Art Therapy

At our last moms' meeting, we met with Wendy Maayan, our Sunday Circle Art Therapist.  Wendy works for JFSA and told us about how she uses art therapy.  

Art is therapeutic.  It puts you in a different place.  Art therapy works well for people who cannot verbalize a particular emothion or articulate how they are feeling, including many children with special needs.  Art has a way of removing the mask we sometimes wear.

Wendy said that at Sunday Circle her art goals are that the children should have fun, take pride in their work, and develop social skills as they work with their friends.  One way to achieve these goals is by asking children to "Point to your favorite part of your picture."  Then cut out that part, paste it on a new paper, and design a new picture stemming from the original.

You can also extend an activity or expand on a piece.  For example, after naming a color in the art, you could ask, "What else in the room is green?"  You could also look for darker and lighter shades of a color.

After explaining a bit about art therapy, Wendy engaged us in a hands-on activity where we were able to express ourselves through art. 

Wendy also shared a handout describing art therapy and with some resources for art therapy which I will post in the next few days.

We all enjoyed and learned a lot from this meeting!