Directive--A Time You Felt Threatened

Once during my Empathy through Art Therapy group, I asked the group members to depict a time they had felt threatened. One patient drew about the first time he was in prison. There had been a riot and the correctional officers were firing shots. The patient was afraid and feared for his life. He was then able to relate his feelings to the feelings that his victims had. This directive helps the sex offender identify his own feelings, so he can better understand the feelings of others in similar situations. It is important for the patients to be in touch with their own feelings if we expect them to be able to feel for other people. This exercise helped them practice exploring their own feelings and experiencing empathy for others.

Conference Proposals

As part of Art Therapy supervision, I have encouraged my supervisees to present at conferences. Working with sex offenders affords many opportunities to share Art Therapy experiences. For the upcoming AATA conference, several supervisees are submitting proposals to present a paper or be on a panel. A panel is a good way to ease into presenting professionally since you have the support of co-panelists. Each Art Therapist can talk a little about a specific Art Therapy group that she has facilitated, and discuss what worked, any challenges, etc. I asked each to provide suggestions and feedback on the abstract, objectives, and title. I hope this experience will enable the Art Therapists to share their knowledge and experiences with other professionals, and promote Art Therapy.

Vicarious Traumatization

During Art Therapy supervision this week, I asked everyone to draw about a time they felt vicariously traumatized by a patient or they noticed that someone was vicariously traumatized from working with the sex offenders that we treat. Since all the patients at the hospital are offenders, the risk for vicarious traumatization is high. Some staff don't even realize that it happens to them. The supervisees were able to come up with several examples including seeing another clinician "lose it" after trying to deal with a difficult patient and the stress of trying to help staff deal with the situation, feeling physically ill when hearing a patient talk about his sex offenses, and being emotionally moved when hearing about the abuse that some of the patients have suffered. It was also noted that the patients themselves vicariously traumatized each other, and staff could vicariously traumatize one another as well as a result of trying to cope with this challenging population. This was a good exercise to help staff share their feelings and to be more aware of this phenomenon, as well as how they cope with the resulting feelings.

New Year's Resolutions

During Art Therapy Supervision today, I asked everyone to create a piece of art work based on their New Year's resolutions as an Art Therapist. These could include goals or where they saw themselves in the upcoming year. Answers were varied and included presenting at the next AATA conference, starting up a new group for the sex offenders that we treat, and growth as a clinician. I also like to use this directive with patients, as I think it can help people be more aware of what they would like to accomplish, and they can start thinking how they can meet their goals.

Supervision: "Scariest Patient"

Since it was Halloween recently, during Art Therapy supervision, I asked everyone to portray their scariest patient. Since we work with sex offenders, often, we experience "scary" or "creepy" patients. This directive helped the therapists be more aware of feelings that are aroused by the patients we serve, and to discuss countertransference. Some therapists focused on the physical aspects of the patients, and others were influenced by actions and behaviors of a patient. For example, one therapist talked about a patient who engaged in bizarre and sometimes disgusting behaviors, and we discussed how he may do that as a protective measure since he was just admitted from prison where sex offenders are disliked and often harrassed by other inmates.

Supervision: How Sex Offenders Use Sex

During a recent Supervision group, I asked everyone to create an image of how one of the patients had used sex to manipulate staff, either in an Art Therapy group or just in everyday interactions. When working with this population, it is important to be aware of how the sex offender will try to manipulate or take advantage of staff, often using sex, either in a subtle or obvious way. The more aware we are of the attempts and intent, the better we can prepare ourselves to defend against it and deal with the patient. Several examples were given such as the patient who tries to touch staff's hand when she is handing him his art supplies. Also, there are those patients who speak very softly, so staff have to lean in closer to hear him. Some offer compliments or a sympathetic ear. All these practices serve as a test of boundaries, so we were able to discuss feelings around these circumstances and how best to address the issue with the patient.

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.