The severely damaged adolescent who is fearful of therapy can find pleasure in moving colors about and making their own graffiti. If the therapist stays in the role of interested observer and helper, and admires the art product (particularly the effort made), the onus is removed from therapy. Support of the reluctant client by moving from ‘therapy’ to teaching art skills, models a non-intrusive adult who is accepting and has no agenda. If authorities demand verification and records of certain behavioral changes, and confirmation of attendance, the therapist can share with the client their dilemma of providing this information. If the adolescent is included in co-creating a treatment plan, they feel you are working on their behalf. As a co-creator they can find solutions to some of the most puzzling systemic situations and demands, if they are offered the opportunity.
Polarity drawings
Providing art materials without an explicit agenda is one way of providing therapy that is acceptable to the adolescent population. Under these circumstances the client makes free drawings and comes up with the subject for discussion by him/herself. However, for most adolescents in treatment there is less need to be so entirely unstructured. My own approach is to offer an opportunity for the kids to do ‘polarity’ drawings. That is my terminology for an art expression that looks at both sides of an issue. For example; ‘How do your parents punish you? How do you punish your parents?’ Youngsters do punish their parents in a variety of ways. There is usually a lively discussion of how loud music and deaf responses, etc., can drive the parents up the wall. Following this provocative subject, I will usually ask, ‘How would you handle this problem if you were the parent?’ The corrective drawings (my terminology) challenge the adolescent and when the roles are reversed they offer more rational problem solving than most of us expect.
An example of making a ‘correction’ on a drawing is to ask the youth to take a color that is identified as the ‘corrective’ color, and redraw on the original artwork changes that would reduce the problem. If making marks is not enough the toxic image can be cut away, or cut up and reassembled, each action designed to find a more functional outcome to the difficulty first presented.
Why is this ‘polarity’ approach successful? The adolescent is ambivalent about most issues because this is the time to question both sides of a topic and form individual values. It is a time when thinking logically is a new skill, and they delight in this new power and carry it to extremes. The attempt to separate from the parents, while still keeping a connection, challenges them to review the parents’ belief system and retain or reject parts of parental behavior. Looking at the opposing sides of issues through the art expression, encourages the adolescent to do what s/he is doing constantly, but in a concrete form where the plus and minuses are easier to evaluate.
Figure 1.8 Free drawing ‘I am a target’ (16-year-old boy – red and black pens)
Figure 1.9 ‘How do you get punished? How do you punish parents?’ (14-year-old boy)
Knowing the developmental framework of adolescence provides the art therapist with tools to suggest subject matter for artwork. Without a point of reference from which to speculate and instigate a dialogue, the therapist has less chance to succeed. I find it useful to talk to the teen about ‘other clients’ who are conflicted about the ‘justice of the world’, or the ‘appropriateness of the educational system’, (couched in their language). Puzzling with the teen often leads to an art piece that expresses his or her view of society. Adolescents have great pleasure in their new skills at logical thinking, and that mixed with a feeling of grandeur gives them the right (in their eyes) to revamp the world. In some cases I have been impressed with how inventive and fair minded their suggestions are.
Adolescents are intolerant of facades and social behavior that they consider phony. Another polarity drawing is one based on ‘How do others want you to act, how do you want to be?’ A variation on that is ‘How do others see you? How do you see yourself ?’ This directive allows the youth to stay in his/her dominant narcissistic stance and project criticism of the adults, while metaphorically symbolizing his/her ‘true’ self. This same drawing done at progressive stages of development becomes a record of the growth of identity and the tolerance of others.
Confidentiality of the artwork
Breaking confidentiality is the greatest crime a therapist can make with a teen teenager. Art should never be shown to other family members, peers, or staff, without full knowledge and permission from the art maker (Malchiodi, 1990). Whether accidentally or with good intentions, for whatever reason, if the art goes out of the room and into the hands of anyone else the therapy is finished. Adolescents are unforgiving if betrayed. Therefore, therapists must guard the artwork vigilantly. If there is a situation that arises where the art indicates that the child is at risk, the youth must be a part of the process of showing the art or reporting on its content. If a parent is called, the adolescent must be in the room to hear the conversation. If an appointment must be made, changed, or questioned, the telephone call should be directly to the client, not the parent. The therapists will be trusted if they demonstrate trust.
Figure 1.10 ‘How I see myself. How others see me. “Me” a butterfly, a bouncey ball, smiling, watching. “Other” no smiles, a lead weight, black shell, crossed out’ (13-year-old girl)
Art therapy messages
An exception to keeping the art in the room, was created to solve a therapeutic impasse. Two brothers living in a residential setting refused to talk to their parents. To find a way to let their voices be heard in the family session and still not force them to talk, the art therapist had them draw messages to the parents in their individual therapy. Drawings that expressed their wishes and feelings. The artwork went to the family sessions rather than the brothers. Messages were sometimes sent to the parents by way of collage expressions and sometimes by drawings. The communication through the ‘neutral’ media of the art therapy expression gave the parents time to consider the content. The boys were given feedback about the session from the family therapist until enough trust had been established to have the sons and parents meet together. When silence in the family session constitutes a major problem, the art can be constructed to be the adolescent’s voice.
In other cases, art messages to persons who have caused the adolescent emotional pain may never actually be sent. If clients have the opportunity to externalize and concretize their statement of unhappiness, it is often a great relief. This same technique of the art-created message can address the unfinished business a youth has with persons who have vanished from their lives. Grandparents or parents who have died, mothers or fathers that have deserted the family, can all be the recipients of the message that was left unsaid in the past. The art gives the youth a safe place to mourn and express his/her repressed feelings.
The issue of control
For any age group the art therapy expression is a personal projection of the feelings, concerns, and thought processes of the art maker. For the adolescent an additional attraction is found by exercising their control and power. In art for therapy they learn to freely project their concerns, secure in the knowledge that they need only share verbally what they choose. I have said earlier, and it seems worth repeating; it is crucial for the adolescent to feel that they have control over their relationship in therapy. The art means what they say it means. There are times when I have been sure that I was being tested, and when the drawing had little to do with the verbal discussion. This seemed less important than the fact that I was