While you are here – please check out my home page!
My Art Therapy Group Sessions have now come to an end. Part of me was sadden by this, as I was going to miss the meeting up each week, with a group of women whom I have gotten to know and appreciate. Over a period of seven weeks, we have all shared deeply personal thoughts, emotions and feelings with an honesty and frankness that is generally very rare with people whom you barely know. The art therapist herself proved to be an intrinsic part of the success of this Art Therapy Group set of workshops. We left with the knowledge that art for therapy, has a place in our lives that will give us a voice to express ourselves seriously and sometimes just for the fun of it!
It was at this last Art Therapy Session, the Art Therapist had us start with an exercise that would involve each of us contributing to one another’s art work. We were asked to gather up, art materials and a piece of butcher paper and commence producing an art work. The theme was around, what we found we had gained from attending the Art Therapy Sessions overall; and what we had gained also from each other. We were given a short period of time to do this and then we were required to passed onto the group member next to us to contribute their part. This process preceded via each group member until each had contributed on each and every art work.
Featured above is mine and I commenced with a circle of green, squiggly lines and in the middle of that, I wrote the words ‘BEING’. Then I wrote the words: ‘exploring self’; ‘understanding others’; ‘appreciation’; ‘new connections’; and ‘new artistic ideas’. The rest of the art work were the contributions of the other group members.
We were then asked to make a set of little cards that would be representative of each group member. Each card needed to be about what we had learned about that group member. I firstly chose a colour that, for me, reflected their personality and then used symbols to tell my story as requested. I add a common element of the silver pieces which was a symbolic representation of finding the ‘silver lining’ in life. I also used gold and silver paint to be symbolic of the best I found in them all over the course of the 7 sessions. Once this task was completed, we shared with each other our cards and their stories about that group member.
NB: Below are my set of cards – each representing a group member and the bright green card is the one I made for myself.
3. ArtTherapy Group Session 7 ‘Our journey is at an end!’ Painting by Abstract Artist Karen Robinson Sept 2014 NB All images are protected by copyright laws.JPG
To finish up our last session, we had lunch together. It was a warm and friendly atmosphere with lots of laughs and good conversation and a blossoming of new friendships. Art Therapy at its best I feel…
Thank you for joining me on this Art Therapy Group Session Journey! Please click on the below links to view Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 Art Therapy Group Sessions:
- Art Therapy Group Session 1 of 7
- Art Therapy Group Session 2 of 7
- Art Therapy Group Session 3 of 7
- Art Therapy Group Session 4 of 7
- Art Therapy Group Session 5 of 7
- Art Therapy Group Session 6 of 7
Whilst you are here – please check out my home page! My Art Therapy Journey – A window into the soul of an Abstract Artist through art therapy and storytelling…by Karen Robinson
ido art karen robinson 
Wonderful to read about your art therapy journey – thanks for sharing 🙂
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Thank you Gillian for giving me the opportunity to have taken part in the Group Art Therapy Sessions. It was a real privilege to share the experience both with yourself and the other women….sincerely Karen
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I liked the paintings!
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Thank you Tania – they are just for the process of art therapy and are done very quickly. So not much time and engery can be spent in producting them but they are significant in what stories come from their creation…warm regards…Karen
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