Supervision Directive: Animal Metaphor

This week during our Art Therapy supervision group, I asked the Art Therapists to think of one of their patients and draw him as an animal. (If this patient was an animal, what kind of animal would he be?) This was a fun directive and it provided the opportunity to work within a metaphor. Since we work with sex offenders, some of the animal images were monster-like. Others included a ferret for a patient who was particularly sneaky and tried to take art supplies from the Art Center. Another was a fish in a bowl because he had difficulty expressing his needs, though needed the occasional acknowledgement. For one patient, represented as a fly buzzing around, there was a suggestion of the need for sticky fly paper for him. This could be translated into some activity that would keep him occupied for a period of time. Using this directive and working in the metaphor can help the therapist look at the situation differently, and possibly come up with interventions not thought of before.