Art Therapy Group 2022
Tessa and Deb began running the Caring Thru Art sessions from 3rd November and had 24 carers RSVP where we focused on offering Self-Care tools using a variety of art therapy mediums and self-care experiences such as mindfulness and meditation.
We know that Art therapy is a way to develop interpersonal skills, manage behaviour, reduce stress, increase self-esteem, and achieve insight into some of our own behaviour. Every day carers can live under some level of pressure, stress or anxiety and art can help them to regulate the emotions they have.
During our first week carers completed their own Strength Shield as a way to have a visual reminder of their strengths and attributes and create positive thoughts and feelings to counteract the sometimes-negative feelings they may have when caring for often complex children in care.
Our second week involved Troy Firebrace who is a traditional owner, teacher and artist and he led the group to draw and then paint a plant from nature using watercolours. Troy wants to ensure that Aboriginal art and culture is understood and validated. We all felt very relaxed and inspired by this session.
We also taught a grounding technique called 54321 which is a tool you can use if you are getting anxious or your emotions are taking over as it engages all your senses.
Our third week involved creating a Self-Care box and using charcoal to create a drawing. The self-care box and the carers decorated the small box and made up little tokens to put inside such as affirmations, inspiring ideas, self-care tasks and things they were grateful for . It can be comforting to have something small, tangible, and beautiful when things are tough. It is a simple activity and can have impactful and therapeutic results in times of need.e had several carers write to us after the session thanking us, for example:
“Great session, I have had a busy day and I really was surprised at how I became very mindful with creating the little box. Many thanks!”
Another carer was unable to attend due to the 5-year-old in her care not settling down for the night – he had experienced extreme trauma, but we were able to suggest that she try our Lotion Time with him, and this helped him to relax and go to sleep. So, although not able to participate she was able to add another tool to her bag.
Another carer loved it so much, she was going to get another box for the child in her care to make their own.
Week 4 included Meditative painting using watercolours and the carers again enjoyed the experience, they were so involved in the process we had to call time to end the session and finish off with a meditation. Carers spoke of doing this with the children in their care as they thought it would be very relaxing and help them in challenging times.
We still have week 5 and 6 to complete and we hope that these sessions will be as powerful for each carer as they have been so far and provide them with tools to use their creativity thus helping to maintain their own self-care. The feedback has been extremely positive and we hope to offer this program again in 2023 both during the day and another group at night.
