"Art therapy". What feelings and associations with this word appear?

Beauty, harmony, joy, childhood, creativity, resources, imagination, wonder. I too at first was. But deeper was the other Association: reality, truth, conflict, shadow, back, pain, trauma, chaos.

Similar to two sides, relationship: there's a front or back cover, and there's something hidden under it. What do you wonder? And do you have the strength and courage to look deep into the picture? To lose symmetry and control, exit patterns, beautiful colorings and meet up with hidden meanings?

These meetings are sometimes very resource: what was hiding inside, it can contain a lot of energy possibilities. So often in working with aggression. In the drawings of the customers a lot of black, red, they are crumpled, torn, beyond and borders. Nothing like these drawings into beautiful, symmetrical "coloring antistress" or "template pink flowers". But in the found images of anger and aggression is a lot of clarity, of truth, of desires, of power, of life. The reality, based on which you can move on to build the border, increase range, expand the background, to find their place.

In my opinion, art therapy is based on reality, not on dreams and illusion. This support is justified "paradoxical Theory of change Arnold Beisser". Briefly it can be formulated as: change occurs when man becomes what he really is, and not when a person attempts to become the who he is.

the Change is not reinforced by attempts of the person or some other attendant to change the person, but they occur, if this person is slowly making efforts to be what he is - to be completely focused ("nested") to date.

Rejecting the role of "agent of change" we allow changes to happen and be meaningful.

Art therapy and work with the figure gives the opportunity to see and feel what is, not to hurry to change, embellish. Can't escape from your life, from your inner world, the which is any pattern.

this, in my opinion, is a professional humanistic position and resistance art therapist: to be honest with ourselves and the client, see "different sides of the coin", to be interested in and empathise with what is now, not how right or how it will be in the result.

Thank you for the inspiration to write this article clients and students of the project "Basic techniques of art therapy", and especially those who were disappointed and outraged at my professional values and smilemy the work described above.

Art therapist, Gestalt therapist leading training program "Basic techniques of art therapy", Elena Sotnichenko