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The Parent Coach

Recently, I was listening to the Wise Counsel podcast (available on iTunes or through mentalhelp.net), hosted by Dr. David Van Nuys. The May 15th episode includes an interview with Steven Richfield, PsyD, on the Parent Coach method of working with children, especially those who carry a diagnosis of ADHD and/or Asperger’s. What caught my attention most about the Parent Coach program is the inclusion of 20 pictorial/verbal cards that educate both child and parent on issues of socialization, emotional regulation and self-esteem, etc… And then, the potential art therapy application at the end of the interview:

David: Are you continuing to generate new cards? Is this evolving? Will there be a second deck or an enlarged deck?

Steven Richfield: I have countless other cards. What I haven’t done is I haven’t taken the next step, which is to publish them as I did the first 20 cards, but what I have is maybe another 100 that I’ve written with children since then.

David: Oh, wow.

Steven Richfield: And I find that having the first 20, if it’s in your office as a psychologist, gives your child patients the inspiration to develop their own and take ownership that way.

David: Oh, that’s fascinating. I like that idea.

Steven Richfield: I think it’s actually more valuable for the child when they see their own artwork.

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Find Artx Directives

Carol McCullough-Dieter recently came out with a new website/service called, Find Art Directives, which allows professionals to browse and organize art therapy directives. What a great idea! I checked it out recently, and noticed that the information available on the site is rather sparse, but as people begin using the site and imputing the directives they know of and use, the site will certainly become more useful.

That being said, the usability of the site still needs a bit of work. For example, looking around, it was difficult to figure out how to add a directive to the database, which is a bit of an issue for a database driven website! Here’s how you do it: once you’re logged in (you must request a user name and password to enter the site), go to My Favorites, and in green you’ll see Create a New Directive. Personally, I think Create a New Directive should be it’s own tab, on the top of the website, since without people adding info to the database, the website will be inadequate.

I’m also disappointed with how limited the choices are when adding an art directive. For example, the media types offered (in a check box format) is limited to traditional media only. No photography. No digital media. No fiber art. Also, the number of diagnoses available to check off is extremely minimal. Only substance abuse/dependence, PTSD, borderline, depression and sexual abuse. What about developmental disability? Bipolar? Schizophrenia? OCD? Maybe the answer to covering a wide range of topics is allowing the person who is imputing the info about the art therapy directive to had his/her own tags manually, while a list of commonly used tags are available just below—similar to what’s found on a WordPress blog when you’re writing a post.

With a few tweaks to the website, I think Find Art Directives will be a useful resource for art therapists. I remember one of my art therapy internship supervisors had a box of index cards with art therapy directives written on each, making it easier to keep the group ideas coming. This is especially important when working with the same population over a longer period of time, keeping art therapy groups fresh and exciting.