Mandalas in Art Therapy

A group mandala showing how people saw themselves in the group.

Making a mandala is a discipline for pulling all those scattered aspects of your life together, for finding a center and ordering yourself to it.  You try to coordinate your circle with the universal circle.

                  -Joseph Campbell

                  The Power of Myth

Mandala means “magic circle” in Sanskrit.  It is a circular design that has been used since ancient times to invoke the spirit of healing.  Mandalas have been used in Tibetan meditations, the rose windows of Gothic cathedrals, the Aztec calendar stone, and Navaho sand paintings. In the East, mandalas are used as a focusing device for meditation.  Carl Jung used the mandala as an integrative and centering device in psychotherapy.

A mandala can be created as a self-symbol for a visual representation of one’s inner and outer world.  The outer circle suggests wholeness, unity, and/or the expression of your outer life.  The center of the Mandala represents your center or inner life, and/or your opening. Mandalas, or circular images, occur frequently in nature.  The mandala appears in all aspects of life: earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community. It is a pattern found in nature and is seen in biology, geology, chemistry, physics and astronomy.

A group mandala showing how people saw themselves in the group.

I use mandala making in therapy to help clients feel calm and centered, for self-expression and as a way to help people explore who they are in groups. The following photos are of mandalas made in a classroom showing how each person ‘saw’ themselves in the circle. They painted how much room they felt they took, how they felt their energy or self looked in the classroom and how they felt they fit in the whole. I have used this exercise as:

1.    A device to explore group conflict

2.    A visual representation for families in therapy

3.    A device to work with bullying

4.    A device to work with boundaries and shared space

5.    A tool to explore aggressive, passive and assertive behavior.

A group mandala showing how people saw themselves in the group.

 Seeing how we represent ourselves in our circle of friends, family or peers can be a powerful way to change or express our behaviour.

What is Your Play Personality?

In Stuart Brown's book Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, he talks about how we have play personalities.  He offers eight different categories and he makes it very clear that these categories aren't scientifically based, but a product of his years of observation.

Where do you fit in these eight personalities?

    1. The Joker -- makes people laugh, plays practical jokes.

    2. The Kinesthete -- loves to move, dance, swim, play sports.

    3. The Explorer -- goes to new places, meets new people, seeks out new experiences (physically or mentally).

    4. The Competitor -- loves all forms of competition, has fun keeping score.

    5. The Director -- enjoys planning and executing events and experiences, like throwing parties, organizing outings, and leading.

    6. The Collector -- loves the thrill of collecting, whether objects or experiences.

    7. The Artist/Creator -- finds joy in making things, fixing things, decorating, working with his or her hands.

    8. The Storyteller -- loves to use imagination to create and absorb stories, in novels, movies, plays, performances.

Some Wonders of Play

    •    Children think and talk about play frequently and this is the primary focus of their daily lives.
    •    Children need large blocks of uninterrupted time in order to experiment with materials, develop play scenarios.
    •    Children find peace, solace and healing in play by themselves and with others.
    •    In play children often function at a higher cognitive level.
    •    Children enjoy small, cozy, cubby-hole like hidden spaces to play in.
    •    Play can be a minefield; it is not always easy to enter play with other children and do so successfully. 
    •    Children enact their own cultural experiences, enact the culture of peers and reinvent/explore culture in their play.
    •    Children often invite playful adults into their play as co-authors and co-players.
    •    While adults primarily use talk to communicate, children are multi-vocal and use vocalizations, gestures, movement, singing and dance as they playfully communicate.
    •    Children understand the communications of each other during play while adults are often baffled.
    •    Children find play to be a spiritual and holy place and express this in their silences and reflections.
    •    Children express feelings and provide empathy to others in play.
    •    Play promotes wellness and healing as children disburse tensions in their play.
    •    Playing in unstructured ways is a place of joy for children.
    •    Children have their own distinctly unique and shifting play styles, patterns, vocal habits and ways of playing.
    •    There is no “right way” to play.
    •    Children are capable of solving their own problems during play.
    •    Play is a platform for identity-making as children try on roles and explore and experiment.
    •    When adults play alongside children the children reveal their meaning-making.
    •    Children communicate empathy, tenderness, intimacy, sharing and human connection in play.
    •    Children have agency and are empowered in play; one of the few places they have this freedom.
    •    Popular culture including movies, computer games, stories read is appropriated in play.
    •    Children enjoy the creative flexibility of moving props from one play centre to another.
    •    Children need to move in order to learn.
    •    Children do not always use play materials in expected ways and their thinking is often divergent and surprising.
    •    The quality of the adult-child relationship is fundamental to the learning process.
    •    Children would rather “play” with adults and not have adult learning agendas integrated into their spontaneous play.
    •    Playful adults inspire playful children.
(As revealed by the children at Learning Tree Preschool, 2008-09)
Robin Adeney passed this along to me. I think it is a good reminder of why play is important for children and adults. Have a playful day!

Reflecting on Suicidal Thoughts

Clients sandtray image of feelings of hopelessness

Last week a client, who was feeling suicidal asked, “why bother living or trying to evolve?”

             Reflecting on that question for myself I wondered, ‘What if this is it and we have no way of ‘not being’ in some form alive?’ What happens if we don’t evolve and we stay with the same emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual awareness that we have now? I would find it difficult to imagine living out eternity with the same awareness that I currently possess. It would seem like a prison to me. I would hope that I could become more peaceful, enlightened, joyful, and wise. If we were all hostages bound by fate and time, I would want to create a life for myself full of freedom, joy, peace, love and kindness.

            I have figured out some of the things I think I am here learning. I am learning about letting go, acceptance, non-striving, gratitude, and trust. I am my primary art project.  I am always adjusting, transforming refining, revising and recreating myself. I strive to live more in Presence because it helps me be aware, and whole. I strive to find inner peace, and achieve the growth I want in my lifetime. I try to find better ways to nurture, teach and inspire the self with which I am entrusted. That is my answer to this question. How might you respond to the question? 
Check out my new post at Create Mixed Media on Why you would see an Art Therapist. 

Finding Your Teachers

How do we know when we are in the right place, at the right time with the right teacher?

Eugene Gendlin tells the story of how he felt better, just by walking into his therapist’s office. He somehow knew that this was the place. When people walk into my Art Therapy Studio I often know right away by how they look, the comments they make, and how their body relaxes or not, if they are in the right place to do the healing work that they are searching for. Often they comment on how much they like the colours, the décor or comment that it feels quiet and peaceful. They are picking up on my energy and the energy of the space. How do you know when you find your teacher?

I want to tell you a story of how I found my next teacher. I recently attended the International Focusing Conference in California facilitating a workshop and attending other practitioners’ workshops. I was not looking to sign up for any courses or to work with anyone, in fact the flight down confirmed for me that I dislike flying, the hassle of leaving my busy schedule, and disrupting my life is not worth it. And then I walked into Russell Dellman’s workshop.  I had sat with him over lunch during the first day of the conference, noticing nothing special, but there was an interesting lightness to his being and a wonderful, very wonderful smile. I ran into him several times after that and we smiled. When I sat in on his workshop, after maybe two minutes I just knew, this is my next teacher. He had what I needed.

Russell teaches a course called Embodied Life, which is a combination of Focusing, Zen Meditation and Feldenkrais. But that wasn’t it exactly, it was Russell himself. I knew that his energy could help me grow. It was odd, I sat there thinking I don’t want to fly down to California twice a year to do his Mentorship Program because of the cost and energy that it will take but, damn it, I don’t have a choice because I need this. I need to hear his words, I need to learn from him so, I will. Now I have a new spiritual guide or something like that. I feel blessed, excited and a little exhausted already knowing that I will have to fly into the busy airport in Sans Francisco, rearrange my busy schedule etc. But, I found my teacher. What about you? How do find your teachers?