What is a session like with Dione? What’s an art therapy online session like? It’s a very good question I’ve had recently. So you probably know that I’m a creative arts therapist and that means that I try and use people’s creative superpowers to help them overcome their problems or make their life more of what they want it to be. And usually we’re successful, just saying. But so what is it like?
What happens in an art therapy session?
So sometimes we might do art or you might share your art or your writing or your creative endeavors with me during the session but most often we will just be talking about those things. I am more than happy for you to do art in session. In fact I’d like to do it more.
But what we’re most likely to do is talk about what’s bothering you. What you want to change. Try and figure out and identify how you’d like things to be and then figure out how to make that happen using your creative superpowers.
There will be homework – fun homework!
You’ll decide on your homework, with some suggestions from me. It’ll be a creative thing. The homework might be some art or some writing or something else. There’s just too many things for me to even give you a list, and say it’ll be one of these five or six or eight things. It depends on you!
Every session is different – because every client is different
So the session… I could never tell you, even at the beginning, how a session is going to go, because we go with what feels right, what comes up, what you bring, what I bring, and together we figure that out. I could give you a couple of examples maybe.
So maybe if somebody said to me “I’m feeling… I’m just feeling… uh…” and they couldn’t really describe to me or they try and they just can’t really get it right, to describe how they’re feeling or how they felt in a certain time. Then I will probably ask: Do you think you could write about that for me? Or do you think you could draw how that felt? or if it felt right I might ask: How would you show that on your face? How would you show that in your body? If you were using your body and no words to describe how that felt, then how would you do that?
You don’t always need words
Maybe in reply they might make a facial expression and movement that explains a lot! Doesn’t that communicate a lot? But you don’t always need words. Sometimes ‘other than words’ are better ways to explain or express something. And we can use that! We can use that movement.
I might reflect back the movement that I’ve seen from you or I might ask you to exaggerate one part of it or make it the whole thing longer. Then we’ll see what comes from that.
When it comes to writing usually people will write out of session and I ask if they’re willing to share that with me and maybe I will suggest the next thing to write from that. So maybe if you wrote a letter to somebody or some feeling or some part of you, then maybe I might ask you to write a response. For example, what would that feeling or that part of you say back to your letter?
If you had drawn me a picture I might ask you about the picture. We might talk about the colors, the placement, which things stood out in the picture to you. How you felt when you drew it. I might ask about what’s happening beyond the page, in the story, in the picture, what happened before or after.
All those kinds of questions can sometimes help illuminate your thinking, and help you learn a bit more and take the next step.
Come! Try it out with me in a free introductory session!
Those are some good examples of what we might do in a session. You know that I have a free 20 minute session, if you’re just curious. If you think I might be helpful for someone you know or if you’re thinking for yourself. Maybe you’d like to do some online arts therapy with me. Go ahead, go to my contact page, book in a 20-minute intro session. No obligation. You can ask any questions tell me a little bit about what’s going on and if you feel like you could work with me. I will give you some ideas of how we might be able to work on those things.
The only way to know really, is to try it out!
