17 ART THERAPY DYNAMICS FOR CHILDREN AND ADULTS - ECONOMÍA - 2024

The dynamics and exercises of art therapy can help to promote artistic creation, to express oneself and to solve those emotional or psychological problems in a dynamic and fun way.

This technique can be used in children, adolescent adults, and older people. Next, we will expose you some activities of this magnificent discipline that you can do at home or abroad at any time you want.

17 Art Therapy Exercises for Children, Adolescents and Adults

1- Draw outdoors

Objective: Relax in nature.

Procedure: Drawing outside can be a unique experience at any time of the year, whether done with or alone. One day when you feel sad or desolate, the best alternative to staying at home thinking about how unhappy we are is to take our picture book and pencil and go to a park or field and listen to the nature that surrounds us.

While we draw any part of the landscape that has caught our attention, we will be able to hear the singing of the birds, how the air moves the leaves of the trees and even our breath. It is a really relaxing activity that will alleviate your discomfort.

Material: Sketchbook and pencil or any other material you use to draw.

2- Paint the music

Objective: Sketch what the music expresses to you on paper.

Procedure: Do you like classical music? Listening to music also has multiple benefits for our health, as the Greek philosopher Plato said "Music is for the soul what gymnastics is for the body." In this activity you will try to express on a paper through drawings or shapes what the music you are listening to tells you.

To perform this exercise correctly, you will have to let yourself be carried away by the music you are listening to and allow your creativity to awaken within you, in this way you can relax and let your feelings come out.

Material: CDs with classical music, radio, paper and pencil. I always use classical music but you can use the music with which you feel most comfortable.

3- Recreate a place where you feel safe

Objective: Know yourself.

Procedure: Another way to relax and get to know ourselves is to reflect on the place where we feel safe, sometimes it can be quite difficult and it is a question that we have not asked ourselves very often, Where do I feel safe?

Thanks to this wonderful activity you will be able to get to know yourself a little more and give shape to that place where you were where you felt really good with any type of material, the important thing is that you can visualize that place and if you can leave it in a place where you have it at your sight so you can look at it when you're not feeling well.

Material: Any material with which you want to carry out the activity, be it paper, clay, plasticine…

4- Art in nature

Objective: To carry out a work in nature with the materials that are available.

Procedure: Not only being in nature benefits our mental and physical health, but it also develops our imagination and makes us avoid the problems and sorrows of our soul.

With this activity we will have to make a work with the material that nature provides us with either stones, leaves, tree branches, flowers, boils… We have to let our creativity emerge and express ourselves.

Material: Any material that is natural and found in the place where we are going to carry out the activity.

5- Make a sculpture with recyclable material

Objective: Express what we feel.

Procedure: Everything has a second life if we wish and this happens with all those materials that surround us. Instead of throwing them away or taking them to recycle, we can use it to make a small work at home and thus express what we feel in relation to something that has happened to us with a sculpture, for example.

This is a good way to "get out" what we have inside that makes us feel sad and believe me it works very well. I have carried out this activity with older people and it has been a success because of their sadness they got something positive and beautiful.

Material: things that you have at home that you do not want such as plastic bottles, kitchen paper rolls, egg carton…

6- Paint on our skin

Objective: Work creativity and concentration.

Procedure: Have you ever thought about painting yourself? With this activity, in addition to working on creativity and concentration, you will be able to express in your own skin what you feel at that moment. Also, you can accompany those moments of connection between your skin and yourself with a relaxing melody or that makes you feel good.

The results can be spectacular since this exercise gives us a very important meaning for life: that both happy and sad moments pass and this is a fact since after finishing the drawing that you make on your skin it will eventually disappear.

Material: colored pens or markers with which you can paint your skin and then erase it.

7- Make a poem

Objective: Develop creativity.

Procedure: This activity was already done by the Dadaists and consists of cutting out words from any newspaper or magazine that you have on hand and then placing them in a ball and taking them out one by one.

Respecting the order in which you take them out of the bag, you have to construct a poem. You will be surprised to know what the result of this exercise is and how, like the others, it helps you express what you feel.

Material: magazines, newspapers, plastic bag, paper and pencil.

8- Capture shadows

Objective: To know the world around us.

Procedure: Since we were little we have always played with shadows, therefore, in art therapy, an activity in which the protagonists were these could not be absent. Once we have left home, we have to find those shades that we like the most and transfer them to paper so that later when we are home we can continue working on them.

This can be a good way to get away from our problems and focus on what makes us happy.

Material: sketchbook and pencils.

9- Draw a happy memory

Objective: Arouse positive emotions.

Procedure: And who does not like to remember the moments in which we have been really happy? At present, although we all have cameras to capture that special moment, if we do not reveal them, we lose them and with it their memory.

Another way to capture them is by drawing them ourselves, because then, surely we can always have it in a different way than we would if we had it printed, giving it that personal appreciation of the moment and putting a bit more in our lives of that fabulous memory, Don't you feel better just thinking about it?

Material: sketchbook and pencils.

10- Create a work from our name

Objective: To know ourselves.

Procedure: And who did not have fun when he was little writing and drawing his name all over the place? But… Do you know what emotions your name awakens in you? A very interesting exercise that will make you know yourself is to write our name on a piece of paper and make a work of art from it.

You can choose both your name and your nickname, the important thing is that it is yours and that you feel identified by the way the people around you call you. Although it seems complicated, it is very interesting and fun to see the amount of feelings you can express from it.

Material: sketchbook, pencils, pens, markers…

11- Create a clay sculpture of anger

Objective: Express negative emotions through sculpture.

Procedure: A good way to express your negative emotions and specifically anger is to materialize it through clay. The right time to do this activity will be that moment when you are angry about something that has happened to you. Simply take the clay and express what you feel at that moment by shaping the anger you feel, and later if you see it necessary to break it and eliminate it completely with that fact.

Material: clay and all the necessary materials.

12- Draw in the dark

Objective: Not to judge your feelings.

Procedure: Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you listened to music and drew in the dark? With this activity you can do it. You simply have to put on the music that makes you feel both positive and negative emotions and let your imagination flow with the light off on the paper.

This way, you will not be able to judge what you are drawing on the paper and this will prevent you from erasing and criticizing your artwork. When you think you are done you can turn on the light and get to know another part of yourself.

Materials: radio, music CDs, sketchbook and pencils.

13- Balloon Activity

Objective: Free ourselves from those emotions that weigh us down.

Procedure: This is another way to eliminate those negative emotions that do not let us turn the page and be ourselves. In a note you can write in the way you want what does not let you be happy or that event that you wish had never happened or even how you feel and why.

Later, you will inflate the balloon and by means of a rope you will incorporate the paper where you have captured your emotions and feelings and you will let it go. As the balloon moves away, your negative feelings and emotions will move away with it.

Material: balloon, rope, paper and pencil.

14- Portray someone who changed your life

Objective: Remember a special person.

Procedure: We all have a special person who has been part of our life for both good and bad and who must be remembered and accepted because thanks to her we have been able to get to where we are today. Who is coming to your head?

Well, with that image we have in mind we have to work and translate it on paper to later color it. It would be nice if later we could give this drawing to the person we have portrayed but if we prefer it we can also keep it.

Material: sketchbook, pencil and colored pencils or markers, watercolor…

15- Draw in the sand

Objective: Express ourselves through the sand.

Procedure: If you like the beach you can also practice this discipline through the sand or if you do not have the possibility of moving there you can do it with the sand that you have near the garden, for example.

This activity consists of expressing yourself through the grains of sand, you can take a handful and spread them on a sheet of paper, to later shape it. In this way you will feel connected to nature and you can let off steam.

Material: sand and sheet of paper.

16- Destroy objects

Objective: Eliminate negative emotions.

Procedure: On many occasions we are so unhinged by something that has happened to us that we need to break things, because further, in art therapy there is also an activity that consists of breaking objects such as plates, glasses or clay sculptures; to later rebuild them.

After all anger comes calm, after failures we learn from them and we build and overcome them again. This is a good way to learn that if something negative happens to us we can be happy again and find our balance.

Material: Depending on the object you break, you will need some materials or others. Normally you will need glue and the object you are going to break.

17- What scares us?

Objective: Face our own fear.

Procedure: We are all afraid of something or someone, be it an animal like the cockroach or even a scarecrow. The important thing is that we are aware that we have to face our fears in order to overcome those negative emotions that may awaken in us, only then can we be more free.

On a piece of paper, draw what you are afraid of as it comes to mind or how you see it in your dreams. Subsequently, give it color and stare at it for a few moments reflect, why am I afraid of this?

Material: sketchbook, pencil and colors.