March 2023 - Grief Cloud 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 month’s intervention has a digital version and a physical version of the same intervention. This is a way that I have talked about grief with clients for a long time to help conceptualize and visualize grief. In a creative consult I had this week (shoutout to Sarah!) this intervention came up and it felt perfect to share here! Grief can be so complicated, with the emotions often swirling, changing, and moving. I have found clients of all ages to relate well to this, and it has become a check in question for some as well.
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:
Process video of painting the grief clouds
Process video of digitally creating grief clouds in Canva
Age range: 8+
Diagnosis: Any, but this works particularly well with grief (although it could be applied to anxiety, depression, etc easily)
Supplies Needed:
Paper
Watercolors, markers, colored pencils, any art supply can work here
If using watercolors:
Paint brushes
Water
Paper towel
Canva, if doing this digitally
Uses: This can be a way to talk about grief with clients to help conceptualize and visualize grief. Grief can be so complicated, with the emotions often swirling, changing, moving, and are hard to describe. Clouds can be a simple representation of this.
Artistic skills needed: None!
Instructions:
I usually start by explaining the idea behind a grief cloud to clients before we start creating one. You can use your own words and phrasing, but the general idea is that grief can be so complicated, with the emotions often swirling, changing, moving, and it can be hard to describe. Clouds can be a easy and simple representation of this. I explain that grief also changes day to day, just like the clouds in the sky do. I tell clients that this can be a once in a while check in, they can do this on their own daily or when their grief feels heavy, or whenever they need it. Some clients I have worked with have used this to track their grief symptoms in a journal/sketchbook and look back and see how their clouds have changed
Once I have introduced the concept, I ask a client to think about what their cloud looks like right now
I encourage the client to think about what the sky looks like, the lighting, as well as the clouds. I also encourage them to think about if there are layers to their clouds or if it just one big cloud that stands out
If you are doing this in person with your client, have them pick which art material and paper they want to use. In my example, I wanted mine smaller so I folded my paper. I also chose watercolors because of how fluid they are. I find that giving options for clients of paper size and materials helps them really connect to what they are creating.
Once they have chosen their paper and art material, have them create their grief cloud!
If you are doing this digitally, I find that Canva works well because you can have the client share the image they are making with you so you can see it as they work on it
I find that creating a square document works well, but a client could choose any size in Canva to start with
Once they have the blank document open, I encourage them to search through the elements usually starting with what they want the sky to look like
They can search any words like “grey sky” “blue sky” “sunset” etc. I encourage them to be creative and use videos or photos if they want, or the more illustrated looking backgrounds
After they have chosen their sky, they can then start to search for clouds
I also encourage clients here to play around with the settings. In the process video you can see that I change the brightness if a cloud is too light or bright, they can flip the image or change the size of the clouds, etc as well as the transparency of the image
I let clients know that they can layer as many things as they want in their image, too, if that Is representative of how it looks for them. They can add a bunch of clouds, add sun rays, or if their grief cloud is simple, to keep it that way as long as it represents how it feels
This intervention can be modified in many ways. It does not have to be a grief cloud, and could easily be used as a representation for an event, anxiety, depression, etc. Be creative with it!!
This intervention can also be used longitudinally with clients if it is appropriate. They can track their grief if they want to by doing this activity when they want to. If they are doing it in Canva they can add a new page for each time they do it. This has also developed into a check in of sorts with some of my clients, where we start the sessions with me asking what their cloud looks like today. Don’t shy away from adapting this as needed! There are endless posibilites
