Guided Drawing® with Children
Guided Drawing encourages bilateral, rhythmic repetition of movements and applies particular, archetypal shapes as intervention tools in order to structure the experience, if necessary. (Elbrecht 2018) During the Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing online training the question how to apply this modality with children arises on a regular basis. Children benefit from Guided Drawing just as much as adults, however, the facilitation has to be adjusted to match their age-specific needs and learning style.
First and foremost, children always draw with their eyes open. Body-focus takes on a different meaning when working with pre-schoolers and school children, because they still have a rather diffuse felt sense and are mostly unable to locate and track sensory experiences in their body. Developmentally they need to orient in the outside world first until they have gained sufficient balance, coordination and gravitational core strength. Only then can they begin to look inwards without getting lost, which may begin at around age sixteen. The theme for children and young adults is to find their place and purpose in the outside world, and how they can align their inner needs with this challenge.
Many children and teens who come into therapy suffer from developmental setbacks due to adverse events in their past or current lives. Some may have never learnt to be fully coordinated and confidently embodied, because they were frozen out of their body due to trauma when they were very young. The felt sense during the first years of life shapes our physiological identity. We may never question this sense of self, because we have always felt like it, but once children enter school, they become aware of their lack of skills and their dysregulated nervous system. (Lloyd 2020) Bruce Perry emphasises the importance of rhythmic repetition for repairing the sensorimotor foundation. He compares this sensorimotor base to the foundation of a house upon which all higher learning rests. If this base is dysregulated, all higher brain functions are compromised in their development. (Perry 2002, 2005, 2009)
Those who have studied Guided Drawing will be aware that bilateral movements stimulate the coordination of the brain-hemispheres; it strengthens their connection. (Elbrecht 2018) Left-right hand coordination is left-right brain hemisphere coordination. (Wilson 1998) Crossing the midline in bilateral coordination is beneficial for all children who need to learn how to coordinate movement, but also how to coordinate emotions and thinking. In the process they learn how to make sense of the world, rather than being overwhelmed by it.
Children may not necessarily respond to crayons and paper. Some will explore the movements they like by holding sticks with colourful ribbons attached to them. This can be a playful way to encourage them to find movements they find empowering or comforting. Others respond to created stories around certain shapes: the lemniscate can become a race track with a toy car driving in it. They may sway back and forth in the bowl like on a set of swings; or a magic wand directs verticals in the desired direction.
A four-year old boy with a severe stutter draws fragmented verticals with high pressure. The paper tears at times. The marks seem to express the sounds he cannot make, and the anguish he experiences in the process. He perseveres with intense concentration. He seems to tell a trauma story without words. Gradually his movements become less pressured; they gain flow and he can release the lines at the end. After several sessions his stutter is greatly reduced.
Because many suffer from chaos and overwhelm internally and in their environment, they enjoy the structure of the shapes. In this context two shapes have stood out as the most effective and liked by children of all ages:
The lemniscate for coordination and connection. It is the Guided Drawing version of EMDR. (Shapiro 2001) Crossing the midline with both hands together in a rhythmic movement pattern can down-regulate emotions. The shape is capable to reintegrate dissociated aspects due its safe and repetitive rocking and rolling feel. It allows braced postures in the body to gradually relax.
Sorting the Seeds, this T-shaped vertical requires a clearly angled corner, before encouraging the release of potentially strong emotions. The corners stop the overwhelm, requiring a decision to break the flow, followed by the safe release of experienced tension to the sides. The movement strengthens uprightness. Over time the repetition of the shape is capable of building self-esteem; it is empowering.
Both shapes need to be drawn on large sheets of paper to allow embodied integration; this is not doodling. The therapist may mirror these movements, draw them together with the child, dramatize them or incorporate them as dance movements accompanied with music; whatever resonates with the young client.
Those with sensory needs respond well to finger-paints. If these are considered as too messy such as in a school setting, or as too intense to touch, shaving cream on a baking tray (with or without added food colouring and essential oils), sand (in a Sandtray) or liquid clay may serve the same purpose, encouraging smooth, rhythmic movement patterns and full contact with the hands. (Elbrecht 2021) Once the child is more regulated, the drawing or painting may become the background for more figurative creations such as landscaping and bringing in figurines for roleplay. Such symbolic play will engage higher brain functions, once the sensory foundation has been consolidated.
Standing up and applying downward pressure through, for instance, making handprints, can be profoundly embodying. The movement pattern requires the alignment of the skeletal build, the muscles and ligaments in order to make an impression. Applying downward pressure is a most effective way of engaging the body while bypassing the trauma held in the body. It is an uncoupling of the trauma memories from the child’s physiology. Children who are braced or collapsed may regain a sense of self in this way - a self that holds the promise of competence and empowerment. (Elbrecht 2021)
The majority of children I have worked with enjoy Guided Drawing, especially those children who lack coordination of their movements due to bracing in their body due to trauma, experiences for which they have no words. Some may only be interested to engage for ten minutes and then move on to other activities, but they do want these ten minutes. Rhythmic, bilateral repetition helps them to arrive in their body, and to feel more regulated. Guided Drawing allows children to express their inner tension. Here they can find safety in embodied structures, which give them a sense of confidence and competence.
Bibliography
Elbrecht, Cornelia. 2021. Healing trauma in children with clay field therapy; how Sensorimotor Art Therapy supports the embodiment of developmental milestones. Berkley, California: North Atlantic Books.
—. 2018. Healing trauma with guided drawing; a sensorimotor art therapy approach to bilateral body mapping. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books.
Lloyd, Sarah. 2020. Building sensorimotor systems in children with developmental trauma; a model for practice. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley.
Perry, Bruce. 2005. "Applying principles of Neurodevelopment to clinical work with maltreated and traumatized children: The neurosequential model of therapeutics." In Working with traumatized youth in child welfare, by Webb, 27 - 53. New York: Guilford Press.
Perry, Bruce. 2002. "Childhood experience and the expression of genetic potential: What childhood neglect tells us about nature and nurture." Brain and Mind 3 79 - 100.
Perry, Bruce. 2009. "Examining child maltreatment through a neurodevelopmental lens: Clinical applications of the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics ." Journal of Loss and Trauma 240 - 255.
Shapiro, Francine. 2001. Eye movement desensitation and reprocessing (EMDR); basic principles, protocols and procedures. New York: Guilford.
Wilson, Frank. 1998. The hand; how its use shapes the brain, language and human culture. New York: Vintage Books.
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Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing®
Seven weeks of training with Cornelia Elbrecht
Train in becoming a certified Guided Drawing® practitioner.
This highly acclaimed training has been tailored to a global, online audience, the 7-week accredited course features over 21 hours of professionally produced HD videos. Lessons include comprehensive theory modules illustrated with case histories, practitioner round-table discussions and filmed Guided Drawing therapy sessions. Cornelia Elbrecht is available to actively support you through the moderated student forum. The course has been designed as professional development for mental health practitioners.
