Sunday 29 November 2015

Creative Arts in Counselling and Mental Health - some exciting news, and a big decision


This excellent, and mainly Australian, book recently got published by Sage, which is very exciting. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I co-wrote a chapter in this book with my colleagues psychologist Robert King (who also co-edited the whole book) and social worker and psychotherapist Tom O'Brien. These amazing humans assisted a group of art therapists (including myself) establish an art therapy program at University of Queensland in 2004, in the School of Medicine.

We recently graduated another talented pod of art therapists, who will go on to do fantastic work. So its particularly cool to have this collaborative work in the public domain.

The chapter in question is a systematic review of art therapy outcomes research; its exciting for me, as  I believe it provides the most substantial evidence so far that art therapy is effective.  Which is very important to those of us in the art therapy world, and indeed to anyone who wishes to include creative activities in their therapy practice.

We can now say that art therapy is as effective as other forms of psychotherapy. Of course, it has the added advantage of introducing creativity into the therapeutic space, thereby producing an enriched environment. But we already knew that.

Instagram bee tattoo design by Henrietta Harris

We now have our own bees, who make superb honey. Coincidentally, I have been feeling as busy as one, but without such great outcomes...until I recently made a big decision to leave one of my three jobs, and try to stop spreading myself too thinly (extended honey metaphor, apologies). 

So I am now in the stages of winding down that job, (three weeks to go!) which has taken up way too much time and emotional energy in the past two years, and I'm feeling excited about how next year will look. 


Of course, there is an element of risk in doing this (leaving my job), but I am feeling fairly confident I have made a good decision. Change is always scary, but as my hairdresser told me yesterday, we need change to feel alive (or something like that). But then, she would say that...

Also looking forward to blogging more often again. Its been a long time since I had spare energy for such things.

more later.

Friday 26 June 2015

Cathy Malchiodi, guilty pleasures and time


Collages from Cathy Malchiodi's Brainwise workshop

I created these 'stress-less' collages in a workshop I attended recently, by the very inspiring Dr Cathy Malchiodi, who has contributed so much to the global art therapy/expressive therapy community.

Cathy's particular skill, I believe, is to communicate clearly and effectively about art therapy - she has published numerous books on a wide range of art therapy topics. This link, above, is to the first TED talk by an art therapist...and yes it was given by Cathy Malchiodi.

When I studied art therapy, there were very few  books published on the expressive therapies. How that has changed. Often, serendipitously, one of Cathy's books appeared, just as I was thinking, 'what we need is an art therapy book about...' So I am grateful to Cathy for making art therapy more widely known, and for making my job as an art therapy educator much easier than that of my past lecturers at Goldsmiths in London in the 1980's.


Tangle doodle hand, from Cathy Malchiodi's Brainwise workshop 

Cathy's workshop was titled Brainwise Creative Interventions with Traumatised Children Young People and Families, and was hosted by the Australian Childhood Foundation. What was impressive about the day, was not so much the content, which was familiar to me, (although seeing it through the lens of working with the military was different), but seeing what a huge number of people attended, and were therefore interested in this creative and neurologically sound approach to working with trauma. And many of them were friends, colleagues and graduates of our UQ program.



I have been continuing to work three jobs this semester, which, much as I love teaching, is now, thankfully over. A few weeks respite before it all starts again...

The very exciting part about work, namely that third job, is that earlier this year I started working at Kooky Kid Clinic, which means I am now back in private practice, after a long break. I'm loving it!

Being so busy has a down side, of course. I've just noticed I appear to have needed a week off work before sitting down to write both this and my last blog post, back in April. Its a shame, that I can't manage to post more often, but its not surprising. 

And I have to thank Michael Leunig for this wisdom on recharging:



The other thing I appreciated about the Brainwise workshop was having time to make art. Ah, time, what a strange phenomenon that is...half an hour in a workshop dedicated to making art is a luxury, but time off in general can sometimes be anxiety and guilt provoking. Or is it just me? So much unstructured time, so many possibilities, but also so much potential for guilt, if I don't make totally good use of that precious time. Sigh.

I wrote recently about guilty pleasures, and Disney was included in there. So yesterday I watched Frozen, mainly as 'research', because so many of my young clients refer to it. And I am looking forward to seeing Pixar's Inside Out, about the emotions of an 11 year old girls, also for work-related reasons. Honestly.


Apparently, speaking of guilt, mothers no longer need feel guilty about working outside the home - although I noticed the benefits were based on their daughters' career success, status and income, not 'happiness' or something equally hard to measure, but probably much more important. 

Anyway, there are many other things we can pin our guilt to. (According to Cathy Malchiodi, we can now be virtual hoarders, thanks to Pinterest.)

Like colouring-in for example, as I may have mentioned in my last blog post. The media furore around this continues. I have now done three interviews about the stress-relieving aspects of colouring in. And I have been practising, and (guiltily) spent serious money on a set of Copic markers. Can't wait for them to arrive. 


More later.

Sunday 12 April 2015

Colouring-in, why its now a thing...softies, and anxiety



 

For me as a child, colouring-in was a guilty pleasure, rather like reading books by Enid Blyton (not a broad enough vocab.), watching commercial TV (too tacky) or Walt Disney (do I need to explain? If so, check out the movie Saving Mr Banks, for Emma Thompson's brilliant portrayal of PL Travers, struggling with the Disneyfication of Mary Poppins...).

Sadly, the drawings in children's colouring-in books are less than inspiring - as an older child, I preferred Altair designs, which were also more acceptable to my artist parents, as they were abstract, less prescriptive, and encouraged creative interpretation. But sitting down with some coloured pencils or felt pens and having some time out colouring was just - really - cool.

However, I could never have imagined or predicted the current level of interest in colouring-in books - for adults. Yes, colouring-in is now definitely a (grown-up) thing. A Secret Garden by Johanna Basford is a best-seller, and there are numerous other beautiful colouring-in books currently being produced.

Including this one, Breathing to a New Beat, which I have contributed a drawing to. This is the third project by Curly Pops I have been involved in...and I have to say, after rashly agreeing to produce an image, and then wondering for a couple of weeks why I create more stress in my life, by signing up for these projects...ultimately, though, its so worthwhile, thanks to Camille's fantastic creativity, encouragement and organising skills...and for a good cause. I feel very privileged to be included.

And of course, as an art therapist, this is all very interesting.

And now for some recent softies:

Baby rabbit in Hungry Caterpillar pyjamas - the free pattern is from Shiny Happy World.

 
So is the pattern for this bear, which I made into a bean bag. I am going to try using him with clients, to help them with mindful breathing.


And then there is my anxiety monster, which I shared a drawing of in my last blog post.  This is the 3-D version, fully stuffed and sewn.  I recently read My Age of Anxiety by Scott Stossel, which absolutely puts everyday anxiety into perspective. Such a brave thing to write this book...it struck me how much its about embarassing bodies, really. And how they let us down...

Having just had a relaxing week off work, I am doing pretty well with my self-care. Since writing that previous post, I have made more of an effort to keep up my meditation practice. My sleeping pattern is improving, bit by bit...

My next challenge is to start saying 'no' to some requests for work (or even art projects...). In the last three months, I have had four jobs, and in one week, I did all four (there was a bit of an overlap). This seems a little ridiculous.

 Kit Bag for Anzac Day

I'll share one more picture of a recent TAFE art project, working with new migrants with very little English,  for Harmony Day.



more later
Namaste

Sunday 15 February 2015

Back to basics


A month on from my last post, and I am struck by how perspectives can change so much in a short time. I was feeling very under-employed in January - now I am feeling the opposite, and at times, I've been quite overwhelmed in the past week, as I've struggled to adjust to this 'new normal'.

Self-care was a topic I wrote about last month, and its actually a constant theme in my thoughts, as I work in a stressful and emotionally demanding area, as a therapist with children and families. Increasingly lately, this has been impacting on my sleeping patterns, which are becoming unhelpfully unreliable.


Last night, whilst awake when I didn't want to be, I tried imagining an 'anxiety monster', as this would be something I might ask my clients to do.  This is how it looked in my mind, sort of. Its more 3D than this, and I am planning to make a soft textile version...


 I have tried to keep drawing, and posted some of my daily drawings on Instagram for a week.


I can see self-care creeping through in this drawing! Its been important to me to try to stay healthy and keep up my exercise regime and meditation practice, but the meditation has been slipping of late, which I suspect is impacting on my sleep. Everything is connected, somehow.


This collage was prompted by a dream of walking along the muddy banks of a river, probably the river Dart, which flowed through the town I lived in during most of my childhood, Totnes in Devon, South West England.  It was completed in my peer supervision group, and it is also anticipating some exciting new work projects.


I attended a great training workshop with Liana Lowenstein, a Canadian social worker, and prolific author, who also works with children, in private practice. And this week I am going to another of her workshops, this time in Sydney. The drawing is of my family as Brassicas, which I completed in Liana's workshop.

My younger son has been overseas, and this has been inducing some anxiety, although its also given us an early taste of having the proverbial empty nest. And that has been fine...

A chapter I co-wrote with a colleague has been published in a new book on working cross-culturally in creative therapies. This is really exciting. There is another chapter on the way, in fact, just about to go to the publisher, which has some great research results for art therapy. That may take a while to be published, but its even more exciting, as its the result of collaborative work with two of my colleagues over almost a decade.And I believe its ground-breaking.

There is certainly a lot happening on the work front. And its mostly all good. I just hope I can keep a good perspective on things, not get overwhelmed too often, and get back into daily mindfulness meditation.

I'll keep you posted, excuse the pun.

Namaste.

more later

Monday 12 January 2015

being moved by moving pictures

 
I have always loved the cinema, and can remember being entranced by a range of different films - seemingly overlong children's movies like ChittyChittyBangBang, which excitingly included an intermission, obscure foreign films at the beautiful 14th century Barn Theatre, Dartington Hall in Devon as a teenager, more obscure foreign films at University, and more recently, less obscure, but preferably art house films in the independent cinemas in Brisbane.

In Hobart, on holiday at the end of last year, we naturally gravitated towards the State cinema in North Hobart, and coincidentally saw two films about women behind cameras:1,000 Times Goodnight, and Finding Vivian Maier. Both were also about trauma - the first is about a woman, played by Juliet Binoche, who is a photo journalist in dangerous, war-torn places and it examines the devastating impact of this frightening work, and her absences, on her family. The first part of the film shows her filming a suicide bomber about to detonate herself in a busy market in Afghanistan, and is incredibly intense and psychologically shocking.

Recent events in France make it more so. And I couldn't help noticing, that the backgrounds of at least three of the suspected French terrorists, if that is what they were, grew up in care - they were 'looked after children'. This has to tell us something important about how people can become brutalised and have empathy deficits later in life. Basic Attachment Theory 101.

The second film we saw was a documentary about an American woman, Vivian Maier, who left a vast collection of photos, and undeveloped film, behind when she died. The film maker John Maloof found the huge body of work, which had never been seen before, and decided to investigate. The film showcases her street photography, mainly from 1950's and 60's, and also explores and relates what is remembered about her life, by those who knew her. This is a fascinating story of secrecy, survival, and also of a traumatic life, as it turns out.

Two more recent films we have seen are the Imitation Game and Birdman. Both are great, go see them.

 Quote by Vivian Greene - one of my favourites, its very ACT

On a different note, I just re-completed the Happiness survey, and scored 84.3 %, higher than when I last did it, in December 2010, which is effectively when I started this blog. Up by almost 10%. I know how stats can be manipulated, so I am not making any claims, but its interesting. And yes, I have to admit I am excited about some things that are happening at the moment, which I hope to write about soon. Meanwhile, I am going to yoga soon. Its been difficult, with all my self-care strategies being on a break. How are we supposed to take a break, if our mechanisms for doing so are also on a break? Hmm.



More later.


Sunday 4 January 2015

Out of Tasmania - Happy New Year!




This series of bird images derives from a sewing project, in a book called Scandinavian Stitching by Finnish textile artist Kajsa Wikman.  

I used the leftover paper cut outs of iron on bird shapes to collage this image in my visual journal, above. I then almost ruined it by drawing on the back, with markers, whilst creating the image below. I tried to rescue the first image, and sort of succeeded (its a bad photo), by using a white paint pen. I really like the whimsical bird images, and decided to keep exploring them, although I don't usually work with other people's designs.


In this image, I started with the numbers, which span across two journal pages, and then cut out the 'one' and the 'five', leaving two empty spaces, into which I then drew birds, on the page beneath. So there was a pattern of each page being influenced by the previous/following one.  Kind of like days, and years, really. No such thing as a clean slate!


This is the original image on quilted fabric, using random scraps of material, and using the same bird design. I treated it as quilting practice, really, as its something I'm still not very experienced in. I had fun with this!

 Tessellated Pavement, Tasman Peninsula

I read three books by Tasmanian authors at the end of last year - The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan, What Days Are For by Robert Dessaix, and The Dirty Chef by Matthew Evans. The first is a well-known, moving and much-loved novel about migrants in Tasmania, and the impact of loss and grief on two generations. The second is Dessaix's memoir - musings on mortality and what he calls life's layers, after a sudden heart attack, and the third is a fascinating (and often mouth-watering) account of novice farmer, former food critic and city dweller Evans, as seen on SBS's series Gourmet Farmer. All are aiming for authenticity in their own sphere - and it was good to read them whilst in Tasmania.



I love these images of the Tessellated Pavement on the Tasman Peninsula. The shapes, although naturally occurring through erosion, are quite regular, and the straight lines are unusual in nature, so it looks quite surreal.

A nice rave about 'detoxing' for the New Year, by Oliver Burkeman, here. Happy New Year, and please leave a comment, if you want to. I've had over 15,000 visits to this blog since I started five years ago, in late 2009, which is amazing!

more later.