By Kate Pinsonneault
Here’s a fun art therapy activity you can try. You’ll need some paper and whatever you like to draw with; felts, crayons, pastels, coloured pencils, etc. Here we go…
- Draw a picture of your favourite animal (no one else will see it 🙂
- As you draw it, consider its day-to-day life, its joys, its strengths and its hardships and challenges.
- When you are finished and have thought about its life, you are going to give your animal a superpower.
- Draw a second picture with the animal using its superpower.
- Consider how its life will be different now, how it might be better, safer, easier. Can it have its needs met in a way it couldn’t before?
- Now take a moment to consider your own life as you were growing up. Can your younger self relate to your animal? What are the things you did to make your life safer or to try to meet your needs? Any parallels to the animal in your drawings?
- Take a moment to reflect on any insights you might have gotten from this activity.
When I did this activity the first time, I drew an elephant and its superpower was to become very small. Now food was not a problem as it could fill up on a single blade of grass and it would be invisible to hunters. When I considered myself as a child, I realized I was always trying to make myself small, not need much, and hide from those who hurt me. It helped me to realize that in my 30’s I was still trying to be small and unnoticed. This activity really helped me see that. I hope it helps you too.