Self Esteem through Art Therapy

We are starting up a Self Esteem through Art Therapy group for the sex offenders and the mentally ill inmates, so during supervision, we all brainstormed directives. I asked everyone to think about the Good Lives Model and also high risk factors for sex offenders, so we could reference those when we write up the lesson plan. Everyone had great ideas from a collage of what the patient is good at to drawing himself as a superhero to puppet making and role play. The great thing about making the lesson plan a collaborative effort is that we came up with a variety of creative and effective directives for a 12 week quarter.

Team work directive

In a Self-Esteem through Art Therapy group, I had the patients form small groups and gave each group 2 plastic cups, 100 straws, a roll of masking tape, and a 12" ruler. Each group had to construct the strongest bridge possible using the supplied materials. The bridge had to be longer than a foot and the ruler could only be used for measurement. Each group had 20 minutes to construct their bridge. After, I would use heavy objects to test the strength of each bridge. The main purpose of the exercise, though, was to have the participants discuss the group dynamic. Who became the leader of the group? Who was cooperative? Who was argumentative? Who was the most competitive? Etc...This helped the patients be more aware of their characteristics, be more assertive, be more open to feedback, etc. I've also done this for staff in services. It is generally a fun and learning experience.