Mandalas for Self Care

Recently, a colleague and I offered a self care workshop for other staff. We asked them to create a Mandala that represented who they are, and asked them to think about their strengths, what they like, what is important to them, what makes them happy, etc. They were each encouraged to talk about their Mandala if they wanted to. Then, we asked them to make another Mandala, this time thinking of one of their difficult clients or an interaction with a challenging client. They were encouraged to use their non-dominant hand when creating this Mandala. Again, they were allowed to share their process if they felt like it. We asked them to notice any similarities between their 2 Mandalas, any differences, and how they could incorporate what they saw in their first Mandala to deal with what they saw in their second Mandala. We also asked them to keep in mind the things that would help them take care of themselves after having a difficult interaction with a client. The participants had positive feedback and felt the workshop was interesting and helpful. They mentioned that it was a bit unsettling to end on the Mandala of the challenging client, so you may want to reverse the order of the drawings. You may also want to narrow the directive for the self-Mandala to just strengths. This may help the person see how his/her strengths can be used to manage the difficult client. This workshop also helped non-Art Therapists understand Art Therapy better, and they were able to talk about feeling nervous about doing art and feeling uncomfortable sharing personal information that came up through the art work.