Art Therapy and the Traumatised Child
11D Meow!
the British Columbia Early Childhood Educators' Newsletter.
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Art Therapy and the Traumatised Child
Tara runs into my office. She is four and she is excited. She looks around
as if she knows there is a purpose to being here. She sees the markers and
immediately settles at the little table. At first she seems excited at
seeing all the colours, but now she picks up only a pencil. It appears as if
the blank piece of paper is a doorway to a strange world where things have a
different shape and quality. She speaks in a low voice as she draws awkward
figures, one after another. They would have been somewhat typical drawings
of an average four-year old had they not all had heavy dark zigzag scratches
in the middle area of their body. A monster had hurt them, she says.
When a child suffers trauma -be it physical, emotional, sexual or otherwise-
her whole existence, her Self, is threatened. The impact of trauma is such
that the mind becomes unable to keep the natural impulses under control. The
fear of loss of Self as a result of trauma may be so great that the body
reacts in the only way it knows how; it has to either fight or flee to
survive the attack. In doing either - the running or the fighting- the
child's suffering is greater if the child feels alone.
To undo the effect of the traumatic event the child, or anyone of any age
for that matter, needs to recount what happened. In doing so, the child
relates to others (parents or parental figures) and finds herself not alone,
connected and accepted. In other words, loved. If the caring adults fail to
provide the traumatised child with an opportunity to do so, she may continue
with her internal cycle of frightful running and hiding, feeling helpless to
fight back, feeling guilty and dirty for having survived, feeling hopeless
of getting better and feeling angry for being this way.
To tell the story the child needs a language. Trauma takes the words away.
When a child is in severe pain we expect to see tears and to hear screams.
How can we expect clear descriptions and reasonable explanations when the
child is in severe psychological pain?
Art therapy provides the child with a language that the child understands
and is able to use. Colours, shapes, and textures can speak volumes when the
child is unable to utter a single word. Using the art materials the child
can free up her pain and share it with a caring adult, namely the art
therapist, and transform her experience. By describing the trauma in a
language that the therapist understands, respects, and promotes, the child
leaves that lonely place of suffering. In receiving the gift of colours and
textures, the child feels the permission to allow her body - her hands - to
speak of what happened. And finally it is through the mediation of the image
that the child's unconscious can communicate with the child's conscious mind
of here and now.
In order for the trauma to lose its grip over the child's life it does not
have to necessarily be dissected in every detail. It does not have to be
told in words either. Metaphors and symbolic images offer the child a vast
reservoir of meaning that no word can. It is similar to good poetry that,
through fresh combinations of words, evokes powerful mental imagery. Images,
just like poetry, speak from, and to, that part of the brain that is the
domain of physical sensations, emotions, intuition, and creativity. Like a
ship caught in a stormy sea that is now firmly anchored at the port, the
child's emotions are now connected with her experience. Through the
supportive relationship of an art therapist the child is able to master her
painful experiences and feel powerful in the face of her internal monsters.
I ask Tara about her monster, how bad it was and how it felt for the
creatures to be hurt like that. We talk about what they need to get better.
With her invented alphabet she writes long letters from her mother to
herself; long letters that say only one thing: "I love you". She reads the
letters in sad, sad tones. She longs to be loved. She wishes for a parent
that would love her in no uncertain terms.
jake
wrote:
>The following article was published in the June 2002 issue of
>the British Columbia Early Childhood Educators' Newsletter.
What an excellent article. Thanks for posting it.
Art Therapy is a bit of a poor cousin and it really really shouldnt
be.
"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who
are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
--Albert Einstein
Colleen
c
"11D Meow!" <Me...@Kitty.Kitty.org> wrote in message
news:qvJP9.13919$ac....@nwrddc01.gnilink.net...
greEn pLastiC girL
actually its the language i think in natively - not even music, but
pictures are how i think first. when im talking to my therapist she
often asks me what a feeling looks like or how i would paint it or
portray it in graphic art, because i have trouble moving from my native
language of pictures to translating things into words.
hugs
m~
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ĄLibérez le jello!
Colleen
markers. Just start making random lines and colors. As images appear look
for symbology and meaning in the color, movement, and form. After you do
this for a while it can become very revealing of what is happening
subconsiously. Sometimes my artwork can predict the onset of mania. The
artwork knows before my mind does.
c
"greEn pLastiC girL" <bl...@blah.blah> wrote in message
news:3E0F79A8...@blah.blah...
11D Meow!
repeatedly hit the paper in little tiny curves and points all over the page.
Weird when I started to see my girlfriend at the times's face showing up on
the page.
Scared the bleep out of me so much I haven't been able to do it since.
"Colleen" <{oop...@hotmail.com}> wrote in message
news:v0v0o7j...@corp.supernews.com...
Colleen
great teacher.
c
"11D Meow!" <Me...@Kitty.Kitty.org> wrote in message
news:kvLP9.22343$Jb.1...@nwrddc02.gnilink.net...
greEn pLastiC girL
hugz
m~
--
ĄLibérez le jello!
greEn pLastiC girL
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ĄLibérez le jello!