Expressive Arts Therapy ideas to try at home
Compiled by Theresa Adamchik, LPCC-S, LPAT
Here are just some suggestions to support you and your families during this difficult year. You are doing a great job!
1. Affirmation cards: Teaches positive self talk and encouragement. Affirmations work best if you see them every day. So put them in the car, on the mirror, under their pillow, or keep in their backpack.
Materials Needed: Card stock, matte board, or watercolor paper cut into uniform sizes. I like 5x8. Design a background first using paints, markers, collage, or crayons. Then write an affirmation that you resonate with. Could be “I am safe.” “ I am strong.” “I can do this.” “I am healthy.” Find a nice gift bag to keep your cards in.
Parent processing: work together with your kids during this project and talk about their fears and anxieties. Help them with positive, unconditional love and support. Even if you don’t feel good yourself, give them the light that they need to grow. They are more resilient and made for these times. Even if you are struggling, doesn’t mean that you will necessarily pass along to the kids. They can form their own ways of doing things. Give them what they need to succeed.
2. Meditation and Mindfulness: If you want your kids to do this, then it would be important for the parents to also have a Mindfulness practice so they can model it for their children. We cant expect our schools to teach this too, starts at home. It all comes down to clearing your mind; activities that help with that are walking the dog, watercolor painting, reading, dancing, hiking, etc. For 5-30 minutes per day, practice “just being.” Focus on taking slower, deeper breaths. You can use an “anchor” which is counting, a word or mantra, or grounding. See our blog post on more mindfulness activities for kids, http://louisvilleexpressivetherapies.com/blog
3. Protection: Imagination is a powerful tool that we humans have available to us. Imagine your kids, house and schools protected by guardian angels, Christ, loved ones that have left this Earth, fairies, etc. Use your best judgment with this, do what feels good to you and your family. Little kids love using their imagination and have an easier time with this. See Rudolf Steiner’s work to go deeper.
4. It takes a village: Ask for help if you are struggling to provide the stability they need. Ask a teacher, therapist, or family friend. Facing the shadows of life (death, dying, sickness, etc.) is not easy, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the road. These kids are going to be highly evolved for this world, they will be more mature at an earlier age, but they will need intelligent, mature grownups to take them there. Listen to their fears and feelings and tell them its okay to feel that way. Encourage authentic expression of ALL the feelings.
5. Supervise tv, news and phones. Monitor what they are putting into their brains. Is it positive or negative? Is it fear producing? Promote talking about fears and anxieties around what they have seen. Set aside a time during the week to discuss current events together as a family. Set your own boundaries with this and lead by example.
6. Diet: Choose immunity building foods. Make a nutritious meal, limit fast foods. Eat the Rainbow! Pick foods that are colorful and full of vitamins and minerals, try juices and smoothies. Plan for dinners and budgets. Drink clean water.
7. Exercise: Get regular exercise. Take a walk, have a dance party with lights and costumes, or do Cosmic Kids yoga on YouTube. Making wise choices shows you care about yourself and your kids.
8. Masks: Teach that self confidence and self worth comes from within and not how you look. Stay positive going into it, its only temporary. The universe mirrors what you are putting out there. Have fun with it for the little kids. Make or purchase silly masks so you keep it light and fun, kind of like a game or dress up. The teens can even customize their masks to express their individuality. Recognize that kids might feel safer with them on. There are shy kids out there that are feeling more confident. Everyone is playing the same game, we must look people in the eyes, a good reminder that we are all in this together and we are the same!
9. Teachers: respect our teachers, they might be parents too. They are struggling this year more than the kids probably. Reinforce the statement “We are all in this together.” Help out and show your support. Its not their fault, they were not given a lot of information and are doing the best that they can.
Further guidance: It wouldnt be right to not thank my own teachers for their guidance and support. Dr. Cathy Malchiodi, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Reshma Saujani, Brene Brown, Rudolf Steiner, Deepak Chopra, Robert Ohotto, Amanda Ellis, Dr. T out at Cedar Fire Farms (Frankfort KY) just to name a few! Check them out for further information.
Creative Mindfulness Resources for Kids and Teens
Creative Mindfulness for Children.
Prompts compiled by Julia Purcell, MT-BC and Aven Purcell, LPCA.
Mixed ages and abilities, adapt as necessary
1. Look around the room and find something you've never noticed before. You can have child use their “third eye” and name as many things as they can from where their sitting.
2. Melt or Freeze: review what these two words mean. Talk about how we can have a Melt or Freeze brain, and/or a Melt or Freeze body.
3. Ring a bell (any instrument), have another person close eyes and raise their hand when they don't hear the ring anymore.
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KghYx7OWz1I I like to say worries instead of waggles.
5. STOP Skill: Stop what you're doing / Take a breath / Observe / Proceed
6. Breathing Boards: https://care.uci.edu/services/Breathing%20boards.pdf
7. Rainbow Breathing: https://branchhabitat.blogspot.com/2014/03/rainbow-breathing-exercise-and-worksheet.html
8. Heartbeat Count: Have child find their heartbeat and count the resting rate. Have them dance/exercise for 30 seconds and then have them count their heartbeat again.
9. Tense and release: Help child scan their body for tension. Once identified, have them tense up that area for ten seconds, then release.
10. Body Trace: have child close their eyes and imagine tracing their body outline. Ask about colors, patterns, or textures they might be imagining on or around their outline.
11. Scribble Drawing - Scribble on paper while listening to music… when done, find and fill in three shapes- create a story or song incorporating the three shapes.
12. Trace Hand on piece of paper - 5 things we can experience with our senses:
5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can feel, 2 things you can smell, 1 thing you love about yourself.
13. “I am breathing in - I am breathing out” Sing it in you head to an ascending and descending 5 notes scale
14. Guided meditation scripts: https://www.greenchildmagazine.com/free-meditation-guided-relaxation-scripts-kids/
15. Before and after body pictures- Guide child through a body scan- noticing colors and sensations in different parts of the body. Have child choose 4-5 colors and assign emotion states to each color. Have child color in a body outline with their current body state. Lead them through another body scan and have them picture their “best, most ideal” self what does it look like/feel like? Have child fill out another body outline with their ideal self. Have them list the feeling/emotion states that are associated with their “best” selves
14. Rhythmic Mantras: say them/chant them in rhythm with a drum beat
I am thankful
Let it go
I am calm
This will pass
I am strong
Breathing in, breathing out
15. Drawing Mantras:
I am thankful: practicing gratitude. Draw picture of self with 3 or 4 thought bubbles around. Write or draw what you are grateful for
I’m the Pond: Draw a pond with several fish and label them with emotions: sad, angry, happy, excited, etc… Lesson; we are not our emotions… we can see them swim, notice them without judgment and let them swim away. We can feel the emotion without letting it take over
Letting Go: Draw three or four balloons. What can you let go of? Draw or write in the balloons. Recognizing the things we cannot control {such as the actions of others} and letting go of our frustration
16. Singing: we sing a song to learn that when we stop and feel our breathing, we feel more calm and focused.
“Peace Like a River” song
I’ve got peace like a river…. In my soul
I’ve got Love like a fountain …. In my soul
I’ve got Love like an ocean
What else do you have? Have children make up their own verse.
Pebble Meditation uses four little rocks to represent simple, yet powerful, concepts, and the central mindfulness practice of breathing in and breathing out to concentrate the mind on these ideas when they are shared. The meditation involves contemplating each pebble one at a time, and the qualities it represents:
Breathing in, I see myself as a flower. Breathing out, I am beautiful just as I am. I feel fresh.
Breathing in, I see myself as a mountain. Breathing out, I feel solid. Nothing can move or distract me.
Breathing in, I see myself as still water, a calm clear light. Breathing out, I reflect things just as they are, inside and around me.
Breathing in, I see myself as the blue sky with a lot of space in and around me. Breathing out, I feel free and at ease.
The flower pebble teaches our kids that they are beautiful, just as they are. It communicates self-acceptance.
The mountain pebble teaches our kids they are solid. They can have their own ideas, and convictions, and communicates self-confidence.
The water pebble teaches our kids to be calm. It teaches them to see and communicate with honesty and clarity.
The sky pebble teaches our kids they are free. Free from worries. Free from their emotions. And free to be at ease with themselves.
More mindfulness resources:
https://www.doyou.com/14-effective-meditations-for-young-children-76520/
Art Therapy Prompts for Kids and Teens
ART HEALS, Stay crafty my friends. Just wanted to share 15 Art Journal Prompts compiled by Theresa Adamchik, LPCC, LPAT, Mixed ages and abilities, adapt as necessary:
1.Selfies: draw the shell of a cell phone screen and have the kids draw their portraits, add personal decorative touches
2. Family Drawing: Draw your family doing an activity together, could be a fav memory
3. Dealing with the Unknown: Tear up a piece of paper and then reassemble the pieces into a new piece of art
4. Watercolor painting only using primary colors, Yellow, red and Blue. Wet the page and observe how the colors mix to make new colors
5. Painted rocks: Find and paint rocks and/or write positive messages on them. Leave them in public places so others will find them.
6. Split Personality: Split the page in two, draw or collage two opposites
7. Aquarium or under the Sea picture
8. Stress Relief page: Write, draw your stress relievers (mine would be full of Sloths and Bob Ross)
9. Chalk Board: Use chalk to write positive messages to yourself. We have a chalk board wall for this. Also chalk works well on the sidewalk or rocks!
10. Solar System: Create your own solar system, planets, galaxies, space creatures?
11. Phobia page: What are you scared of and why?
12. Donut pages or fav desserts: draw different colored donuts or sweet treats, yum!
13. Garden of the Soul: Create your garden, what does your garden need, what seeds are you planting for the future?
14. Holiday page, what is your fav holiday, decorate a page with all the colors and symbols of that day. Why is it your fav?
15. SMEAR, finger paint, smear dirt, tear the edges, get messy! Might want to get outside to do this one and wear an apron
Art Prompts to help address Anxiety
Art prompts to help deal with anxiety
Mixed ages and abilities, adapt as necessary.
1) Draw your safe place, use color and design.
2) Pinpointing anxiety inside a body outline. Draw a body outline, fill in the parts of the body that feel anxiety, what is the color, shape form of anxiety?
3) Thought in a box. Draw a box and place the thing you want to let go of in the box. Imagine yourself freeing yourself from these unwanted thoughts.
4) Draw frustration, what does it look like and feel like? Share your drawing with a friend or family member or therapist.
5) Measuring anxiety on a scale, like a 1-10 scale or a thermometer, how would you rate your anxiety today?
6) Stress monster- Draw or use collage images to make a stress monster and draw yourself defeating it, what do you need to defeat it, what tools, coping skills do you need?
7) Mood forecast, draw a weather forecast that represents your mood, cloudy, sunny, stormy?
Expressive Therapy Activities
Reference: Cathy Malchiodi’s book, Trauma and Expressive Arts Therapy
Movement
dancing
yoga
energy arts (tai chi, Qi Gong, Aikido)
Play
walking a labyrinth (there is one off taylorsville road and out at Mt St Francis)
Sound
singing
drumming
playing an instrument
humming
chanting/prayers
vibration
listening
Storytelling
Drama
enactment
role play-improv
art making
image making
doodling
coloring
costume and mask making
creative writing/writing lyrics
ceremony and ritual
Silence
mindfulness
meditation
contemplation
art making
yoga
watching the arts on tv or computer (theater, dance, performance)