July 2022 - Doodle Story Therapeutic Art Making Intervention

Finding creative therapy interventions can be so difficult! That is why I have created a library of creative interventions so that any therapist can easily find interventions to do with their clients. Please keep in mind the importance of the terminology you are using with these interventions! Art Therapy interventions are done by a trained and registered Art Therapist. Luckily, all of these interventions are appropriate for any clinician to use as Therapeutic Art Making interventions! All of the interventions found in my Creative Intervention Library are art activities perfect for therapy sessions. Most of the interventions also have a telehealth modification for those of us who are still seeing clients virtually. Every month, I post a new creative intervention for you to use. Looking for more? For the price of a cup of coffee per month, you can get access to a second creative intervention as well as access to the entire library catalog of previous months.

This intervention is fun, simple, and can be insightful as to how the client thinks about things, as well as some potentially relevant imagery.

Please note, If you do take any photos of client’s art work, make sure you have a consent form signed for this. I have a Consent to Photograph Artwork Created in Therapy Sessions Form in my products if you need one for your practice. Even with therapeutic art making, it is ethically necessary to have this consent form signed. Also make sure to remove any identifying information from any art work before photographing it, such as names or signatures.

I offer personalized intervention ideas in the clinical consultation and supervision I provide as well! When I work one on one with clinicians, I love being able to create specific interventions tailored to each client and their presenting concerns. Feel free to reach out with any questions to see if creative supervision and consultation would be a good fit for you and your practice!

Process Video:

Age range: 8+

Diagnosis: Any

Supplies Needed:

• Plain paper

• Black sharpie or black marker

  • If you do not have a Sharpie, you can use a black marker but please note that it may smudge when being colored in

• Colored pencils, crayons, or markers

  • If you are not using a Sharpie, I would recommend you having the client color with colored pencils or crayons so that the marker does not smudge

Uses: This activity is fun, simple, and can be insightful as to how the client thinks about things, as well as some potentially relevant imagery.

Artistic skills needed: None!

Instructions:

1. Using the Sharpie or black marker, have your client draw a big scribble filling the page

   • I usually tell my client to use all types of scribbles such as big loops, straight lines, wavy lines, etc so that there will be plenty of images to find within their scribbles

2. Next, have your client start to find images within their scribble drawing they created

   • I usually mention that they can look for pictures, letters, shapes etc and that they can add on to the scribble to make an image more prominent

   • Have your client keep rotating the paper for different views and ways to find new shapes or images in the scribble

3. Try to avoid pointing out too many images that you see, as it can inadvertently influence what else they see or their story. If they are really struggling to find anything, I might point out one image, and encourage them to add more scribbles

4. Have your client color in and add details to the images/shapes/letters they have found in their scribbles

5. Once they feel like they have found and colored all of the images they can, ask them to tell you a story about all of the images they found

6. An alternate way of doing this activity if you are in person with your client would be both of you drawing a scribble on separate papers, and then trading scribbles and finding images in each others scribbles.

   • Do this with caution as I mentioned above, you do not want what you see to influence what the client sees. If you do it this way, I would recommend keeping what you find in the scribble very basic and minimal

7. From my example video, the story I created was “the images in my doodle remind me of going to an amusement park at the end of the summer and start of fall. There are Halloween decorations and spooky trails. There are games to play, prizes to win, and roller coasters to ride. I am with my family and we share lots of snacks and stay into the evening when the stars twinkle in the sky.”

   • The story the client creates can potentially give you some insight into what is on their mind. This is not always the case and any interpretation should be avoided or done with extreme caution. Always ask questions about why they chose images and never assume you know why they chose something. Clients can be depicting images from shows, movies, or things they have seen on the internet. If you assume a client is including a certain image, it can be very dangerous and give you a biased opinion. Please take this note seriously and proceed cautiously. If you have any questions about why this is, please reach out and I would be more than happy to give more details as needed!

Intervention Example

*A note about examples: Please be careful about sharing an example of the intervention with your client. When a client sees a full example, it can unintentionally influence what they are making and may skew what they are presenting in their art making.