Introducing… Art Therapy!
This summer, Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries started offering Art Therapy to children in care. The program has been incredibly useful to our families due to the work of Kayla Poulsen, Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries’s Art Therapist Intern.
Kayla began her education at Columbia College in the Art Department, but quickly realized that she wanted to combine two things she really loved, helping others and art, through Art Therapy. When Kayla reached out to Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries about possibly bringing this program to our families we excitedly said YES!
“Art Therapy is a mental health-related process that involves art as a way to process things,” said Kayla. “Sometimes it is not always easy to put things into words, so art is able to close the gap between trying to verbalize something that has happened or something that is going on in an individual’s life.”
Art Therapy can promote mental health, relieve stress, and help with traumatic situations. Art can add another dimension along with talk, providing an avenue to learn more and get deeper into situations. Within Art Therapy, there are benefits in various types of expression – certain materials can evoke different feelings and thoughts.
“For example, painting is more fluid, so most of the time a fluid material could mean that the client has potential to open up more,” Kayla said. “Whereas crayons or pencil is a more cognitive way to process. Sometimes you can have a client get a huge piece of paper, and really use their arms and whole body. There is science behind getting your body moving in general to relieve stress.”
Kayla begins each session with a warm-up activity with the children. They will do anything from playing with blocks, puzzles, or play-dough. Then they go into the art-making, using different materials depending on the situation. The appointment ends with processing questions to delve deeper into whatever the art suggests.
When it comes to children who have had traumatic experiences, Art Therapy can be especially beneficial.
“As children, it is easy to get to a point where there are no words or maybe they just don’t want to talk about it,” Kayla explained. “Children are innocent and vulnerable – it helps them to express themselves through art. Let’s say the child now has an image and is looking at the image, now they have something to kind of go off of and verbalize. Whereas before, they may not have.”
“I really like the kids,” Kayla said. “To see the progress that they make, even in the short 4-6 weeks, is amazing. It’s encouraging to see how resilient kids can be. My favorite part is watching them progress.”
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