From the site: Connect for Kids

by: Letitia Star

Darius* was one angry boy. Before the Art Therapy Connection, the troubled nine-year-old hardly spoke, but regularly communicated his bottled-up rage by throwing chairs at anyone in his path. He was failing math and unable to read at his grade level.

But about seven months after starting a unique art therapy program in the Chicago Public Schools, Darius was able to proudly show his art therapist his report card with Bs and Cs. The Art Therapy Connection helps children and teens in danger of failing or dropping out of school by encouraging them to create art and safely communicate their thoughts and feelings. By using art therapy as a means of self-expression and self-discovery, students can have a more successful school year. The Art Therapy Connection works to increase concentration levels, self-esteem and self-control, as well as enhance interpersonal skills and defuse angry feelings.

A Loving Connection

"When Darius first started art therapy he needed so much nurturing," said Gwenn Waldman, executive director of program development. She is a licensed clinical professional counselor and registered art therapist.

"His mother was in prison for life and he was so angry that he couldn't focus on his schoolwork. One day his teacher asked if I could work with him because he had just slammed his fist into a wall.

"I laid out an enormous sheet of paper and told him to draw or write anything he wanted because no one was going to see it. He drew ugly and violent pictures and was ridding himself of toxic emotions," said Waldman.

Once he finished, Waldman told him to tear it up.

"He had the most fun ripping up the paper and putting it in his mouth and chewing it. His muscles relaxed and he began to look playful," she commented. This experience gave him so much power and taught him alternative ways to express anger. He saw that he could control his schoolwork and behavior."

Drawing Out the Best in Kids

Waldman started the Art Therapy Connection, a not-for-profit organization, in September 2002 in the Richard E. Byrd Community Academy of Chicago's Cabrini-Green neighborhood. Although Byrd has since closed, the program continues in several other Chicago public schools and has helped over 300 enthusiastic students.

"We currently work with 115 students in two K-through-8 schools, the Jenner Academy of the Arts and the National Teachers Academy during the 2005-2006 year," said Carolyn Collins, who is executive director of business development for the Art Therapy Connection (ATC) as well as a licensed clinical professional counselor and registered art therapist.

"At the beginning of the school year, we present a one-hour in-service to teachers and administrators, who identify those kids who need the most help. We take children out of the classroom and work with them in groups during the school day," commented Collins.

"The Art Therapy Connection has helped students express themselves through their creative talent which is critical to building self-esteem. I would recommend this program for any student population," said Joseph Gartner, former principal of Byrd. He is now the director of Jenner.

"I always feel happier about myself after art therapy," said one 14-year-old boy.

Frustration and Anger Wall

Waldman got the idea for the Frustration and Anger Wall when she visited Jerusalem and was moved by seeing people praying at the Wailing Wall. "People wrote notes to God and put them in the Wailing Wall," she remembers. "I created the Frustration and Anger Wall as a result of that experience."

The wall is so popular that even students who aren't enrolled in the Art Therapy Connection ask to use it."Students frequently draw guns because they make them angry," says Waldman. "Kids live in neighborhoods where most adults have guns. Most have witnessed seeing someone shot, including a relative. They lay in bed at night hearing gun shots and are scared."

Gartner says that it's easy to create a "Frustration and Anger Wall" in a classroom or on a home bulletin board. "Just put up paper and have crayons and markers available. This wall is something that a classroom teacher could facilitate."

Waldman suggested these basic rules:

 Don't sign your name or write anyone else's name

No swear words

 Be respectful of other students' work

"It's easy to see student progress by their ongoing contributions," added Gartner.

The Mandala

"All the kids really love creating mandalas," Waldman said. "They get paper with a circle on it. We talk about finding that center and place of peacefulness within themselves.

"Inside the circle they paint anything that they can control. The mandala shows in tangible artwork that they can control something — which becomes who they are," she commented. "That's why the circle is so important because it has no beginning and no end.

"They draw what they can't control outside of the circle. This is what makes them angry in their environment," she added. "Drawings include tombstones, gangs and faces with tears."

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John McCulloch

This article evolves from a study undertaken by the author in 2004, which set out to explore ways of finding out from people with learning disabilities who have used art therapy services about their views and experience of art therapy provision. The article has drawn from a literature base that includes art therapy but is also informed by the broader sociological literature within learning disability research.

The paper considers the influence of ethical committees in shaping decisions within qualitative research design. Ethical, methodological and organisational issues are discussed as a consequence of emerging difficulties encountered in setting up the research study.

The impetus for this article came from my growing frustration in working as an art therapist with people with learning disabilities, due to limitations of not having a system to formalise a patient’s own evaluation of treatment and services received. In conducting a literature search I was hoping to find out how other therapists have addressed the issue of user involvement in evaluation with this client population, but became aware of the lack of published information.

This study aimed to evaluate whether art therapy provision met the needs of people with learning disabilities who have in the past used art therapy services and to recommend changes to improve services. In order to find out more about whether art therapy provision was meeting the needs of people with learning disabilities, I wanted to be able to gather information from former service users regarding their experience of art therapy service provision.

For this purpose, a focus group was chosen as the fundamental investigative tool. Additionally a series of ‘prompt’ questions were formulated which closely followed principles suggested for the audit and evaluation of service provision set out by the Department of Health in their strategic policy on Psychotherapy Services in England (1996:61). According to the document’s authors’, services can be successfully judged against a number of criteria: relevance; equity; accessibility; acceptability; efficiency; effectiveness; empowerment. These principles provided a structure for the formulation of nine prompt questions, which were divided into those that asked questions about participants’ understanding of art therapy processes and those that had a focus on the quality of, and satisfaction with, art therapy service provision. Other questions looked at important areas of the therapy process itself and had a focus on participants’ perceptions of effectiveness of treatment. All of the questions were designed to prompt group members to consider particular aspects of their experience of art therapy and to invite reflection on the factors highlighted in the psychotherapy strategic review document.

However the nature and substance of the enquiry changed following application to the Local Research Ethics Committee (LREC). Whilst the original application for ethical approval was granted, this was subject to changes being made within the research application. In order to proceed a research protocol was required that delegated responsibility for ensuring that prior to recruitment, a participant’s psychiatrist was consulted regarding whether, in their opinion, a participant was able to give informed consent. This was recommended by LREC since the research study was to be undertaken outside the NHS Health Board area in which the researcher was employed.

This current paper draws upon and extrapolates from protracted difficulties in setting up the study, and subsequent unsuccessful attempts of recruiting potential subjects' to the focus group. Since I was not sure whether the reasons for recruitment difficulties was a consequence of limitations imposed by the research protocol, or, whether the failure was more a reflection of people exercising a choice not to become involved in the study, I thought this question merited fuller enquiry. This led me to further investigate the way in which initial contact was made as I thought that there was a correlation between the research protocol and the difficulties encountered in recruitment.

Art therapy is one of the few psychotherapeutic professions offering access to people with learning difficulties (Rees, 1998:15). However, and despite a long history of service provision, there have been few studies, until recently, that have attempted to assess the impact of such treatment with this population. A notable recent exception has been the study by Pounsett et al (2006) which sets out to examine whether change can be measured in art therapy with adults with moderate/severe learning disabilities. In their summarising, the authors acknowledge that future consideration in their research would benefit from seeking a more active involvement from service users as researchers. In the literature, there is little published research studies in which service users have been consulted to give their views of services or treatment, and a lack of published accounts of attempts at including such views in the shaping of decisions pertaining to how future services are delivered.

According to Parry consideration of client/user perspectives is an ethical issue and ‘meeting users’ requirements is a fundamental definition of service quality’ (1996:435). Although there may be difficulties with obtaining service users’ views regarding satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the services they receive Parry suggests that ‘anonymity, independent data collectors, triangulation, and persistence’ are important, and ‘actively involving users or ex-users in assessing services’ acceptability’ is a key component in determining service quality.

Taylor (1998:207-208) points to health reports issued by the Welsh Office which highlight the need for clinicians to carry out clinical effectiveness research providing that such research can demonstrate ‘objective evidence of effectiveness’ in ways which include consultation with service users. According to the Welsh Office reports, clients’ views need to be taken more seriously by practitioners as they can provide an important source of corroboration about the effectiveness of treatment and as such their opinions ought to be ‘incorporated into any system of change or modification’ (1998:217).

Engagement in Service evaluation is more often a routine feature of clinical practice in areas such as Mental Health. In these circumstances patients are sent a follow-up evaluation questionnaire post-therapy to assess the effectiveness of the treatment intervention. This is not standard procedure with people with learning disabilities, perhaps because of a range of difficulties associated in working with this group. However as a consequence, this places barriers to effective participation in peoples’ care and treatment and leads to further disempowerment of this client group.

In seeking to work with clients from the outset of contact with the Service, to try and engage with them in the evaluation of the Service, not only is one trying to make them partners in their own treatment, but also partners in evaluating that treatment. In addition one is also looking at educational processes and structures that might help people to be more empowered in that way.

Article continued here

בספר שימושי ומעורר השראה זה, המכוון לכל מי שעוסק בליקויי למידה, ימצאו עניין מוראים, עובדים סוציאליים, פסיכולוגים, קלינאי תקשורת ומדריכי קבוצות מקצועיים אחרים. הספר ערוך בצורה בהירה ומלווה בתרגולים שקל לבצעם וניתן לצלמם מתוכו. הספר כולל הקדמה מקיפה שדנה בדרישות המוקדמות לארגון קבוצת דרמה יוצרת, ומכסה טווח רחב של נושאים וביניהם הגעה וברכות ,עבודה עם הגוף, עבודה עם החושים, עבודה עם הקול, משחקי תפקידים וקישורי חיים, ונושאים רבים אחרים.
מוגש בצורה מושחת ונעימה לקריאה ומראה את היתרונות שיש לדרמה יוצרת: פיתוח מיומנויות חברתיות, פיזיות ומילוליות. הגברת סובלנות, הכבוד וההבנה בקבוצה. חיזוק ההערכה העצמית של הפרט, ביטחונו ביצירת תקשורת ואסרטיביות שלו.
אנה צ'סנר היא דרמה-תרפיסטית, פסיכודרמטיסטית ופסיכותרפיסטית אנליטיקאית של קבוצות בעלות רקע בדרמה ובהוראת דרמה. בלתה חמש שנים כדרמה-תרפיסט פסיכודרמטיסטית המסופחת לקרן סוריי הארטלנד של שירותי הבריאות, עבדה גם בשירות בתי-הסוהר, ועסקה בפסיכיאטריה של מתבגרים וקשישים. עבדה במינכן, שם התמחתה בעבודה עם צעירים וזוגות וניהלה קבוצת תיאטרון פלייבק המבוסס על אימפרוביזציה ? אווגנבליק. במשך שנים מספר עסקה בהכשרה ובהדרכה של תרפיסטים באנגליה, הודו ומינכן וכעת שבה ללונדון.