Remembering this piece about using art in counseling... Healing through Art   “Death is a mystery to all of us and sometimes words are not enough. Art making provides a way to symbolically express our feelings as we begin to heal,” says Joni Beckner. Art has always been an important part of Joni’s life, a hobby as a child which grew into free-lance illustration and fine art work. Now as an art therapist at Hospice, her love for art is helping grieving children and teens learn to cope with loss.   Joni received her master’s degree in art thera ..read more

For HopeWest Kids. Acrylic & collage. 2021 A piece I wrote last year in my position as Director of Youth Programs at HopeWest. Let's keep hoping... Hope shows us how to act. Hope keeps us going. Hope is a healer. When we have hope, we are more likely to see the opportunities that come our way and to believe in and choose a path that leads to a peaceful and meaningful life.  Hope: “to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true”. Webster   Dear Friends, Last year, in 2020, the National Alliance for Gri ..read more

Art Therapy and Bereavement      Through engaging in the creative process, grieving children, teens and families can begin to make meaning out of their loss and enter into a process of healing and transformation.  Making art helps individuals both express and contain the complex and sometimes overwhelming emotions of grief.  Visual expression can help in exploring and understanding grief in a way not limited by words.  It provides a way of communicating that can often more fully express the complexities of a loss.        The be ..read more

Using altered books with bereaved teens has proven to be a beautiful format for telling the stories of their loved ones and their own journey through loss - their chapters of grief, coping, and memories.  An article I read recently by Gioia Chilton was an amazing description and explanation about this powerful art therapy intervention. Books have structure and literal boundaries, cover to cover . They have a defined beginning and ending conveying containment, a necessary aspect to therapeutic work.  Books are portable; they can be carried around and worked on in many s ..read more

       This week I read a great article by L. Hartz & L. Thick in a 2005 Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association:  Art Therapy Strategies to Raise Self-esteem in Female Juvenile Offenders: a Comparison of Arts Psychotherapy and Art as Therapy Approaches.   I have been doing a little research to support the work I have done with adolescents in the corrections setting.  It is widely documented that  low self-esteem has a correlation to criminal behavior.      Johnson & Ferguson (1990) suggest increasing ..read more

Bruce Moon called art making "the natural language of adolescents" (p. 175). He stated, "in my work...with adolescents...who have been hurt, betrayed, rejected, failed, disappointed ...or abused...most of them were not especially interested in, or capable of insight-oriented verbal psychotherapy with an adult authority figure, but nearly all of them were willing to make art.  The great majority who did experienced the ...process as a potent and healthy means of self-expression, self-exploration, and self-revelation (p.5). This is my experience too.  It's a wonderful way of working ..read more

It's Spring!  Having fun experimenting with and teaching about packing tape transparencies and acrylic on canvas ..read more

artlight therapy and studios The last two mornings, I have been updating the website.  This is not my favorite medium but a necessary part of the "business" of art therapy.  Enjoy ..read more

Looking forward to facilitating an art therapy group for incarcerated grieving teens again at the Department of Corrections- Grand Mesa Youth Services Center ..read more

     Working with a group of grieving middle-schoolers this week, I was reminded once again of the power and unique expression of mask painting.  Masks are particularly effective for teens who are building and establishing an identity.      Masks can be decorated and then hung on the wall as a way of externalizing one's false self, and as a way to dialogue with the visual image itself.  The reflection on the work provides a means for clients to confront dysfunctional beliefs and to discuss emotions in terms of how they are expressed and where and w ..read more