HUM6365 – Collaborating Across Disciplines

Art Therapy Exercise #8

The goal is to increase self-awareness and
explore issues in the patient’s home environment.

I used the prompt from http://www.arttherapyjournal.org/art-therapy-exercise-8.html for this week's exercise. The activity required that I make a large rectangle, then create a design for a welcome mat that represents who I am (or who I see myself to be). I was also allowed to write a message in addition to using differing shapes, lines, and colors. The creation of the artwork was easy and simple. I suppose that in the presence of an arts therapist there would be conversation around the drawing to allow the therapist to dive deeper into my view of myself.

While this is an arts therapist activity, it doesn't seem all that complicated to me. I, of course, do not have the training to understand or perceive what an arts therapist would be looking for in terms of analyzing the image I created. And I am blessed to have a very healthy and happy home life. I would imagine that the arts therapist may find their patient has things going on in their lives that would show up in their drawing.

Would I ask a patient to create something like this in my arts in medicine practice? Probably not, because I would have no need to analyze what the patient thought about their identity. But is is something they might create? I would have to say yes, because they may have just moved into a new home or maybe they are thinking about the home they wish they could be in instead of the hospital, with the caveat that it most likely would not be a personality welcome mat but just a pretty welcome mat without the prerequisite personal representation of self. Yet, I could ask them to create an image with somethings that are important to them, which is another way of creating about one's identity.

The materials I used were markers and watercolor paper. The instructions permitted the use of paints, markers, crayons, or colored pencils. I had just received the colored markers as part of an adult coloring book package and like that they are brush markers instead of hard point markers, so chose to use them to create this drawing.

Art Therapy Exercise #8 | Art Therapy Ideas | ArtTherapyJournal.org. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.arttherapyjournal.org/art-therapy-exercise-8.html