(using pastels, crayons, felt-tips or paint)

I came across this method a long time ago and have used it extensively both with clients and also personally, as I find that it can be a wonderfully freeing way to express anything and everything with no judgement and sometimes even no set intention.

By simple depictions – this may be “stick people“, rudimentary shapes, symbolic representations, blobs, daubs or squiggles of colour – either via exercises suggested and guided by me or volunteered by you, we can explore various aspects of your life or self.

Once drawn, I will then gently invite you to reflect on what is on the paper and together we may explore its relevance and significance, sometimes going into great depth and leading to quite startling revelations, healing and growth.

Depicting known or unconscious, half-understood thoughts and feelings on paper, making them visible and thus more concrete, can be like a partial exorcism of the confused feelings and seeing them there, often brings about increased clarity and leads to deeper understanding.

I currently use this expressive tool with one-to-one clients and in one-day workshops and have been witness to some quite profound transformations .

Using drawing in this way, as a springboard to therapeutic growth, it seems to offer great potential for deep healing and growth…. as can be borne out by the testimonies from recovering addicts at Channings Wood Prison that accompany these pictures: