Contemporary Art Therapy with Adolescents. Shirley Riley

extension of the girl’s thoughts. A collage may be dealing with serious issues, or it may be just a projection of what her family expects of her. A sustained lingering look at the image with the youth is a way to broaden the field of inquiry. Do not neglect the opportunity to move away from the vertical story line and transition into a horizontal walk into associations that inform the therapy. Listen to the narrative that illuminates the image. Stay with the image, it illuminates the narrative.

      Gender-defined individuation

      Girls seek their identity by first acknowledging and reflecting the female role models in their life and seeking respect from the primary male model. They then struggle with the dual task of staying in connection with a woman (mother), and at the same time individuating. Their goal is to stay attached and separate simultaneously. Boys identify with their male role model (father-figure), reject the feminine and work toward separating from their mother. Their task is gender defined and easier to clarify. This simplified version of a complicated process is stated to make the point that therapy models written by men about men’s way of individuating do not fit a girl’s needs. Therefore when the girl stays connected with her mother she is not necessarily enmeshed, she is solving her needs in a woman’s way (Gilligan, et al. 1991). Because we are so accustomed to thinking of separation as a major task of adolescence, it is hard not to misjudge the teenage girl’s expressive statements, verbal and non-verbal.

      In some societies if the girl moves away (individuates) in a manner that is not sanctioned by her culture, she may feel shunned and lonely (Riley, 1997a). It is important to look for these conflicts in the artwork. Young women are growing up in the United States with American values of independence taken for granted, but they may be surrounded at home with the older traditional values of dependency. These young women are in a difficult position. Providing a pictorial arena where she can experiment with a blending of these roles, or make her own choice, is easier, more safely done, if the conflict is viewed through an image.

      Substance abuse and violence

      Be prepared for a flowering of marijuana leaves in the teenager’s drawings. Substance abuse is part of the adolescent culture today. The youth may not be ‘using’, but assuredly many of his or her friends are, at least, experimenting with drugs. Violence is a part of the culture, if the child has not witnessed violence directly, he or she has certainly experienced it in the media and in the schools. These two issues are worthy of in-depth study and specialized treatment which cannot be covered in this chapter.

      The art therapist can be of the greatest service by assessing the adolescent’s involvement with drugs and shield them from violence by reporting to protective services. In the assessment process it is important to evaluate whether the art expressions are indicators of serious risks, or if the teenager is indulging in experimentation and testing the therapist’s tolerance.

      Both these serious situations should, in my opinion, be handled with the family. Addicted youths should be in a rehabilitation program, and violence should be confronted with the parents and reported if not controlled. How to use art therapy in these circumstances depends on the program of the rehab center; and how to engage the family will be addressed in Chapter 5.

      Summary

      Adolescence is a complicated period of our lives; providing therapy for this age group is equally complicated. There are ways to simplify treatment and bring understanding to the travails of this age group. The first is to look at the external world of the adolescent and appreciate the pressures and significant stressors that he or she has experienced. View the child as a survivor who is attempting the difficult rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. The choice of a positive philosophy, which permeates the sessions, will convince the adolescent that the therapist is not searching for pathology. Attention to the immediate stressors of society which surround the maturing adolescent will make therapy contemporary and will not impose standards of out-moded theories. Second, careful listening to the adolescent’s narrative of their development will provide historical knowledge from their viewpoint. It is less important to search for the ‘truth’, than understand how teenagers see themselves and their world. Other realities can emerge later.

      To become familiar with the teen client’s world view the therapist needs more than words. S/he requires a complete picture. That picture can be accessed through the use of the art therapy modality. Using simple media, refraining from interpretation, and demonstrating genuine interest and curiosity, offers the youth a vehicle for nonthreatening communication. Art used in therapy can meet the adolescents’ needs for control, narcissistic expression, creativity, exaggerated logic, and experimentation directed toward appropriate individuation. The defensive language invented by adolescents is bypassed through the prose of imagery.

      There are many paths to the goal of helping teenagers surmount the challenges of the years ten to twenty. However, none of these paths are available unless the therapist lets the youth be the guide. Therapy that doesn’t seem like therapy because it is artwork; communication that transcends ordinary words by imagery and through metaphor; and a relationship with an adult that is not experienced as controlling; is a description of success with teen clients. Rather than inventing a way to modify adult treatment to fit the adolescent, I suggest that we give the teenager what s/he wants, in the form they find acceptable. The answer is: art and therapy creatively combined to reach a satisfactory outcome for the youth who is struggling to make sense of a world of conflicts.

      1Metaphor: use of a word denoting one kind of idea in place of another to suggest a likeness between them. Franklin Dictionary, Merriam Webster, 1987.