My internship supervisor gave me a little discussion to read about the difference between recreation therapists (which is my current title at my job at the hospital, before I get my masters, then I will be called an art therapist) and art therapists. The discussion was basically that if rec. therapists think they are the same as art therapists, they will ask to be art therapists without the proper training. This got me thinking about two things: one, how much I love the title of rec. therapist; and two, the idea of training and schooling.
First, I love being a rec. therapist. I have a lot of fun. Although art can be anything and therapy can be just about anything, I enjoy that I don't have to bring up art materials all the time. I can bring up the materials to make no-sew pillows or other little projects. While this is a craft, I can see that these are transitional objects and that they can really give the client a sense of achievement. I can also bring up a white board and play "Wheel of Fortune" or Pictionary. In the past, these have been very beneficial to clients in challenging their mind and getting their thoughts off of whatever is going on in their life or the hospital. With the children, I have also gotten little tubs of water that are good for getting kids to get their hands wet and play a little bit. I also have books about drama techniques. Most of my seasoned coworkers come to me for tips and ideas because they know I'm full of them. I like feeling unrestrained by materials.
Second, the idea of schooling and training. Although I agree that some training and oversight is necessary, there are lots of people who just know things and are good at what they do. The beginnings of therapy started with Freud being interested in what was on the mind of middle and upper class women from Vienna. After that, to be a psychoanalyst, people had to be in analysis for 6 years and then they'd be able to take the techniques and apply them to their clients. However, now that there are standards, which can be a good and bad thing, people often learn about only certain types of theories or they learn things for a test and then cannot apply it to their clients, etc. This has happened to me and others. I am encouraged to take a test to get my LPC (Licensed Practicing Counselor) so that insurance can bill me. The LPC test is a lot of money, the book to study in a lot of money, and I won't be tested on much that I learned in school. Also, after taken some practice questions recently, the test just seems to want to trick people into answers. Basically, the people who made it want people to think with their ninja mind. And after this test, whose to say that any of it applies to what I'm doing at the hospital or where ever I am. Sometimes I'm glad that there are standards, however, that still doesn't mean that a therapist is good, that they know what they're doing, or anything like that. It means that they can jump through hoops and take some tests. Yet, there are people with natural gifts that Iwish I could hone in on and they don't have degrees due to whatever circumstances.
I'm glad I was sparked to think about these things by a woman being passive aggressive. I do enjoy my job and I enjoy school. I don't think those things are going to make me a professional. I think job experience and having morals and ethics will help me become a good therapist.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Art Therapy is not a Mystical, Magical Thing. It's not Mind Reading.
I was thinking today about an incident that happened to me. This woman came up to me after my group and after she had had a visit with a patient and asked me what the patient's drawing meant. She wanted to know what it would all mean. I told her the only thing I could tell her was that the patient was quiet when she was coloring it in. The woman had taken a class in art therapy and she had a dictionary about color so she was going to go home and look it up. I didn't say anymore about it. My thoughts went to the reasons why looking up colors that she used is not a good idea.
Some people think that art therapy, or that therapy in general, is really mind reading. We'll tell people things that they're thinking or going through or just know things that they don't want other to know.Some people think that therapist will know things that the client doesn't know about themselves. And if we get mad at a client, we'll use our powers for bad things. People might think that art therapy is more like mind reading than talk therapy because some people have symbols in their artwork and a client might think that a symbol can be interpreted as something else instead of what it means to them.
It doesn't help that there are dictionaries about color or books that basically say, "If you draw this, it means this other thing." But my point is that therapy is not like this. An art therapist should not start telling a client that using red and black most definitely means the person is depressed. It matters about behaviors. It matters about what the person says about the artwork. If a person is using a lot of black and red because that was the colors of their high school football team or because they really like tomatoes with pepper, and on top of that, client doesn't act depressed, then that theory doesn't apply to them.
Art therapy is about what the client says about the artwork. And each therapist has their own theory. For example: I'm a Feminist Jungian type of therapist. I think that people have patterns of behavior that repeat in their life until they notice them and choose to stop them. Societal expectations and gender roles hold people back from pursuing what they want or being the type of people they would like to be. If something's on a person's mind, it will come out whether I ask questions about it or not. For artwork, I like to ask people questions like "If your artwork were a type of music, what type of music would it be?" or "If your artwork was a type of food, what type of food would it be?" I don't ask "why," or "what inspired you to make that?" because the answer most likely is going to be "because I felt like it" (that would most likely be my answer). People don't have to be realistic in their artwork for it to be expressive. And they're not coming to me for me to be an art teacher to them. For my personal self, I like there to be a question or a memory I have in mind while doing the artwork or a "directive" to the art because I get to know more about myself that way. But in practice, I mostly let people choose what art materials they would like to use. I do this because it's probably been a while since people have done art and they just have to experiment with the art materials.
Freudian, humanistic, and behavioral art therapists would most likely practice a lot differently. Some might use more directives. Also, art therapist can choose the medium or style they'd like to use, such as comic books style, clay, photography, graffiti, and others. Some art therapists are more about what symbols a person used and not what the person said about the artwork. But they are trained so that they are not impeding a person's personal growth, assuming that's why they're coming to therapy.
So, therapy is not mind reading. Therapists don't tell you things about yourself that you wouldn't know about yourself. And they don't tell you things that you don't know about yourself. Also, art therapists have different styles, however, it's supposed to help in your art and growth.
Some people think that art therapy, or that therapy in general, is really mind reading. We'll tell people things that they're thinking or going through or just know things that they don't want other to know.Some people think that therapist will know things that the client doesn't know about themselves. And if we get mad at a client, we'll use our powers for bad things. People might think that art therapy is more like mind reading than talk therapy because some people have symbols in their artwork and a client might think that a symbol can be interpreted as something else instead of what it means to them.
It doesn't help that there are dictionaries about color or books that basically say, "If you draw this, it means this other thing." But my point is that therapy is not like this. An art therapist should not start telling a client that using red and black most definitely means the person is depressed. It matters about behaviors. It matters about what the person says about the artwork. If a person is using a lot of black and red because that was the colors of their high school football team or because they really like tomatoes with pepper, and on top of that, client doesn't act depressed, then that theory doesn't apply to them.
Art therapy is about what the client says about the artwork. And each therapist has their own theory. For example: I'm a Feminist Jungian type of therapist. I think that people have patterns of behavior that repeat in their life until they notice them and choose to stop them. Societal expectations and gender roles hold people back from pursuing what they want or being the type of people they would like to be. If something's on a person's mind, it will come out whether I ask questions about it or not. For artwork, I like to ask people questions like "If your artwork were a type of music, what type of music would it be?" or "If your artwork was a type of food, what type of food would it be?" I don't ask "why," or "what inspired you to make that?" because the answer most likely is going to be "because I felt like it" (that would most likely be my answer). People don't have to be realistic in their artwork for it to be expressive. And they're not coming to me for me to be an art teacher to them. For my personal self, I like there to be a question or a memory I have in mind while doing the artwork or a "directive" to the art because I get to know more about myself that way. But in practice, I mostly let people choose what art materials they would like to use. I do this because it's probably been a while since people have done art and they just have to experiment with the art materials.
Freudian, humanistic, and behavioral art therapists would most likely practice a lot differently. Some might use more directives. Also, art therapist can choose the medium or style they'd like to use, such as comic books style, clay, photography, graffiti, and others. Some art therapists are more about what symbols a person used and not what the person said about the artwork. But they are trained so that they are not impeding a person's personal growth, assuming that's why they're coming to therapy.
So, therapy is not mind reading. Therapists don't tell you things about yourself that you wouldn't know about yourself. And they don't tell you things that you don't know about yourself. Also, art therapists have different styles, however, it's supposed to help in your art and growth.
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