

I offer a menu of 2-3 choices of structured two and three dimensional art media without direction, unless requested. If asked what the child should draw, I usually respond with “draw something you like to draw” helping to eliminate performance anxiety and pressure. The involvement in the art making results in an expression of self which the child is able to see reflected in the art they have made. I avoid questioning the child, preferring to ask if I may comment, and if so, commenting on color, line, form shape, and avoiding reference to content or meaning.

Termination with the school age child is spent discussing closure, reviewing confidentiality and discussion about a plan for the next session. I often ask the child if there is any art media they have used before, or media they wish to try that I may be able to have at the next session. The therapeutic goal is to provide a sense of physical and psychological safety, and allow the child a sense of mastery over the experience.

© Copyright 2009-2011 Linda Chapman.