Part 2 of IN THE GREEN SPACE
Bridging Spiritual Direction
and
Relational Psychotherapy
through Spontaneous Artwork
by
Jacqueline Fehlner
V. Art Therapy Techniques and Directives
in Pastoral Care --
Using our Gifts, Talent and KnowledgeArt therapy is a very powerful tool. Untrained (in art therapy) mental health professionals who use art therapy techniques and directives are often surprised by how quickly art making can tap into and bring up material from the unconscious. While some of the art therapy literature states that doing art is safe,(22) that is not always true. For example, one problem that can occur in a workshop or retreat program when a facilitator wants to interpret another person's artwork or to analyse the art product from only an aesthetic point of view, rather than allowing the artist to tell the story behind his/her artwork.
Not to be done lightly or without awareness and caution
As an art therapy educator, I would like to state unequivocally that the incorporation of art therapy techniques into mental health and pastoral care work should not be taken lightly or without some deep thought not only to the directive being given, but also to the materials being set out and their properties. Included in Appendix D is a page on "Know your Materials." It is an overview of the materials and the rationale for their use by an Art Therapist.
Even some professionals are unaware that the material itself can send as strong a message to a client as the directive they may give. For example: there are many different kinds and colours of clay. The texture and colours are capable of evoking different responses. While self-hardening clay makes it easier for the participants to keep the piece without the bother of having it fired, it could also send the message that what the person does today is set in stone. If the group facilitator wants to send a message that this retreat time is an invitation to let God, the Potter, shape and reshape the participants or that this therapy session is an opportunity to work with changing an image of oneself, then it would be important to use pottery clay in an exercise meant for openness to ongoing formation. The dried up clay can be recycled. God, the potter, is reshaping us continuously. The use of self-hardening clay may be appropriate at the end of group therapy work to help the people concretize their experience of being in the program or to show the decisions or actions they want to take in the future.
Before giving any art material or exercise to a client, it must be used by the therapist several times and he/she should have done the written exercises also. This way, although the therapist is different from the unique individual coming for help, he/she, in some way, will be aware of what the material can bring up out of the unconscious. Obviously one should not use art therapy with anyone who over-stimulates easily or with someone who might be is psychotic.
The strength of a spontaneous art approach
There are many advantages to using a spontaneous art approach. These advantages reflect a relational psychotherapy approach to working with a client. Most important is the fact that in spontaneous art the client works at his/her own pace and to the depth that he/she is able. In addition spontaneous art approach:
Places the emphasis on the relationship and process rather than the product or aesthetics. Allows the person to choose ideas/issues that are most relevant to her/him or materials with which he/she is willing to work. The person is in control and responsible for their own work. Taps into the unconscious material and gives the person a visual voice when there are no words or few words to express what is deeply or painfully felt. May be a safer way to express intensity of negative feelings, thus offering a cathartic release and the possibility of working through these feelings. May enable a profound non-verbal communication with self and with the therapist/spiritual director as well as with group members. Works well in individual and group treatment process. May be abstract or realistic. The person chooses how much detail to put into his/her work. More can be added to the artwork at a later date. May be used with flexible themes/open-ended directives in a treatment or Retreat program. Is, over time, a concrete record of progress.
VI. Our Program
Creativity and Ignatian Method of Prayer
and Spontaneous Art WorkLife Servants in a Contemplative Apostolate
Offering a Compassionate and Gentle PresenceIncluded here are the outlines of the sequences used by Jacqueline Fehlner, RCAT, and Mala Betensky, ATR, in their respective work. They are followed by thoughts on how each fit into the work of Sr. Michael and Jacqueline Fehlner at St. Michael House and into Jacqueline's private art therapy practice. Some aspects of these seem to be present also in the Spiritual Psychology of James Olthuis.
The Phenomenological Method of the Art Therapy Process
as Applied in a
Spiritual Direction/Creativity Session and/or in a Prayer RetreatThis is based on the art therapy work of Mala Betensky, ATR and on the spiritual direction and spiritual art therapy work of Jacqueline Fehlner, RCAT and Sister Michael Trott, CSC. Sequences 1-4 are done in silence and may be done alone or in the presence of the Spiritual Director. If this methodology is used as part of art psychotherapy, sequence 1-4 is done in the presence of the Art Therapist.
Sequence 1: Setting the Atmosphere
(This corresponds to Olthuis' "Letting in for a dance of trust.")Sequence 2: Recognizing the StoryEntering the Quiet, a contemplative space Gather the art materials to be used in the quiet space. Choose the prayer/meditation passage on which you will focus. Decide how much time that you will allot to the creativity and prayer period. Sequence 3: Getting Out the StoryCentering and Prayer Take time to become aware of your breath flowing in and out. Slowly read the prayer/meditation passage, aloud if possible. Reread the prayer or passage and put yourself into the story. Take a few moments in silence before proceeding to next step.
(This corresponds to Betensky's Sequences 1 and 2
and Olthuis' "Letting go" stage.)Sequence 4: Owning the StoryThe process of artwork -- creative expression of the prayer/meditation or response to it. In silence, use your non-dominant hand to choose the specific materials/colours with which you want to work. (It may be helpful to do some pre-art play or warm-up exercises such as Scribbles, playing with the brushes to see what kinds of lines you can produce with them, tearing construction paper into different shapes and playing with them or arranging the random shapes into imaginary figures.) Begin your artwork and use the full time allotted.
(This corresponds to Betensky's Sequence 3
and Olthuis' "Letting out" stage.)
Phase I. Perceiving |
Sequence 5: Sharing and Connecting the Stories
(This corresponds to Olthuis' "Releasing, Renewing
and Integrating" stages.)-- Phenomenological integration
-- Encounter with self between sessions
-- Meeting with the Spiritual Director/Art Therapist
Sequence 4: Phenomenological integration |
With those who seek us out, whether it is initially for art therapy, for spiritual direction or some aspect of pastoral care, a pattern has been emerging. When these retreatants or clients put their hands into simple art materials, not with the idea of painting a "pretty picture," but of painting an honest expression of their feelings or experience, the art making cuts quickly to their core where the soul rests. That is part of the power hidden in Sequence 3 of Fehlner's work. The life questions arise from deep within. These in essence are spiritual questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning or purpose of being here? Who can I turn to when it seems like no one is there for me? Is there a God? Why did God make me? And does he really care about me? How could this have happened to me/to my loved one? He was always such a good person! These questions are not always expressed in "God-talk."The art making initially may be started to create a quiet place of relaxation so that a dialogue may begin, not only between the conscious and unconscious self, but also with God and with the Spiritual Director or therapist. Those first pictures have an element of play in them that Barry & Connolly(24) and Betensky mention as important. They also often contain aspects of many of the issues that may block the dialogue with God in prayer or with a therapist in psychotherapy. The artwork is a visual voicing of their issues and pain, or their prayer, or their response to prayer. If a person brings artwork to a session, it may be the tool needed to find the words when there are no words or when words are not enough. It can give the person the courage needed to share his/her experience or prayer, especially if she/he has suffered traumatic incidents. It is not "show and tell." It is usually an honest attempt to share deeply part of the history, which may carry much shame.
Creating artwork makes visible what is within the heart, and mind and soul, bringing it to conscious awareness in a very concrete way. In sequence 3, phase 1, the art paper, the clay or whatever other art medium may be used acts as a container for the feelings that are often overwhelming or the situations that may be trigger points for the client/directee. In Sequence 3, phase 2, what is painted is what needs to be owned and brought to prayer or looked at from a different perspective. This is a stage where healing of memories may be needed and takes place, sometimes without much verbalization.
Sequence 3 has similarities to both directives that Ignatius gives in the First Week of his Spiritual Exercises: to come to know that one is loved and to know that one is lovable in one's unique person.(25) The therapist/spiritual director can invite the client/directee into a detachment process, by stepping back and looking at the issue/self-portrait that has been painted as God would see it. Initiating a dialogue with the artwork and its content, colour, form, and movement opens up the possibility for a new or deeper dialogue with God. This is very freeing for people who have felt they aren't "very good with words" or are actually aphasic. New sight, new meaning and new insight for choosing life may now evolve.
Sequence 4 of Betensky's work, the final sequence in her process, is integration of what one sees, coming to know and find meaning within the therapeutic relationship. The work of spiritual directors also has an aspect of helping the directee to deepen and integrate all aspects of one's life situation into one's relationship with God. This is Sequence 5 in the Creativity Program.
For both therapists and spiritual directors, clients/directees receive a healing of integration and a healing of meaning when God enters the picture and becomes a part of their life journey. Spontaneous art made in prayer or in a prayerful reflection period enables some people to perceive what they cannot hear in words alone. A creative process gives the client/directee and therapist/director a concrete picture of the journey. In this creative process there are interior reactions of feelings, moods, spontaneous realizations as well as spiritual consolations and spiritual desolations, etc. Through the spontaneous art making the client or directee can come to a deep inner stillness. God is met in the still point. Growth happens in the still point. This often opens one to what one is experiencing or learning in the quiet, sacred space where one encounters Jesus. Later in one's private reflection or in dialogue with the therapist and/or the director more connections and disconnections are made. One's portfolio of artwork manifests patterns in the artist's life experiences and prayer experiences.
To demonstrate this process, I will explore one of my art pieces, which was part of my own personal development -- Melting Iceberg. It has been used since it was begun in Spring 2000, not only to debrief but also as part of my prayer and growth in awareness nore recently during the course on Reltional Psychotherapy.
As a beginning Art Therapist, one of the areas of growth for me was allowing for a certain amount of wastage of art materials so that a client could work without having a "scolding mother" inhibit creative exploration. However, I still do not like to see material go to waste and I recycle it if at all possible. This particular day, a depressed client had poured out a large amount of various blue acrylic paints onto the palette and had used only a small amount of them in her work. With no more clients that day, I was free to paint and I decided to use up the remainder of the paint. I added white and green to the palette. It was also a way of debriefing this intense session. The various shades of blue that she had made and the amount of blue on the palette spoke to me of the depth as well as how many aspects of depression there had been in the client's life. The green was my response to the desire for wholeness that she demonstrated by her faithful coming to her art therapy sessions, even when she "was tempted to stay in bed." I began to apply the paint to the canvas as she had to the paper, first tentatively and then with more deliberateness. Although the water looks quite choppy, the rhythm of applying the paint had a calming effect on me after a very full day of work. I was not sure just what the green was in the middle of the picture, but it looked right to have it floating in the water there. At the end of the hour I had set aside for artwork and as I sat with the painting.
I felt like I was in the water with it. The distant shoreline told me that I was out in deep water; and I had a flashback to the time that Dr. Fischer had told me not to be afraid to go into deep water during my training at the Toronto Art Therapy Institute. I was confronting myself to accept new challenges and stretch and not be afraid of success.
A couple months after painting this picture, I was with my husband on a cruise to Alaska. In Glacier Bay we saw a huge chunk of ice break free of the Marguerite Glacier and float out toward our ship. It looked like this painting. On that trip, some of the coldness in our relationship was melting as the ice was. It became a time of better and deeper communication with each other and greater awareness of past hurts and experiences that had been stuffed in our bodies. The bright blue sky was reflected in the healing waters. In the weeks and months ahead, I sat with this picture and meditated on how God melts us with his love and brings new beginnings. When I need to focus on a peaceful place, I bring out this piece as it leads to stillness within. Up until last weekend I had always looked at this piece on the landscape side (the way it was painted), but when I pulled it out of the portfolio, it was on its portrait side.(26) Again, I asked myself the question: What do you see?
The nice thing about abstract artwork is that one can let the imagination play with line, shape and colour. There seems to be several figures that are coming out of the blue. The two in the center have the feel of Christ walking on the water towards another. Depending where the eye focuses, one melds into the other. It is a similar experience to when I first saw Fred Varley's Liberation, which hangs in the Art Gallery of Ontario. This semester, the liberation that I have experienced is to let my authentic self come forth and question and to state my opinion and share my lived experience even if it is different from that of the majority. I trust that even if the other does not accept it, my experience will not be held against me. In all the sadness and painful experiences of losing some important members of my family and friends since January, there has been consolation that Jesus is near, the way I sensed it in the painting.
Sequence 6: Debriefing the Team Work:
Discover a Path of Hope -- Walk Humbly To be called to work as a psychotherapist or spiritual director is a privilege and a responsibility, for in this ministry, God asks us to be humbly present to another so that that person may discover a path of hope. If one is not going to burn out in ministry, it is important that the work comes out of our being and prayer and reflection. An important aspect of this kind of work, which may get overlooked at the end of the session or the day, is debriefing, both individually and as a team. This Sequence 6 is not in the program outline, but it is a critical component of the complete process. Some questions that facilitate this debriefing are:
The responses help us to have better understanding of a co-facilitator's insights and awareness of issues as well as a greater awareness of the immediate needs of the group, retreatants, directees and team. Acknowledging what has been accomplished rather than taking it for granted gives support for the work and builds up the team. Debriefing allows for gentle confrontation, when necessary. Debriefing at the end of the day invites us to take some time for ourselves and may help us to forgive others and ourselves. Thus our spirit can be renewed. When the retreat ends or therapy terminates, it is important for future planning, personal and team growth.What did we experience as we worked with the group/retreatant? What did we do well? What did we learn? What needs to be remembered or considered for the next session or retreat? Another aspect of debriefing is supervision. Supervision is an opportunity for a relationship with a third person who provides additional gifts and nourishment to the team/ spiritual director/ therapist. To keep growing in love and understanding, it is necessary to have someone with whom we can share our reflection on that prayer and work. A spiritual director, therapist or supervisor can give us feedback that invites us to stay creative and to renew continually our relationships and connection with God and others, rather than getting caught up in routines that use up all the resources within till there is little energy left except for the necessities of life. This person also reflects back to us that we, too, are loved by God as we are in this moment in time.
Conclusion
James Olthuis' book elaborates on similar points, insights, and aspects made by the early Christian writers when he speaks of how a Spirituality of Care can come about when the training and formation of psychotherapists includes a Christian "vision of inclusion and justice which is not based on the control or elimination of difference"(27) and also widens the vision so that the therapists can become "more responsive to the suffering of peoples, all the family of God's creatures, and even creation itself". (28)
The use of spontaneous artwork in psychotherapy and spiritual direction enables one to listen with one's eyes, to see with one's heart and to open to a new vision for oneself in relationship, connected to oneself, God and others. It is also an aid to seeing where the disconnections have taken place and how that disconnection came about. The artwork also gives insight into ways that reconnections can be made or greater understanding can be had when an art review is done. An art review may be done periodically when shifts occur in the awareness of the person in therapy or spiritual direction or it may be done at termination. If the person brings out his/her artwork later, it is possible for additional insight to be gained.
Relational Psychotherapy uses narration of one's story and the relational psychotherapist assists the client to draw out her/his story and see the moments and experiences of connection, disconnection, and reconnection. This is also what happens in the healing of meaning.
In the Catholic Christian tradition, to join Christ on the cross is to surrender the ego and be with and live in the skin of the authentic self. All of this helps us to gain a new perspective on those experiences that seem to be too much of a cross to carry at the time. As part of the people of God, we can be thankful that there has been a Samaritan (Luke 10: 33ff.) that picked us up and put us on his donkey and carried us to an inn; or a Simon that walked with us and lent us some of his ego strength so that we could make it to where we had to go.
As professionals in mental and spiritual health, we are sometimes like Simon of Cyrene (Luke 23:26) who gets pressed into service when we'd rather not go up hill once more. And in that moment, through the grace of God, we draw on an inner strength we did not know we had, and the living water we received at our baptism flows out so that being present and compassionate, we can have compassion (to suffer-with) upon the other.
Relational Psychotherapy seemed to be the way that my training as a spiritual director and my work as an Art Therapist had led me quite naturally. My particpation in the relational psychotherapy course, my work as an Art Therapist and Spiritual Director has empowered me to own it and see that I do not have to be "all cured" to do something. I am led forward to God who calls me to serve others even while I am still broken or weak. I believe that God heard my lamentation and responded: "My grace is enough for you: my power is at its best in weakness." (2Cor.12:9).
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Endnotes
22. Judith Rubin, Child Art Therapy: Understanding and Helping Children Grow Through Art, (2nd edition), (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold). 1978; Harriet Wadeson, Art Psychotherapy, (New York: John Wiley & Sons), 1980; Margaret Naumburg, Dynamically Oriented Art Therapy: Its Principles and Practice, (Chicago: Magnolia Street Publisher), 1987; Martin Fischer, T.A.T.I. lecture notes, 1991. Today, these early art therapy pioneers would probably be hesitant to make such a general statement.
23. Mala Betensky, What Do You See? Phenomenology of Therapeutic Art Expression, (London & Bristol, PA.: Jessica Kinglsey Publishers), 1995, p. 14-15.
24. William A. Barry & William J. Connolly, The Practice of Spiritual Direction, (New York: Seabury Press), 1982. that some directees "would benefit more from spending time at first in some activity they enjoy that has a contemplative aspect to it. … any receptive experience that helps a person forget himself and become absorbed in something else." (p.52) Spontaneous art making connects us to the Creator at play--the One who, in Genesis, painted and sculpted all that was to be.
25. David L. Fleming, SJ, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, (Saint Louis, Mo.: The Institute of Jesuit Resources, © 1978, 6th printing), 1991, p. 23.
26. In art therapy, usually, a painting done on the horizontal is the telling of a story while that on the vertical is the artist making a statement.
27. Olthuis, p. 12-13 of manuscript.
28. Olthuis, p. 13 of manuscript.
29. In her final address at the 1996 Canadian Art Therapy Association Conference, Dr. Debra Linesch left the participants with this question to ponder so that they could become all the more focused in their work.
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