Second Step E-Newsletter
December 2011
Trusting Creativity
By Steffanie Lorig, Executive Director, Art with Heart
“When kids come from a good family, it makes our jobs easier. But when they come from a broken one, it makes our jobs more important.”
This is one of my favorite quotes. To me, the power of the words lies in the admission that we, of course, love the kids who behave, are smart, or who make our days enjoyable. But it’s really the kids who struggle, the ones who take all our patience and make our heads explode, that need to be approached with an extra measure of love, compassion, and creativity.
Stuck Where They Are
More and more, the reason these kids are so difficult is because they are stuck where they are, crippled by unwieldy burdens and emotional wounds inflicted by broken or unhealthy adults. Additionally, they most likely lack the vocabulary needed to describe what is taking up so much head space and keeping them from learning or thriving. So they’re left with no other choice but to express their frustration, anger, or anxiety by acting out.
So, what do you do when you get to the end of all you know how to do?
This is where creative expression—art—comes in handy. Studies suggest that creative expression has positive mental health benefits including fostering social-emotional development, improving self-esteem, and developing new coping strategies. It can even help them see decisions they are making and allow them to choose more effective behaviors.
Studies of children with ADHD show that creative expression is effective in promoting cognitive and emotional development, enabling relationships, and decreasing impulsive or destructive behaviors over time. It works as a salve, drawing out and promoting healing, and helping children move past and rise above the challenges they face. Expressing what’s going on in their heads and hearts helps kids “exhale” and release the negative energy that has them practically bursting at the seams.
This is especially important for kids who don’t know how to verbalize what they are feeling. Their art communicates what words can’t. It becomes a platform for feelings, thoughts, and ideas. It helps give order to the swirling mass of confusing emotions and puts it into a manageable form, where it has boundaries and can be defined and even reshaped. Even the physicality of art-making is cathartic in liberating pent-up emotions, which can be exactly what the child needs to be able to move past the roadblocks and begin again on a better path.
A Structure for Free Expression
Art with Heart’s books capture this method in easy-to-use tools that provide children with creative prompts that are based in therapy and balance free expression with very deliberate structure. Page by page, children are guided through the process of self-expression and self-discovery, encouraging open dialogue and helping them express their feelings by writing when they don’t have the confidence to speak and drawing when they don’t have the words. They help kids connect to and develop an understanding of their own emotions and reinforce their own resiliency, thus increasing their emotional well-being. School counselors, therapists, and even volunteers around the world use these tools to help support children’s social-emotional growth so they can do better in the classroom and in life.
The end result is that they learn to trust creativity to help them gain their balance back whenever life tilts unexpectedly.
The kids that make our jobs harder are the reason we do what we do. We have a moral obligation to help them rise above their challenging circumstances and fulfill their possibilities in a meaningful and life-enriching way. What an honor it is to be able to steward them and offer them creativity as a pathway to healing and wholeness.
References
Bush, J. (n.d.). About art school therapy. School Art Therapy. Retrieved from http://www.schoolarttherapy.com/school_art_therapy.htm
Gray, N., de Boehm, C. O., Farnsworth, A., & Wolf, D. (2010). Integration of creative expression into community based participatory research and health promotion with Native Americans. Family Community Health 33(3): 186-192.
Hackett, K. (n.d.). Eight ways to promote social and emotional learning in your adolescent. Education.com. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/magazine/article/ways-promote-social-emotional-learning/
National Alliance of Pupil Services Organizations (2011, March). Research brief: Effective specialized instructional support services. Author. Retrieved from http://www.nasponline.org/advocacy/napso_psychservices.pdf
Pizarro, J. (2004). The efficacy of art and writing therapy: Increasing positive mental health outcomes and participant retention after exposure to traumatic experience. Art Therapy 21(1), 5-12.
Safran, D. S. (2002). Art therapy and ADHD: Diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. London: Jessica Kingsley.
