Do You Help People Heal From Traumatic Events? Part 3

Posted by: Lisa Shouldice on June 11, 2015 2:26 pm

Creating Safety to Process Trauma Using Sandtray

Welcome to Part 3 of my Sandtray blogs! Part 1 introduced Sandtray Therapy (http://www.ccpa-accp.ca/blog/?p=4171) and Part 2 explained how to set up the first Sandtray session with a client (http://www.ccpa-accp.ca/blog/?p=4240). Sandtray is often used in therapy to facilitate healing traumatic events and related intense feelings. I truly feel it can be used for many issues and concerns clients present with and it is even great for couple counselling!

So while Sandtray can be used to process trauma, there are many other techniques and approaches used to this purpose as well. So one of the ways I use Sandtray is to create safety before I begin facilitating the processing of intense traumatic memories, even if Sandtray is not used again in session with that client.

I do this by first discussing this with a client at least one session before they complete the tray, so they know what to expect. When the session comes to complete the tray, I facilitate it in a slightly different way than usual, slightly more directive. For example:

“We are using this tray to create feelings of safety and self-care within your spirit before we begin talking about the difficult memories you have alluded to.   So I would like you to create a tray that creates feelings of safety, love and self-care today. This is a feeling you will be able to access while we get into talking about some horrible experiences you have had. There is no right or wrong. You are creating a world in which you are in full control and it can be anything you want it to be. So please choose your figures thinking about safety etc…”

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Let’s Give Creativity a Break

Posted by: Priya Senroy on June 1, 2015 2:26 pm

So it’s now June and half of the year is gone and I can feel that creative burnout smell and I better do something about it, or else, I will be spooning my whole summer with the crash and burn aftereffects. I am being more aware that I need to take care of myself so that I can take care of my practice and also encourage the importance of self care in my clients. As a creative arts therapist and counsellor I have decided to take myself out of feeling the need to be creative 100% and have decided to take a break from the traditional meaning of creativity, in different ways.

So here is one main tip that I have started to implement as I am beginning to prevent the dreaded emotional drain of batteries. ‘Take a break’ is my latest mantra and I have been sharing ideas with my colleagues, at workshops and with my clients and it’s amazing how many conversations are being generated around self care and self advocacy. A study by the University of Illinois has shown that the brain’s resources drop after a long period of focus, which hinders overall performance. Even a brief time away can restore the brain’s ability to think creatively.

So, here are 50 ways to take a break:

  1. Take a bath
  2. Listen to music
  3. Take a nap
  4. Go to a body of water
  5. Watch the clouds
  6. Watch the stars

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  7. Fly a kite
  8. Let out a sigh
  9. Rest your legs up on a wall
  10. Light a candle Continue reading



*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Do You Help People Heal From Traumatic Events? Part 2

Posted by: Lisa Shouldice on May 29, 2015 12:33 pm

How To Set Up The First Sandtray Session

deck-chair-321096_640In my last blog I wrote about Sandtray Therapy (http://www.ccpa-accp.ca/blog/?p=4171) and how I find it is such a wonderful therapeutic technique to help heal traumatic events and related mental health issues. I sometimes hear therapists that are new to using Sandtray say that clients look at a tray of sand and tiny figures and feel the idea of playing in the sand is “weird” or childish. So I wanted to outline what a Sandtray session looks like and present tips on how to present it to clients.

For those of you who know little about Sandtray Therapy, Picture it…you walk into a room that has two comfortable chairs and a small table between them. On that small table is a tray or large bowl with sand in it. On a nearby table or placed on shelves are hundreds of tiny figures. These figures are a combination of everyday items that are miniscule ex. A house, chairs, animals…these figures also include mythical ones ex. mermaids and unicorns…and small sculptures that are more abstract. Some of these figures will fascinate you and some will feel odd or meaningless.

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Do You Help People Heal From Traumatic Events? Part 1

Posted by: Lisa Shouldice on May 14, 2015 8:22 am

My work as a therapist has included working with clients that are present with abuse histories, and often complex trauma. I find this can take years to heal and is hard emotionally and spiritually on both the client and the psychotherapist. So enter my training in Sandtray therapy!

Sandplay is a wonderful technique that taps into the unconscious to access deep emotions and experiences that can then be healed in a gentle way.  What I love about this technique is that the natural healing centre chooses unconsciously what and how deeply a person needs to heal something, sometimes surprising them. It can be used in a single session or every session until a person has met their goals.  It is great if a client has expressed feeling “stuck”.  It is also a way to connect with the elements and heal without talk as the central modality.sand-600473_640

Using figures of a person’s choosing and the arrangement of the sand in the tray, your client becomes the “world builder,” and watches whatever reveals itself.  It can be transformational helping to process grief, past hurts or help to identify and process what is causing or maintaining depressive and other mental health symptoms, enabling recovery. It provides the possibility, to set up a world corresponding to the clients’ inner emotional state. Through free, creative play, unconscious processes are made visible in visual form.

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Outlander

Posted by: Bonney Elliott on May 13, 2015 8:28 am

Streets of Haiti
In 2013, I spend two weeks volunteering in Haiti. A colleague suggests writing a travel blog. Writing is not new to me. I have been an intermittent scribbler of poetry, short stories and personal journaling since childhood. Writing a blog is new to me. Intriguing, but fraught with some trepidation about publishing first-person reflections. Having churned out countless academic essays through university, and carefully crafted client-centered notes as a clinician, the word “I” has been practically obliterated from my written vocabulary. Dare I ramble on-line about what I think, or braver yet, how I feel?

Sharing perceptions of my first foray into a foreign country struggling in the aftermath of disaster with an invisible audience does feel vulnerable. Yet, the Haiti blog evolves into a lifeline to home, a forum for sharing the heightened perceptions of an Outlander visiting a strange and sometimes frightening place. Not speaking the national language renders me essentially mute for much of the trip. Quiet for stretches of unaccustomed time, and untethered from responsibilities, my thoughts turn inward. Mind lapses into daydreaming and reflection. I reconnect with a love of writing, streams of consciousness spilling on the page, soliloquies emerging from the back corners of my psyche. I bring to life with words my intense experience of Haiti, and in so doing begin to process past memories it evokes.
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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Use of Creative Therapies in Treating Depression

Posted by: Priya Senroy on May 5, 2015 8:54 am

As front-line counsellors, we spend a lot of our expertise with our clients and I think it’s important to share the successes with other practitioners too. Not only contributing via articles, journals and chapters adds to the CEC piece but it also helps to stay abreast of the current trends, researchers and best practices in our fields.

This spring has been a exciting time for me as a counsellor from a professional development point of view. I have been working on 2 chapters for some time and it’s exciting to see they have been published. Use of Creative Therapies in Treating Depression, edited by Stephanie Brooke and Charles Myers is a comprehensive work that examines the use of art, play, music, dance/movement, drama, and animals as creative approaches to treating depression.lg9780398081485

The book can be viewed at http://www.ccthomas.com/details.cfm?P_ISBN13=9780398081485

The editors’ primary purpose is to examine treatment approaches, which cover the broad spectrum of the creative art therapies and the reader is provided with a snapshot of how these various creative art therapies are used to treat children and adults diagnosed with depression.  The book is extremely resourceful, insightful and draws from evidence based practice and research.  I had the honor of sharing my work in the form of a case study using masks and the sesame approach of drama therapy with South Asian women recovering from depression.

So my encouragement to my fellow counsellors would be to please share your work with a broader audience and take up writing and contributing. The labor is worth it when you see your work being published and used as references. It is also worth it to know that the work, the client groups and the career we have chosen are validated.




*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Sand, Story and Solidarity: Finding Joy and Meaning in Clinical Work

Posted by: Bonney Elliott on May 4, 2015 9:06 am

My work life is split between coaching cancer patients and their families, and private general psychotherapy practice. In both domains, the clients who come to see me are often in the midst of major life transitions. Their stories can be heart wrenching. I could easily get lost in their suffering, Take it on and bring it home with me. Or worse, become so detached that it ceases to affect me at all. Both alternatives would impact my wellbeing and my longevity as a practitioner. There is no perfect formula for keeping the fire in the belly alive in my clinical work. Mitigating compassion fatigue is not simply about finding the perfect job and job/life balance, or staying healthy through self-care, nurturing relationships and mindfulness. It is about finding joy and meaning in the work I do.

fantasy-221242_640The three pillars of my clinical practice are sand, story and solidarity. Sand represents the Sand Tray Therapy that brings creativity, joy and lightness to the work, even with clients who have experienced significant trauma. Story represents Narrative Therapy and my own writing, which help me to find truth and beauty in client’s stories. Solidarity comes from the practitioner community that I belong to, my lifeboat of support. I meet with like-minded practitioners regularly, through group supervision and collaborative practice groups. Having a therapeutic community sustains my practice, keeps me grounded and bridges the isolation of clinical work. Continue reading




*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Tribute to Creative Art Practitioners Around the World

Posted by: Priya Senroy on May 1, 2015 8:47 am

I am very optimistic that I will soon see a plethora of greenery outside my window even though Spring has been illusive in my garden. The buds, the birds and the weeds are finally getting out of their hibernation and my energy is getting renewed as I am planning my next steps in my work.

This month has been catastrophic in many parts of the worlds, especially in Nepal and it has resonated deeply as it’s a place that I have visited many times and when the tremors were felt as far as in India, it struck more as that’s where home is.

A part of me wants to jump on the next flight and join many organizations including Art therapy Without Borders to be part of the humanitarian work and use my skills for a cause which is beyond words for many.

I have done work with some PTSD but not directly been involved as other practitioners have during the deadly hurricanes, tsunamis or like the recent earthquake. When we talk about using creative arts or even counselling in such a broad spectrum, it’s important I think to remember the ways art can be used when words are not enough. It can be used as a compliment to assessment, to recovery, to healing. This is the time when creative arts can be transcultural, transformative and transnational, something that is advocated by Art Therapy Without Borders. Since I started practicing as a creative arts therapist in 1995, I have always been amazed by the flexibility, the adaptability, the ability to connect and the diversity of this field. Not only is the cultural and diverse fabric of the field is enriched by those who practice it , it’s the client group, it’s the techniques and it’s the materials which are constantly changing and adding to this melting pot of creativity.

This blog is a salute, a tribute and a standing ovation to the field, to the practitioners and to the world out there who believe in the power of creative art.

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Community Art Therapy

Posted by: Priya Senroy on March 27, 2015 12:00 pm

day-of-the-dead-568012_640Happy Spring everyone!!!

I can smell, it, see it, touch it…but I can’t feel it in the recent chill spell….yet I am optimistic that “it” is just round the corner…. And the only place where I can see the effects of seasonal changes are in my backyard. The white is getting replaced by brown and yellow shades, the dark browns are slowly turning color and the dead are rising again. Very metaphoric especially with Easter round the corner.

Speaking of death, I saw an interesting show on the television about a well known Mexican holiday called Los Dias de los Muertos. It is held on November 1st and November 2nd. The displays and the showcasing that were shown were seriously a sensory overload. Men and women decorate breads, paper cutouts, dancing skeletons, and sugar skull candies. Artistically crafted caskets and altars are usually displayed in the community to honor the dead.

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Happy February!!!

Posted by: Priya Senroy on March 11, 2015 2:05 pm

Canada has been frigid, its cities and towns had to be dug out couple of times and no one cares what the ground hog thinks!!!!! Nothing seems to warm the cockles of the heart- except perhaps the love and the despairs which might have poured in and around Valentine ’s Day. I seem to see an upsurge of clients reaching out to remember their broken hearts than to celebrate them. I am nota bird-638112_640grief therapist but have enough life experience to be able to share the broken heart dialogue and like many of my client ,from time to time  also have delved into some deep soul searching reflections as they dig up lost loves and bury them at the same time. Like any other physical ailment which might require a specialist, when one faces loss of any complexity from minor to profound, one needs a skilled counsellor to help navigate the way through, and eventually out of, the deep abyss that is left in the path of most critical of all wounds….that of a broken heart. I read somewhere that the application of Creative Arts Therapy is as broad as is human suffering. The creative gift is a healing gift – a natural and gentle way of restoring broken hearts. Our confidence in this medium is based on its universality and creativity.. The arts form an essential element of our experience. People all over the world tell stories, dance and act, sing and draw. This medium combines the innate capacity for creative expression with a variety of psychological theoretical models from around the world. So true and as I continue to use this medium to self heal and self counsel, I find its reach having profound effects on my clients, so yes the heart is broken but from the fire rises the phoenix and from the broken heart , the despair and the pain rises the transformation and the choice to change things for good.




*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA