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How This Art Course Helps
- Widen our sense of self-awareness and naturally boost self-esteem levels through art.
- Learn how to safely and rationally question ourselves and our futures without negativity.
- Enjoy mindfulness and art as a family to reinforce important emotional-bridge activity.
- Cultivate tools to help maintain an emotional balance during stressful situations.
- Grow our ability to assert ourselves and enlarge our emotional vocabulary.
- Improve focus levels for better school and work performance without drugs.
"Psychological wellness is achieved when we strike a healthy balance between our thoughts and emotions."
Parents Learn to Better Understand Their Children.
My "Process and Processing" video-based art course offers connections through stories. Explore and use the 5 creative exercises below to take a journey of self-discovery from a variety of fun and interesting angles.
Children learn how to better understand their thoughts and emotions to solve problems in new ways. They also learn to create, process, accept, regulate and express their emotions safely and calmly.
All the videos relate to how to emotionally and cognitively function in this world. During each, we start by asking key questions that help children and their parents understand outcomes.
Teens Learn to Better Understand Themselves.
Mindfulness and therapy are both very important in our lives.
Mindfulness allows us to be present, peaceful and calm in the moment. Art therapy combined with mindfulness can be an effective "non-medicational" way of coping with anxiety, depression and stress.
Process & Processing is an educational online video-based art course focusing on emotions and thoughts, and how to better understand both during the art making process. When parents watch this educational video at home together with kids, they have the opportunity to join and collaborate. Everyone involved learns more about themselves in an enjoyable and relaxing way.
Description of Sessions
1: A Tree
During "A Tree" children creatively express themselves in a new way relating to nature. This mindfulness exercise allows them to witness their thoughts and emotions without giving them too much attention.
Children observe how they feel in the moment within a comfortable and supportive environment.
They'll draw themselves as a tree, and just like leaves are attached to a tree, our minds are attached to our body, kept stable through our thoughts and emotions.
One of the goals is for children to learn more about their inherent strengths and the importance of the connection between their thoughts, emotions and body.
2: Discovering Emotions Through Color
Everyone experiences positive and negative emotions, but it isn't always possible to differentiate between them. This exercise involves using colors as a way of showing children how to express themselves.
Children discover how various colors feel and which colors evoke different emotions.
Through the art making process, they learn it's possible to express emotions through colors in a supportive and safe way. To spot their own stressors and connect them to emotions.
3: Discovering You
During this session, children draw themselves and learn more about what makes them tick in the process.
The discussion, or focus, revolves around the fact everyone has certain uncertainties growing up.
This could be everything, from uncertainties about our goals and career choices to friendships, moral values and group loyalties. During these times, there are always moments where we question ourselves.
The goal is for children to discover their unique characteristics and traits, resulting in a significant boost in self-awareness. In a group setting, it helps children learn that they share many things in common with peers.
4: Riding the Wave
During The Wave children visualize a wave at the beach. That same wave can reflect our lives and the way we experience challenges.
"Can we remain balanced and centered even when we're surfing waves?"
As they listen to the gentle sounds of ocean waves on the chore, they're asked to visualize the various attributes of a wave including its size, speed, color and strength and reflect on how they feel while visualizing this wave.
The lesson shows it's possible to learn to surf any of life's waves while staying balanced. As children become mindful of their emotions they notice them arise, shifting and then passing away.
5: Two Sides of a Bridge
Everyone lives in their present moment and yet constantly builds plans for the future. During this session, we address the present and the future.
This transformational activity has children create their own personal version of their bridge through mindful painting.
The bridge represents the space between current and future plans. Helpful questions include, "How can we successfully achieve future plans?" and, "How can we properly prepare for the future?"
The goal is for children to begin expressing how they see their future and gain powerful insights into how they perceive their plans.
Questions & Answers
About Course Creators
Yakov Sherk - Founder of A Child and Family Psychiatry.
I'm a child and adult psychiatrist based in Columbus, Ohio.
I've received awards from the University of Buffalo for "Outstanding Contribution to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry" as well as for my publication "Liquid melatonin via gastrostomy as an alternative hypnotic in a child with Pervasive Developmental Disorder," published in the Journal Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.
Years of experience treating individuals with mood disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism.
Over the last few years I've used a highly-comprehensive approach which includes wellness through art and mindfulness which I've found helps people learn more about themselves in an enjoyable and relaxing manner.
They learn how to better understand their thoughts and emotions and how to solve problems in new ways. They also gain the ability to create, process, accept, regulate and express their emotions safely and calmly.
"Process & Processing" is an educational online art course I created in collaboration with Teresa Weston, an extremely experienced Art Therapist.
Teresa Weston - LCAT, ATR-BCM
Teresa is a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist in New York State (LCAT), Registered and Board Certified Art Therapist (ATR-BC), and has presented at national conferences such as the Expressive Therapies Summit.
She's an exceptional Art Therapist at Western New York Children's Psychiatric Center, works with families in the WrapAround program throughout WNY and has a private practice located in Buffalo.
Teresa works with a variety of populations including adolescents and children with behavioral and mental health concerns as well as medically fragile children and adults. She meets with individual clients as well as facilitates groups and workshops.
Learn more by Visiting her Website.
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