HOW CAN USING ART THERAPY ADD TO OUR COACHING SKILLS?

Extract from 'Understanding children and teens'

‘The overall consensus is that art expressions are uniquely personal statements that have elements of both conscious and unconscious meaning in them, and can be representative of many different aspects of the children who create them.’ [Cathy A Malchiodi – Understanding Children’s Drawings]

A child’s drawing is just that: a drawing. It cannot be right or wrong. There can be no judgement. Indeed, I find that by having paper, felt pens, paints and crayons, glitter and other creative materials on the table makes it the first thing they see when we start work together, and is something unexpected and fun. This is their world, the world of cutting and sticking, drawing and creating. Sometimes I find my students reluctant about art therapy. They have trained in NLP, perhaps with someone who focuses more on the adult world, and they wonder how they can connect NLP and art. I can assure you that when a child is drawing you can observe their patterns and processes in a way that simply isn’t the…