Draw on Your Emotions

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Some thoughts about materials– Oftentimes when I do this art exercise, I leave the media choice up to clients.

Dr Sunderland is the author of over twenty books in child mental health, which collectively have been translated into eighteen languages and published in twenty-four countries.

But where I believe the added advantage of abstract art, particularly non-representational art, is that there is no reference to use. The picture activities have been carefully designed to help ease the process of both talking about feelings and exploring life choices, by trying out alternatives safely on paper. It is helpful to inform young people that there is no ‘right answer’ but that the therapist is simply interested in how they might feel in a range of situations. Information presented in this blog does not replace professional training in child and family therapy, art therapy, or play therapy . Offering a broad range of exercises which can be adapted for any ability or age from middle childhood onwards, this unique book explores a range of emotions surrounding a person1s important life experiences, key memories, relationships, best times, worst times and who they are as a person.

Biography: Dr Margot Sunderland is Director of Education and Training at The Centre for Child Mental Health London, Senior Associate of the Royal College of Medicine and Child Psychotherapist with over 30 years' experience of working with children and families. Lisa Hinz shares about using warm-up exercises to enhance affective art and explains directives like “mood states/mind states” and using art to differentiate between the four primary emotions. For more information about individual therapy, teen and child counseling, family therapy, teen group therapy, and art therapy services, please visit: www. For example, in “playing” with watercolors through a sensory-based activity, the client might discover that emotions are coming up in themselves or through the art. However, sometimes the idea of drawing or painting feelings can be really challenging for client who aren’t used to thinking about their emotions in the language of color or metaphor (or who aren’t used to paying attention to their feelings at all).The addition of the cards will help adults open the conversation with children/young people about difficult feelings. Group members are often able to relate to each other and enjoy discussing the common connections that they see. Contains a series of structured "easy to do" picture exercises to help people of all ages express, communicate and deal effectively with their emotions in everyday life.

Or a prompt for a client to create a collage about family is likely to lead to an exploration of feelings that are reflected in the chosen images. This exercise is a non-threatening introduction to an exploration of emotion in which young people are given prompts for a range of situations which might promote a variety of emotional states and are asked to draw how they would feel in these situations. Wayne speaks frequently at conferences and churches on issues related to helping kids learn to deal with difficult emotions and life in modern families. He is a happily married father of four kids with a passion for helping young people who are going through rough times.

Especially for clients who are not as used to doing art in therapy, this helps them to become more comfortable with the art process and become engaged through a prompt that can really have no right or wrong. The book also offers opportunities to rehearse other ways of functioning by trying out alternatives safely on paper. For the “how you feel today” image, I let them know that this may be one of the feelings that they already drew, it may be a combination of feelings, or it may include feelings that were not already explored. I also often ask clients which feelings were easiest or hardest to do and how they felt while they were working on it. The Emotion Cards are 48 emotive and artistic images designed to help people to review their emotions and their relationships in a meaningful and often transformative way.