Color My Life

A picture speaks a thousand words!

Clients often express their feelings using words and it is really hard to grasp the intensity and the prominence of these feelings in their day to day life. Also often clients have a limited emotion vocabulary when asked to express the dominant feelings or how they felt most of the time in thier life.

Color My Life is an art therapy that can be used with one client or with a family system.

Items needed:

1. Feeling Cards or Index Cards with Emotion Labels
2. Crayon or Color Pencil or Paint
3. Drawing Paper

When using with a family system,

• I use the Feelings card and pick out 10-12 commonly experienced feelings (Feelings Cards) by the family member as reported by them.
• I will ask the clients to assign a color to each Feeling Card
• Then I ask the family members to draw a picture (Like a square, circle, rectangle) or any shape they wish to draw and fill the picture/shape to show how much they feel the different emotions.

Assigning colors to the emotions helps when working with a family, since they can all look at the picture and interpret the colors/emotions in a common way.

After the family members complete the art work, I encourage each of them to share their picture and tell the story behind each of their emotions.

Processing the artwork with family members helps to assess the family system and doing the same intervention at the end of the therapy will help to highlight the changes in the family system.

This intervention can also be used with an individual client with the same concept or can also be used to depict a specific issue or situation and how they experience it.

Everything I Know I Learned in My Garden

Life's Lessons in My Own Backyard

By Emily Barned

Begin early, but it is never too late to start.
If it doesn't work, try something else.

Life is fragile. Protect it.
Life is Enduring. Trust it
Life is daily. Water it. Weed it.

Life is indescribably beautiful. Enjoy it and say thank You.
Growth takes time. Be patient. And while you are waiting, pull a weed.
There is something for everybody. Different blooms for different rooms.

Pruning hurts. Pruning helps you to grow.
Sometimes the tiniest flowers smell the sweetest.
To everything there is a season. But know what season you are in.

Dream big. But try not to let ambition turn your joy into drudgery.
Grow what you love. The love will keep it growing.
Reap what you sow. But there will be surprises