Malchiodi, Cathy A. :

Cathy A. Malchiodi, MA, ATR, LPAT, LPCC, is Director of the Institute for the Arts & Health, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Editor of Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association. She has authored or coauthored three previous books and has published and lectured widely on topics including the use of art therapy with trauma, child physical and sexual abuse, and medical problems.

Chapter 2: Children's Drawings in Context

In my own work with children's drawings from a phenomenological approach, the first step involves taking a stance of "not knowing." This is similar to the philosophy described by social constructivist theorists who see the therapist's role in work with people as one of cocreator, rather than expert advisor. By seeing the client as the expert on his or her own experiences, an openness to new information and discoveries naturally evolves for the therapist. Although art expressions may share some commonalities in form, content, and style, taking a stance of not knowing allows the child's experiences of creating and making art expressions to be respected as individual and to have a variety of meanings. In circumstances where therapists use cookbook approaches to catagorize images or a list of predetermined meanings for content, it is more likely that children's multiple or individual meanings will not be conveyed, will be misunderstood, and will possibly be disrespected.

A second feature of a phenomenological approach is the opportunity to acknowledge many different aspects of growth that are linked to art expression, including cognitive abilities, emotional development, interpersonal skills, and developmental maturity, and in my experience, somatic (physical) and spiritual aspects, subjects that will be addressed in subsequent chapters of this book. Children use art to integrate not only their inner experiences and perceptions, but also to link their experience of the outside world with the inner self, helping them to discover and affirm themselves and their relationships to people, environment, and even society. This multiplicity of meaning provides the therapist with material for developing and deepening the therapeutic relationship while also honoring the unique experiences of the child client from many perspectives. Although it may be difficult to truly understand all levels of meaning in children's expressive work, it is important to allow for the possibility of "multimeaning." As Rubin (1984b) notes, art has a potential to symbolize not only internal events, but interpersonal ones as well, and to condense many experiences, feelings, and perceptions into a single visual statement.

A phenomenological approach allows the therapist to comprehend children's drawings from an integral orientation rather than from a limited perspective. Many therapists unfortunately learn to rely on one or two theories in their thinking about clients. In my own training as an art therapist, I was originally taught to look at children's art expressions from developmental and emotional (mostly psychoanalytic) aspects. Since that time, experience with children has taught me that other aspects in addition to development and affect can be present in children's art, and if recognized and accepted, provide a more complete representation of the child's world.

One clinical example continues to be important in guiding my clinical work today and demonstrates that looking at children's work from narrow perspectives can limit the amount learned from children's drawings. In working with a little girl at a domestic violence shelter as her primary therapist, I was naturally concerned she may have experienced abuse from her father who had been reported to be violent to her mother and younger brother. Her drawings made during art therapy sessions at the facility particularly concerned me; each of them always contained a black center, particularly images of her body or human figures. This repetition of dark shading in her drawings led me to think that emotional or physical trauma might be rooted in this use of color. Since my training as an art therapist emphasized the emotional meanings of art expression, I naturally looked in that direction. However, this thinking obstructed other possible reasons as to why the child continued to use this characteristic in her work.

I later was surprised to learn that the girl had not been abused, but was indeed emotionally traumatized. She was so deeply traumatized, however, that she internalized her stress, and this in turn had caused her to develop a very painful stomach ulcer. When we later talked again about her drawings, she admitted to me that the black spots she included in each drawing were images of her physical pain, but she did not want to share this with anyone because of the trouble it might cause her mother and brother. In retrospect, if I had asked her about physical complaints rather than focusing solely on the emotional aspects of her traumatic situation, I may have considered other meanings for this repetitive use of black in her artwork.

Drawings generally have been routinely interpreted and even distorted through the singular use of psychological perspective or theory. For example, if a child draws a fish with an X-ray view of the contents of its stomach, a psychoanalytic view might see it as fears of being eaten by another or subconscious desires to devour something or someone. A cognitive view might focus on the thought process that went into making the drawing, investigating or speculating about what the child has recently seen (e.g., a nature show on television) or heard (e.g., the story of Jonah being swallowed by a fish). Another perspective may concentrate on the idea of metaphor, seeing the image as symbolic story unfolding, perhaps even archetypal in nature and representative of a universal theme or existential dilemma. In actuality, all of these approaches may contribute something important to one's overall understanding. Despite the problems inherent to projective drawing tasks and other systems of finding meaning in children's drawings, as Wilber (1996) notes about research in general, no one theory of understanding is completely wrong and "nobody is smart enough to be wrong all the time" (p. 13). In the case of children's art expressions, no one theory of interpreting or deciphering them is completely erroneous, and each does contribute some useful knowledge to understanding children's work.

Although a phenomenological approach is advantageous to understanding children's drawings, one cannot completely discount some of the more reliable information available relating specific content in children's drawings to certain meanings, experiences, and difficulties. This information can be useful, especially if used respectfully and as an additional perspective on children's art expressions. Many children, for various reasons, cannot or will not want to talk about their drawings. Some children will not talk simply because they cannot articulate their experiences with words. Others, particularly children seen in therapy, may feel threatened or afraid to tell their experiences, fearful of revealing a personal or family secret. Some may be concerned about what the therapist will think or do if they convey problems they are experiencing. For example, a 12-year-old girl I saw in my practice felt that she would be burdening the therapist with her problems because she saw the problems of her younger siblings as more important. Her assumption of the role of "caretaker" in her family affected what she said about herself and what she was willing to disclose to others who sought to help her. In this case and other cases where children's verbal communication is limited, some framework for understanding drawings may be necessary.

Looking with a "phenomenological eye" also includes accepting and expecting that each child has a different way of approaching art and an individual style of drawing with particular likes or dislikes for colors, forms, and compositions in their art expression. Children, like adults, have preferences for colors, certain images they like to draw, compositional styles and other characteristics that they may repeatedly use in their work. Mental health professionals, although perhaps not trained or experienced in visual art, also have preferences that may affect their understanding of children's work. Part of understanding children's drawings as unique phenomena includes understanding what you are personally attracted to in children's imagery, which images cause you to react strongly and which do not, and even realizing that you may reject or dislike some children's drawings. This esthetic response is part of how all individuals react to visual images, but for therapists who work with children's drawing, these responses become particularly important because these reactions do affect how drawings are judged, or which aspects are given attention.

"Where children are concerned, art happens! Now, at long last, we have a clearly stated, common sense guide to using art in therapy that will prove invaluable to all clinicians who see children in their practice. This book is refreshingly comprehensive, including state-of-the-art thinking on developmental, interpersonal, gender, somatic, spiritual, and ethical aspects of children's drawings. Richly illustrated and sensitively written with a child's best interests in mind, Understanding Children's Drawings is destined to become a classic."

--Carol Thayer Cox, MA, ATR, LPAT, George Washington University

"This carefully crafted and sensitive book will undoubtedly become a standard text for all clinicians who work with children. A comprehensive range of timely issues are covered with a balanced, caring tone that only a highly respected and experienced teacher and therapist could produce....Literature reviews and exquisitely presented case examples and illustrations provide an exciting platform for classroom discussion."

--Gerald D. Oster, PhD, University of Maryland Medical School

"This multidimensional approach to understanding children's drawings is rich in research, insight, and applications that will be of immense help to those working with traumatized children."

--William Steele, MS, MSW, Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children

"A wide variety of therapists who work with children, including myself, stock our therapy rooms with toys, art materials, sandtrays, and miniatures. It seems to me that when we do so we invite our child clients to engage with these materials. This invitation is an awesome opportunity to facilitate, enhance, and promote the child's therapy. Yet clinicians may not take full advantage of what they can learn from children's art....This book will greatly enhance your understanding."

--From the Foreword by Eliana Gil, PhD, Starbright Training Institute for Child and Family Play Therapy

Guilford Publications Web Site, January, 2001

This practical resource demonstrates how all clinicians can broaden and enhance their work with children by integrating drawing into therapy. The book enables therapists to address the multidimensional aspects of children's art without resorting to simplistic explanations. Approaching drawing as a springboard for communication and change, Malchiodi offers a wealth of guidelines for understanding the intricate messages embedded in children's drawings and in the artmaking process itself. Topics covered include how to assist children in making art, what questions to ask and when, and how to motivate children who are initially resistant to drawing. Assimilating extensive research and clinical experience, the book includes over 100 examples of children's work.

1. A Historical Perspective on Children's Drawings
2. Children's Drawings in Context
3. Working with Children and Their Drawings
4. Developmental Aspects of Children's Drawings
5. Emotional Content of Children's Drawings
6. Interpersonal Aspects of Children's Drawings
7. Somatic and Spiritual Aspects of Children's Drawings
8. Ethical Considerations and Children's Drawings

Appendix: Materials and Resources