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 | Kids' Gallery
Click on any images to enlarge.
NB Names are changed to respect confidentiality
Jessica, who likes to get things 'just so' and be good at everything was sulking about something she thought was unfair. I said she seemed to be angry and suggested she draw an 'angry' picture. |
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| Jessica was then encouraged to express her anger more fully and gave herself permission to let loose. This picture was the second in that series. The third was torn through the middle by crayon. Intense enthusiasm and even glee are often the outcome of giving children permission to express feelings like anger in a way that hurts no-one and has no negative consequences. |  |
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 | After this Jessica became very calm and took a long time to silently draw this seemingly 'victorious' image. She is now on her throne and in charge of her previously scary angry feelings. The sun is shining. |
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| Martin was asked to draw a picture of himself as a rosebush. As you can see by these contrasting pictures, this can reveal the very different ways children see themselves. His rosebush is saying, "I have no flowers because nobody likes me and nobody waters me." A male figure replies, "I will water you because you can be even more beautiful than those plants next to you." This suggests that a part of him now sees he can help himself with this problem. |  |
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 | In contrast to Martin's rosebush Kate said calmly of her drawing, " These are all my friends around me and this one (centre) is me. I have more flowers." |
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Michel's rosebush drawing differs a lot from his usual ones of army tanks in battle firing at the enemy. The rosebush is saying, "No-one likes me." A taller figure to the side says, "I'm not got (going) to water you." It seems clear that Michel is feeling very alone with his pain. He was a child who had 'behaviour problems' in groups, at home and at school and other children seemed to find him strange and withdrew from him instinctively.
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 | Zarah's mother had died recently when Zarah was only 9. Part of her difficult work in dealing with her shock, abandonment and grief was to be able to express her feelings. Her initial words about this first drawing were "angry, unhappy, sad, mad, unfair, bad." Notice how tight, rigid and repetitive the patterns are. This suggests feelings and thoughts that are being held in, locked inside because they are intensely painful and frightening and perhaps unable to be expressed - either because the child is unable or unready or because she thinks that the adults around do not want to know about them or can't handle them either. This may or may not be true of course, but most adults are understandably in overload themselves in these extreme situations. |
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| After some time and processing, in a later session with Zarah's permission we did a visualisation process where she imagined meeting up with her mother and 'talking' to her. After this she did this drawing and said she felt "happy, a bit sad, lonely and joyful." She was able to reconnect with the feelings of love she had for her mother and feel connected to this even though her mother was gone. Zarah's life had changed tragically, but she was learning to feel and express these huge feelings and also see that she did not have to shut them in because they were too scary for her or adults around her to deal with. |  |
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 | Adam (8) was exploring feelings he had when his mother was angry and yelling at him. This is how he drew himself (the pale figure on the left which can be seen when enlarged) in contrast to her. |
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