Art and Play Therapy #2
Three sessions in and I'm learning much from this, especially from how Lucy-Mary considers things.
For example, after last week when we were reflecting on the session and I was expressing frustration about some of the behaviours and her response was 'hmm, I was wondering what I could learn from that.' It really made me pause and reconsider my initial response - what can I learn from the behaviours students express? - keeping in mind that children are communicating through their behaviour.
Another example was today during our circle time it seemed to me like one of the students was being 'a bit silly' in his response - but Lucy-Mary gave it her full attention and treated his offering with seriousness and it sort of halted the silliness and he calmed his response and made it something more thoughtful. After the session we reflected about this and she said what a valuable tool it can be when working with children and adults.
Circle time is fabulous at giving the children a structure where they can contribute and be heard. The clear, consistent rules make things safe and reasonable. A visual timetable for our sessions is something we implemented last week which is helping keep us all on track. We start our session the same way and end in the same way, thus creating rituals for our group.
Peaceful instrumental music was playing in the background for part of our session which prompted a small group of children to have a deep conversation with Lucy-Mary about sadness. I saw it was important for them to be allowed to sit in that sadness for a bit. It's good there's two of us as it allows Lucy-Mary to be there when kids are wanting to 'go a bit deeper' and I can be with the rest. I was not part of the conversation around sadness but one child made the profound statement to Lucy-Mary that it was just all too much to expect a kid to handle. And it is. Many of our children are trying to cope with so much, big things, adult things - too much to handle.
We are so fortunate to have this opportunity for them and I hope it is something that becomes more accessible for many more. The children need safe space to play and be creative and help build the skills to cope with 'big stuff'.
For example, after last week when we were reflecting on the session and I was expressing frustration about some of the behaviours and her response was 'hmm, I was wondering what I could learn from that.' It really made me pause and reconsider my initial response - what can I learn from the behaviours students express? - keeping in mind that children are communicating through their behaviour.
Another example was today during our circle time it seemed to me like one of the students was being 'a bit silly' in his response - but Lucy-Mary gave it her full attention and treated his offering with seriousness and it sort of halted the silliness and he calmed his response and made it something more thoughtful. After the session we reflected about this and she said what a valuable tool it can be when working with children and adults.
Circle time is fabulous at giving the children a structure where they can contribute and be heard. The clear, consistent rules make things safe and reasonable. A visual timetable for our sessions is something we implemented last week which is helping keep us all on track. We start our session the same way and end in the same way, thus creating rituals for our group.
Peaceful instrumental music was playing in the background for part of our session which prompted a small group of children to have a deep conversation with Lucy-Mary about sadness. I saw it was important for them to be allowed to sit in that sadness for a bit. It's good there's two of us as it allows Lucy-Mary to be there when kids are wanting to 'go a bit deeper' and I can be with the rest. I was not part of the conversation around sadness but one child made the profound statement to Lucy-Mary that it was just all too much to expect a kid to handle. And it is. Many of our children are trying to cope with so much, big things, adult things - too much to handle.
We are so fortunate to have this opportunity for them and I hope it is something that becomes more accessible for many more. The children need safe space to play and be creative and help build the skills to cope with 'big stuff'.
Wow this sounds really powerful. I think this is amazing, especially giving the students a voice in a safe space. I suppose the silliness is hard to ignore if we are teachers and know that it can escalate really quickly in a class situation, but it sounds like it might be different in a smaller group. Can't wait to hear more about it.
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