January 25, 2024
Choosing media is a complicated concept. Ideally, a client will gravitate toward or choose the media they want to work with. Sometimes, media can be limited, due to a variety of reasons, and sometimes it is an evolving and collaborative process. Part of the process as an art therapist is that as you continue to learn, you will build up a repertoire of ideas (prompts or interventions)and will learn how to quickly adapt them to a variety of populations and needs.Another part is that in the beginning, we often feel more secure having particular ideas ready, sort of like recipes, that we can use in specific situations. This is all normal development as an art therapist. Another tool hat helps is to create a collection of media profiles or ideas for you to review and use to spark creativity and recall procedures quickly. The amazing thing that eventually happens to most every art therapist I know is that, with practice and experience, we no longer rely on pre-created ideas but can focus on the needs of a particular client or group and put together a plan and media choice that we feel, or sense will address the main issues of focus. The more you understand a variety of media, the better you can call up one or two options for a given situation. This is how I work. I think about the topic or issue, for example anxiety, and then in my mind, I run through various media and how to use them in ways to provoke or encourage stress relief, anxiety reduction, or even expression of what the anxiety would look like if it had a shape or color, depending on the client's needs. And then, I provide a variety of options I think will apply that the client can choose from. The important thing here is that, although you prepare, think ahead, and provide media and materials, ultimately, the client chooses what they work with. It is always more about what the client needs than what we have planned. That thought frees me up to worry less over a particular idea I may have had planned. Of course, sometimes I do bring interventions to a group or even an individual and that is usually when I first meet them, for an assessment, or for a teaching moment, or a particular focused group I may facilitate. Ultimately it’s the ability to access creative non-verbal opportunities for expression for the client that matters.