The life of an art therapist

Hello!

So, I am back again. I now have a 1 year old daughter (!!!) and another baby on the way! I have since left my previous job at the child and adolescent inpatient psych unit but have found myself working on an as needed basis for a much more diverse inpatient psych unit that has children, teen, dual diagnosis, mental health, and acute psych units as well as a recovery program. This means that my knowledge base continues to grow and I continue to learn how art therapy can help all populations.

In the coming months I have accepted a grant contracted position at an assisted living again, it has been about 3 years since I last worked with this population. This job has me actually doing an art therapy session with 6 pre-K students (about 4 to 5yo) and 6 residents of the assisted living and rehab community! I am VERY excited for this new opportunity as I feel like I miss this population so much! However, it has been quite a while since my tasks have been more about the process and the creation than about the message so I have actually come back to my own blog for some inspiration!

Any ideas that you have and would like to share I would honestly appreciate. I have some ideas of tasks such as creating snow globes and maybe a hand print wreath. Keep in mind the session is 1 hr long and this should include clean up too and that the individuals I will be working with have limited  focus and dexterity so the task should not have too much wait time (for glue or paint to dry, etc.) and nothing requiring exact fine motor skills. These sessions will also be taking place January through March so I think I would like the tasks to be winter/ early spring themed.

I am excited to be back here on this blog! Thanks for reading and welcome to my newest journey!