When does an Art Therapy session start?

 

I heard the Spanish psychiatrist Fernando Colina in an interview say that a therapy starts like this: “Hello Miguel, how are you today? How can I help you?” I thought it was beautiful. This reminded me of the first workshop for children that I did and that was a long time ago, I directed it together with two friends. It was an art workshop (theater, painting, sculpture, etc.), the funny thing is that when the first day arrived we were very excited, but nothing of what we were supposed to do worked, it was a total disaster. Being just the beginning, because each day that passed was worse than the other, the classrooms were total chaos, the desperation and frustration that we felt was immense, at one point we thought that it would be the first and the last workshop for children that we would work. After two weeks, one day on the bus, I thought that I did not want to stress myself anymore and I decided to arrive and let things flow and let the children do what they wanted without forcing them to do what was structured. When I met with my colleagues, I told them about my decision and they agreed with me that we would not force anything and that we would let them free. That day the magic happened, the children finally asked “what are we going to do today?” We immediately proposed a game that arose from the unexpected and in which we all agreed. The lesson was very clear, when we let go of our ego, leaving aside the structure and when we focused on the children and let them speak to us through their energy, their games, etc.; that was when everything worked. When our energy was transformed and we were no longer the therapists telling what to do, but rather we were three more people together with the children in a process of exploration and discovery that would bring us new meanings, accompanying each other; at that moment art therapy emerged. To be an art therapist requires a great dose of humility, flexibility and constant inner work. I have learned that as soon as there is something that I need to work on within myself, a person will appear looking for art therapy who will be in charge of doing or teaching me about what I need at that moment in my life. Because as I mentioned before, art therapy is the meeting of two human beings accompanying each other at a certain moment for the transformation of both through it, whether one is the therapist and the other the person who requests help. The technique and the structure are important but not more than the human being in front of us. To conclude, I can say, based on my personal experience, that art therapy begins when you recognize yourself and the person in front of you as two human beings, therefore this must be a relationship based on respect and tolerance, and not on the power that the title of art therapist gives you.