How a San Diego Art Therapist helps a Quiet Child Express Themselves.

From birth, some people are just wired to be quieter, and more reflective. Maybe you’ve noticed that your quiet child enjoys spending time alone. You naturally worry in a culture that rewards the more gregarious, talkative kids that your child will be overlooked.

You have also noticed how your quiet child seems to hold things in.  You’ve tried so many ways to help them open up and talk about difficult issues without success. Now you’re researching to learn more about child therapy in San Diego.

My name is Tami, and as a Child Therapist and a Registered Art Therapist in San Diego, I do some of my best work with quiet children between the ages of 6-10.  I gently guide children, especially quiet, shy children using art therapy. Words can feel really difficult. There are things that happen that leave us feeling powerless. Like our words don’t matter, or our words don’t reflect what has been experienced.  

Art Therapy is a proactive therapy, where a client is fully involved in the process, not a passive participant.

Words alone, cannot fully convey the beauty of this empowering process where a child (or adult) responds to art materials and makes creative decisions in the moment to express themselves.

The materials are an integral part of the process. I am trained in the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) theory. In the ETC theory, the materials a client gravitates toward and feels comfortable using reflect how they process information and emotions. It also informs and guides treatment in art therapy.

Art Therapy begins with client preferences, where they feel safe.  

Some clients may feel safer choosing smaller paper, pencils, and an eraser in the beginning. Others may want to use lots of bright markers, with large strokes, to fill their page. Focus on a client’s authentic, personal expression rather than the appearance of the finished “creation” is an empowering aspect of this therapy.

Additionally, it's very important what a client shares about their artwork. For example, if a child hints at being bullied at school, it’s easy to ask more questions and develop a picture in your mind of what the child is telling you about the experience. If they create a picture that depicts the experience, this picture, while not a snapshot, can convey the experience more deeply. It is the job of the art therapist to respectfully listen to a child’s (or adult’s) “interpretation” or explanation of the artwork.  This often leads to a client opening up and being more comfortable with deeper conversations.

Specific ways Art Therapy helps quieter children express themselves.

When I think of quieter children, I think about clients in the past and how art therapy helped them. While I cannot tell you their confidential stories, or share pictures of their artwork, their images created in art therapy still come to my memory. Powerful images. I think about a seven-year-old whose mother was battling cancer, and the family drawings this quiet girl made. She would draw her mother half in the drawing, on the edge of the page. She knew her mother was dying, and this was her way to show how her mom was drifting out of the picture.

I remember a boy I worked with who had experienced a frightening life event in his family. He was very quiet, and polite. In art therapy, he gravitated toward using dark bright oil pastels.  Pressing deeply into the paper, he would create a fury of color.  While this boy never spoke much about what happened, his artwork became a safe way for him to both contain and express his rage.

Not all angry children yell or hurt others, some get really quiet. Those quiet children need to be able to identify what they feel, or differentiate between emotions, and learn to express those feelings in helpful, rather than harmful ways.

I hope this provided a bit of information about how art therapy can help quiet children, and adults for that matter, express themselves.

Free, phone consultation for Art Therapy in San Diego

As a Therapist, I specialize in helping children and adults tell their stories and share their emotions in powerful ways using creative expression. If you are looking for help for a quiet child who struggles to express themselves and holds things in, you can read more about how I can help here.

If you looking for Child Therapy in San Marcos, CA please click here to schedule a free, 15-minute phone consultation. To learn more about art therapy for anxiety and trauma, click here to visit my Art Therapy page.

 If you are not in San Diego, or not in California and are interested in participating in Art Therapy please seek out an art therapist credentialed through the Art Therapy Credential Board (ATCB). As a national credentialing board, the ATCB ensures the educational and professional standards needed to be a qualified art therapist are met and maintained.  This is essential in any mental health field to provide an ethical standard of care and improve treatment outcomes.