Technique(s) • 153After creating the drawings, both parties share their pictures and thoughts about each of
them. In my opinion, this very powerful technique is appropriate—like Winnicott’s—only
for experienced practitioners. You can see Lachman-Chapin doing this with a patient on
the DVD (F).
An art therapist might use her artist-self either simultaneously or in turn. Her creation
might be a reflection of or to the patient. The art therapist’s ability to use visual language
expands her clinical repertoire, just as art enlarges expressive possibilities for the individual(s)
hoping to grow through treatment. As with any intervention, the injunction to do no harm
applies; when the art therapist uses herself as artist it should be with thoughtfulness and care
and an awareness of its impact on the patient—and, of course, in that person’s interest.
Drawing Workbooks and Guides
Like fairy tales and art in therapy, the cartoon story drawings proposed by Crowley and
Mills in Cartoon Magic (1989) offer both disguise and distance, enabling loaded themes to
be dealt with more comfortably. The popularity of such self-help materials, for both adults
and children, has not been lost on art therapists.
Some have developed creative workbooks (G) that suggest various drawing and writing
activities. The pioneer in this area was Lucia Capacchione (1) (2001), whose Creative Journal
(2) was the first of her many drawing workbooks (www.luciac.com).
Barry Cohen and his colleagues published a creative workbook for those suffering from
posttraumatic stress disorder (Cohen, Barnes, & Rankin, 1995) (3). Graves (1994) created
one for those who have been bereaved (4), and Nichols and Garrett (1995) wrote one for
those who are depressed (5).
Heegaard’s series of 18 workbooks for children, some to be used with parents, and her
guide for facilitators (Heegaard, 1996) deal with specific problems, like adoption, illness,
death (6), and self-control.
Figure 7.4 Mildred Lachman Chapin drawing with a client.