Therapeutic Art Interventions for Children and Teens: Creative Ways to Calm Anxiety, Reduce Social Withdrawal, and Diffuse Anger and Rage – Janet Bush

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Do you have clients who are stuck, repeating the same patterns over and over and you feel like you’re powerless to help them? You know, the ones who repeatedly refuse to listen and don’t stop to think before they act. Or those who refuse to take responsibility for their behaviors and constantly pass blame onto others. Do they leave you feeling stagnant and burnt out in your practice? Do you work with challenging children, teens and families who seem absolutely resistant to every intervention you offer? Let Janet Bush, a certified art psychotherapist, mental health clinician, art educator, and addictions counselor help you!

Watch this recording and jumpstart your mental health practice with creative interventions to unmask the silence of sadness, deescalate the rage of anger, and transform unspeakable grief. Learn innovative interventions that are guaranteed to help even your most resistant clients become unstuck. Your day will consist of creative, interactive, hands-on training that will re-energize your work. You will leave with fresh new art strategies and approaches that you can use immediately to engage even your most difficult and challenging clients. These tools are fun and playful. They will offer you an opportunity to refresh yourself as well!

No art experience is necessary, just an openness to try something creative.

1. Explore the differences between art therapy and using art therapeutically within your scope of practice.
2. Analyze ethical implications when implementing therapeutic art approaches to prevent falsification of data and clinical findings.
3. Explore therapeutic art approaches and immediately implement into your therapeutic practice with fidelity to help children and teens regulate their emotions and behaviors.
4. Evaluate the stages of normative artistic development to understand how children learn and develop.
5. Determine the use of simple and economic art materials, what to use and when, to safely use art within your practice.
6. Practice the creative process via interactive, hands-on therapeutic art-making experiences.
7. Determine the neurobiological implications of using therapeutic art interventions to improve cognitive and emotional functioning in children and teens.
8. Develop a plan for introducing art into your clinical practice.
9. Recognize the importance of consultation with a credentialed art therapist to ensure positive outcomes for children.

Art Speaks: Therapeutic Practice

• Function and History of Art Expression
• Ethical Implications and Scope of Practice
• Creating Products vs. Creative Process
• How to Talk with Clients About Artwork
• Know When to Refer
• Working with Staff and Teams

Clinical Applications

• What Materials to Use and When
• Developmental Stages Manifested in Art Making
• Warning Signs in Artwork
• Art and Neuroscience
• Specific Client Populations and Art Applications
• Art talk – they made it, now what?

Integrating Art into Practice… Interventions for:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
• Psychotic Disorder
• Autism Spectrum

Establishing a Sense of Empowerment and Control

• Directives vs. Free Choice Art Making
• Build an Emotional Vocabulary by Identifying
• and Naming Emotions
• Hurts and Worries
• Problem Solving/Conflict Resolution Drawings
• Building Safety for Trauma
• Follow Directions Drawing
• Mixed Media Collage

Establish Relationship to Self

• Identification/Exploration of Feelings
• What’s in a Name?
• Body Image/Who I Am
• Confidence Builders
• Grief Art with a Heart
• Self-Portrait Object/Person
• Inside/Outside Self Boxes/Containers

Creating Authentic Connections

• Collaborative Art Making
• Mural Making
• Pass/Change the Picture
• Get Your Group Art On
• Family Art Making
• Outside the Box with Field Trips, Art Exhibits and
• Guest Speakers

Self-Esteem and Self-Compassion

• Objects of Comfort
• Mask Making
• Building Bridges for Connections
• Don’t Throw Yourself Away
• Feeling Faces
•  Stressors vs. Calmers
• Cartooning for Problem Solving
• Thoughtful Trophies
• Beading, Sewing and Learning Something New

Control to Commitment

• Wellness Timeline
• Letters of Appreciation
• Self-Care Art: Moods, Problems and Wellness
• Resources
• Artful Journaling
• Termination Art