Art Therapy Workshop

As I wrap up the end of my B.A. in Psychology moving forward to a Ph.D. in Child Psychology, I want to specialize my career in healing young victims of trauma and abuse with art projects. This seems like a fun, liberating, and relieving plan for children. Just sketching, painting, or coloring a picture of your family can truly help you accept what you may see in them, if you are a kid. Of course, there are many more complex ideas in my forthcoming notebook . . .

Recently, I enjoyed the brief opportunity to volunteer at a social service center in Portland, Oregon called Bud Clark Commons. They mostly help veterans. For perhaps 6 months, I lead an open, structured workshop that embraced people who suffer trauma and psychological disturbance, and challenged them to express their thoughts and feelings on paper. For example, we drew from memories in one class, focusing on what seemed most intensely charged with emotion.

Also, Bud Clark Commons and a number of other social service centers in the heart of upper Portland hosted a huge art show known as "Art with Heart." For my local working center, BCC, I was on the jury and got to show many of my German Abstract Expressionist paintings. A friend of mine from New York City displayed some of her watercolors. Sally Franz is a published writer, and now edits manuscripts and travels globally from her new home here. The suffering got space in the show, too! Any capitol funded further ministry.   

This is a self-portrait by an intelligent, homeless sketch artist named Howard. He prefers to work with graphite.