Child and Adolescent

Role of Art & Art Therapy

Dr. Kavitha Praveen Leave a comment

Role of Art & Art Therapy in the Holistic Development of Children and Psychological Healing of Clients with Emotional Issues

A brief descriptive summary of the Workshop on Art Therapy held on April 14, 2018

Art, Art classes, Painting sessions, Summer Art Classes! What are they all about? How do they help or benefit the growth and development of children at all ages?

Art can help children improve their communication skills, their social interaction and emotional and physical development.

Are art classes different from Art Therapy? Who can benefit from Art Therapy?  What activities are involved in Art Therapy?

Art Therapy is the deliberate use of art to address psychological and emotional needs. Art Therapy uses the media of art and the creative process to help in areas such as, but not limited to, fostering self-expression, creating coping skills, managing stress and strengthening a sense of self.

Art includes visual (like painting) and expressive arts (like music, clay work, poetry, dance, sand therapy and drama/theatre). Art is different from Art Therapy. Art Therapy involves the use of art for psychological counselling to treat developmental (mental or intellectual limitations), medical conditions (cancer, dementia), and resolution of unexpressed emotional conflicts. Art Therapy can also be used to manage troubled behaviors (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, self-injurious behaviors, anger issues in children), building interpersonal skills (socially shy, introvert temperament), regulating emotions in stressful situations (occupational, academic, career related areas) and to achieve insight of more troubled emotions (in abuse, loss of loved on, failure etc)

Art Therapy has several benefits.

Some of these may be physical like building strength in arms, hands and fingers (in young babies/toddlers, in those with weak hand or limb muscles) by activities like holding crayons, paint brushes, pencils.

Art Therapy also helps in sensory exploration, as a fun filled, pressure free, pleasurable activity of creating things that are colorful.

Art Therapy also helps in improving eye-hand and motor co-ordination.

For preschoolers, the creation of art maybe a big accomplishment as they enjoy the process of involving in art by representing real or imagined objects. This helps them develop their thinking process and imagination.

For school going children, Art may help in preparation or further improvement of writing skills and better motor control of the finger grasp. These children can also develop a sense of sharing, responsibility, social skills development and social interactions as they work in groups. Art also helps improve observation skills necessary for life and academics, helps them to interact or be more sensitive to nature and the surrounding environment. Art also helps them share their experiences, express or verbalize their feelings and helps them improve their self-esteem.

Art Therapy can include activities like painting, drawing, sketching, doodling or visual arts. Art Therapy can also include activities of movement or expression like music, dance, drama, role plays, and sand therapy.

Art Therapy facilitates positive change by involving in the creation of something- productivity as an achievement in depression. Art Therapy can also be used as a distraction in obsessive compulsive behaviors shifting the focus away from the obsessive compulsive behavior.

Art Therapy can also help with the ventilation of emotions that are difficult to express using words especially in conditions of anxiety, abuse, or anger/acting out in children as well as in adults.

Art Therapy thus allows an individual to get in touch with their feelings that they find difficult to express otherwise.

Art Therapy modifies the physiology and structure of the brain and leads to a more flexible, adaptable individual. The therapy works with multiple senses (vision, touch, smell, hearing) in addition to muscle movements and social interactions with others. Art Therapy can thus help to heal an individual mentally, emotionally, and physically while they build skills to cope with the pressures of life.

At our center, Manasvin’s Center for Marital and Family Therapy, we use art therapy effectively as a psychological healing method.

We have an artist (trained from Shantiniketan) who works individually and through group sessions. Art Therapy sessions are customized to the needs of each client based on inputs from a trained clinical psychologist and includes visual arts (painting, drawing, sketching) and expressive arts like Music Therapy (Guitar, Flute), Work with Clay, Sand Therapy, Role Plays, Poetry and Story writing and telling sessions.  

 

SENSORY OVERLOADING AND IT’S EFFECTS ON OUR FUNCTIONING

Dr. Kavitha Praveen Leave a comment

With the fast growing technology all around the world, what we knew today is already outdated by tomorrow. Does this ultra fast pace help us grow or pull us down or challenge us with new issues to tackle?If stability and consistency help us move with better integration,too much use of technology can definitely have ill effects on our psychological health and healthy human relations.With so called fast moving life/routine we all are supposedly busy with, how much meaningful interactions are really happening?

Sensory overload is our new terminology that can undoubtedly have effects on our not so meaningful human interactions at work place or with in our own family members. How many of us really listen to,see what is happening in front of us with undivided attention and sense right meaning of what we hear ! With thousand-and-one things running in the background of our minds we end up half listening/seeing and so impatient that we want just the conclusions or solutions! Is it not our common experience? But still we move on with our routines reassuring to ourselves  how we managed a meaningful and productive day.Sensory overloading can have drastic effects on the young growing minds of our children with no meaningful learning happening in spite of all the necessary gadgets that as parents proudly feel, we provided for our children irrespective of their receptive status. It has nothing to do with lacking intelligence or unable to remember information.Sensory overloading is inability to filter meaningful information from the meaningless.We all take our brains for granted that it can handle, process endless information! When we cannot have peaceful sleep that lost it ‘s refreshed feel, when we can’t have a healthy meal at regular intervals, our body indicates by easy fatigue and low concentration levels. So does our brain and it’s functioning.

Sensory processing disorder/sensory processing dysfunction is the condition clinically diagnosed in children. Child is happy to go to school but unable to make friends,always jumpy/nosy coming in the way of others,quick to grasp new concepts able to recollect one time but cannot at other times,sensitive to touch/noise, clumsy in eating/ dressing, easily tearful,moody, likes open places/outdoors and extremely restless indoors/restricted mobility, always fidgeting/restless can be confusing for parents and teachers as well. Is this child autistic or hyperactive? neither. These are symptoms of sensory perceptual dysfunction.No issues with intelligence, no sensory deficits but needing right doses of sensory stimulation.Is it treatable?definitely and very effectively not by medicines but by individually tailored occupational therapy.

Occupational therapy is the treatment module specially tailored to meet the individual child’s need for right sensory stimulation. It is usually very interesting fun filled activities to meet the right dose of sensory needs of your child.This includes wide range of activities of swinging,sand play,art & hand work such as free painting, knitting and most importantly unhurried and relaxed environment where children can be spontaneous and at their best. Can they become like any other child? go to school? A definite “YES” as long as you provide the right sensory stimulation at home until your child adapts to (based on each child’s need for right sensory stimulation).

Who can help? it’s a team work of developmental pediatrician,curative educator,physiotherapist and occupational therapist and of course an open minded parenting and not the least a sensitive teacher.

Then what is the way out for an adult overloading? An adult can easily recognise the symptoms of overload and work accordingly. Mould your environment with right mix of fun and work. It’s alright if every minute of your day is not focused towards spending only on productive activities but it’s not alright if you lose a precious relation or fail to listen to your child in need. Explore what can relax your mind and body -art/music/yoga/fitness in body and mind/travel/nature/good food/explore your own interests if you never explored so far.That will provide you the right solution.

Is School sufficient to meet the learning needs of our children?

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With wider choices now available for schooling of our children,a possible lack of clarity is developing in parents as to the right choice of school for their children. The search includes affordability of fee to an individual opinion of what purpose a school should meet. More wider choices of schools means more options to choose from and more schools that are better or more worse.

Parents are the best persons to choose for their children, but are they able to do the best? Some of us go by opinions of our friends/families, some feel more strict discipline at school is much better for children, some focus on academics and some on sports or extracurricular activities. Overall, everyone tries to make a decision with a focus on what is good for the future of their children. But do we ever look closely at or sensitively at our own children’s needs in terms of how our child is same or different from rest of the them? Or if placing a child in a particular school is helping or harming our children? Does the infrastructure- big building & large school grounds, digital classrooms reward or intimidate your child? It’s time for parents to think rather seriously as to what is a right choice of school for our children’s long term growth!

We as parents have to exercise the right choice if we believe learning is a life long purpose/process than restricting it to a career for survival or to develop a meaningful occupation.How many of us adults are convinced that what we learnt as kids is of use to us now for our personal or professional growth or for identity/survival purpose? We are in such a rush that our children has to meet our foregone dreams or decide their career path by 16 or 17 years or much earlier before their 10th birthday. We want to just fit our kids to an ever changing society or help them to somehow adjust to harsh realities of life, like more money, more fame, high social status and a better life without understanding the needs or pace at which the child wishes to develop. How many of us think that playing is necessary for child’s personality growth? Do we have a value system for ourselves as a family? Does our value system evolve with time or does it remain stable? Does it change as per our view at different levels in our life’s path? More questions often lead to better search or more confusion. Do we feel is it necessary to spend time so seriously when we have so many choice of schools available?

Irrespective of above questions,as parents we have responsibility to provide / expose our children to a wider system of learning.That cannot be possible in one day or one year.Listening to our children,observing their behavior or rather taking time for our children by meaningfully interacting with them will provide opportunity to question and find answers.It gives solutions to much more questions than that posed in above paragraphs.School is just one system in the process of learning but currently considered the most powerful system as it occupies /shapes our children’s lives in their rapid growing years.This is the time to sow more meaningful seeds in their tender minds.If we stop looking at academic achievement alone as the goal & expose our children to more wider areas of learning such as  less competitive sports & games to promote their physical growth needs,field trips/family tours focussed  towards natural animal/wild life exposure,(which kids can relate better), by introducing informal systems of learning , it may help to form firm basis to sciences in a practical sense. Hearing children relate their daily experiences of  routine  spent at school gives an idea of their experiences with peers, teachers &the kind of environment they are exposed & how much positive or negative experience added in their lives & how much meaningful learning happening  rather than judging them based on their progress report. Exposing children to different environments helps them & parents to figure out regarding their areas of interest such as sports,arts,music etc.This further helps  to plan right path for them.It’s not necessary to panic if child takes time to explore & decide where & what is their choice or area of interest.Inspite of our good intentions to give our children the best,if we cannot relate to them at their level of communication,our intentions may not be productive.Forcing kids to take our choices make them more dependent on us and lead to a situation where they fail to exercise their potential.A system of education that gives an impression of failure in academics is only damaging a child’s personality even before it is starting to unfold.

There is sensible need for parents to take time and think seriously about what is the best learning for a life time for their child. This has to be an individual decision that considers the individual child rather than rushing to conclusions that has effects for a life time.

Help children by introducing them to a wider world of learning not restricted to a formal classroom.

Highly Career Oriented Parents are a boon or bane to their children?

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Career oriented parents maybe considered as good role models for their children but sometimes can be disastrous if children have their own dreams to fulfill or limitations in their abilities. Often, children are brought to clinical attention for psychological evaluation with stress related to perceived expectations even though not obviously spoken by or demanded by their parents. Unspoken influences by parents seem to bother children especially in the teenage group. Often, parents talk to their friends about their children (in the presence of the child) as to how he/she stood first in a game/academic performance, indirectly suggesting the child that he/she will be appreciated when in limelight. The growing teenager with an unfolding temperament of wnating to be accepted and appreciated may be sensitive to such statements. Often, conversations between adults focus on “how many children do you have, what do they do, which school they are in” without any malicious intent but possibly leading to unforeseen consequences. Parents may also consider their children spending time with their friends without engaging in any meaningful “academic” or “competitive activity” as a waste of time or being aimless.

Can parents recognize this change in their child (a drop in motivation) with their own stress, the limited time spent with children, lack of common routine with time shared together? Sometime of a day or at least a day in a week should be set aside for everyone to share their day. This could be structured or unstructured with the focus on sharing both the perceived gains or good stuff as well as the perceived pains or bad stuff.  These sessions may also help to understand specific needs of children. The focus of such sessions is to share and listen and not to sermonize or be judgmental thus encouraging children to feel free to open up about their experiences.

There is a need for parents to recognize that career is important but it alone does not make their child a well groomed or well adjusted personality in future.  Spending quality time together even if it is just talking is a great stress buster for children, quality time will imply that one parents do not multitask during this time period.

Often, parents want children to follow their own career paths so that a separate foundation for career need not be laid, children can just piggy back onto their parents career. Although the intention is often to have their children settle faster and not have to go through the same growing pains, this may sometimes be at the cost of the child’s own dreams and their abilities or limitations.

Success is often a perceptional point of view that will vary with each individual. People can be successful in one aspect of life and be considered as failures in another aspect of life. Showing sensitivity towards your child’s dreams and aspirations may help them reach their full potential and make them a happy person.

Bringing out the hidden potential of your child

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BRINGING OUT THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL OF YOUR CHILD

A SIX MONTH TRAINING PROGRAM ON WEEKENDS

With increased complexity of lifestyle and decreasing tolerance levels in our society, our children are the most affected group. Lack of life skills is one important area of concern for growing children. An over emphasis on academics and career is developing our children into incomplete personalities unable to face disappointments. The ability to see failures as stepping stones to their success and all round development is being lost.

Keeping this in mind, we have developed a holistic program on Sundays for children aged 8 to 12 years of age. The program aims to bring out the hidden potential of your child and focused on improving communication skills, assertiveness as well as improving control over anger and impulsive behaviour.

Children will be assessed initially to understand their strengths and areas that can be improved further. This assessment will be conducted by a clinical psychologist and will include collecting information on basic temperament of the child, academic performance, home and school environment and adjustment levels.

Selected children will be trained in practical skills using role plays, dramas, and situational awareness and improving group compliance, verbal expressions, impulse control behaviours, peer interactions and classroom presentations.

The training sessions will be of two hours duration (10.30 am to 12.30 pm) every Sunday and over a period of 6 months starting from January 2014. Each batch will have a maximum of 20 children. Enrolment will be on a first come first served basis. Interested parents should attend the screening session with their child by fixing an appointment.

Venue: Manasvin’s Center for Family Psychotherapy, Anand Nagar Colony, Khairatabad, Hyderabad 500004.  http://psychotherapyhyd.com

Interested parents can call Dr Kavitha Praveen at 9849924478 between 9 am and 9 pm to fix an appointment or for further clarifications.

Rearing Children- A Challenge or Pleasant experience?

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With increased complexity of our life styles and increased orientation towards careers, we hardly take quality time for raising a child. Rather, we focus more on having them run with us from morning till bed time. As parents, we have our busy careers or schedules where as our kids are competing equally with us with 7 am to 7 pm school hours and after school activities. On the weekends, we are tired and drained from the week, while our kids are either busy with coachings or extracurricular activities. Then the only time spent together (leave alone teaching/disciplining a child) would be in front of TV or watching movie or eating out in a restaurant. This is the story of almost all nuclear families these days.

When these kind of routines are considered as normal to our family environments, what about families where there is a special child or a child with special needs to care for? What if there is a child or another family member with a medical illness to care for? The flooding of the market with newer gadgets and our need to replace our emotional support with materialistic needs, expensive school admissions, expensive vacations are additional aspects that look exciting but need to be carefully considered for their benefits or potential harm. The grass on the other side is not always greener. Children spend a lot of time playing with their gadgets (play stations, computer games etc) and often at the cost of their sleep and food. Eating healthy food at appropriate times takes a backseat with “snacking” the preferred food. Comparisons with the peer group abound on who has the most material things, low tolerance and high frustration levels, a reducing respect for human and emotional relationships, and an attitude of “It is alright, what is the big deal?” are more common these days.

As adults, are we able to identify the early signs of diversion from the education they are supposed to receive? Are we able to take time to work on these possible issues before they become more problematic? Are we able to be firm or discipline or direct the child towards an acceptable path? Or do we end up crying over spilt milk while consistently refusing to see the signs of impending trouble? Do we assuage our feelings of guilt or convenience by giving more materialistic stuff at our children that sort of drives them farther and farther away?

Anything that is recognized early can be worked at systematically. What should we focus on?

  1. Healthy eating and sleep habits is of prime importance. Starting earlier is better. Help yourr child to eat and sleep at the right times. Teach the importance of eating all the food on the plate.
  2. Boundaries with regard to their behavior of exploration and experimentation. A young child of 2-3 years will try to follow or model their parents. As an adult, you need to work at yourrself to improve them. Your ability to be sensitive, flexible and thoughtful in human interactions will be picked up by the children. Your behavior towards your fellow human beings and animals, use of material, the limits of acceptability, empathy, leadership and positive authority are important. Setting boundaries need not always be restrictive or negative..it can be a positive enriching experience.
  3. Be organized and use material appropriately. Stop blackmailing your child by repeatedly reminding them of how much you sacrificed for them or how much effort you put for them. Instead, focus on reinforcing the positive actions of the child that has helped earn your respect and rewards for the child. Set a limit for what material you provide to your child, try to provide material that can be useful and constructive. Do not hesitate to discuss these with your children or to explain your choices to them. Do not hesitate to listen to them.
  4. Let us not carry our baggage to our children. How your parents treated you is not necessarily the basis for how you treat your child. Your child is an individual in his/her own right. Changing societal values over time have to be taken into consideration. What was considered routine decades ago may not be considered appropriate now. You need not focus on fulfilling your dreams or desires through your child. Learn to understand your child and see them as an individual in their own right.
  5. Focus on education. It is important to understand as a parent that the purpose of education is not just to earn money or fame but to develop into a thoughtful sensitive fair human being. The focus on investing or spending on materialistic things should instead be shifted into providing the child skills to take independent ethical decisions. Help the child to grow continuously and develop the skills to learn on their own making informed choices.
  6. Focus on values/ethics. The values that are important as an individual, learning to respect all schools of thought, understanding the reasoning behind rituals such that rituals are not just routine are all important aspects. Some of these are imbibed, some have to be reinforced. Your child observes keenly the values and ethics you practice. You have to work on yourself to improve them.

 

This is an incomplete list but brings about the need to first look at ourselves as a parent before we try to chaange our children. The challenge can be pleasant and something that can be worked together with the child(ren) building long lasting bonds. We, as parents, have to be open to growing and learning with our children.

 

 

Depression in Young Adults- Effects on life

Dr. Kavitha Praveen 1 Comment

Depression is a lowered state of mood that affects interpersonal relationships to the core. Depression can occur because of relational issues or can be the cause for relational issues. A person with depression is in a negative state of mind, looks for negative (collects selectively) cues in the environment and has an impaired ability to look at the future with hope. Depression, in an young adult who is under societal and family pressure to be working actively towards their career, education, relationships, can create a complete mess in terms of expected routines like going to college. going to work, resigning employment, and even overindulging or breaking relationships. The process of multiple stress, real or perceived, can also lead to a real risk of self harm.

As depression increases, the ability of the person to respond to situations reduces. Impaired ability makes the person more depressed and the cycle worsens. However, when depression triggered by a stress such a sudden loss of a loved one, divorce, loss of a job, or childlessness for example, has the danger of molding the person’s thought processes towards more negative thinking leading from the stress. This negative thinking might in turn out to be a habit when there is long standing depression or repeated episodes of depression.

In a young adult or teenager who is personally exploring themselves and evolving, the habit of negative thinking can become an important component of one’s growing personality.  Over a period the person might feel empty, inadequate, or unable to see the positives or strengths of oneself.  This will further trigger attempts to cope by indulging in risky personal behaviors like over eating, under eating, involvement in risky relationships or multiple relationships, searching for one’s value or worth or adequacy by exposing oneself to more risky situations including situations that can lead to sexual abuse, putting oneself in situations in a constant exploration to feel loved however risky the situation is (example, indulging in addictive behaviors to fit in a peer group). These attempts, however, on reflection by the person after the event lead to more guilt, a feeling of emptiness, not having got the feeling one was searching for and triggers more depressive state.

Then what is the way out? If you feel that your thoughts are clouded with more negative than positive thoughts and your ability to think positively is getting diluted, that is the among the first signs of feeling depressed. These feelings of negativity, if consistently continue to happen over a 2 week period, it is time that you take care by becoming aware that you are slipping into a state of depression. It is ideal that a person in this situation seeks or is provided professional help. Often, the family members may pick the signs early as the person itself might have an impaired ability to make that judgment. Family members may notice the shift in the attitude of the person, the lethargy, the lack of interest, the growing silences, and talk that is more negative than before.  A psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist can help designing strategies that can avert the negative thinking from becoming a habit. The longer the person delays seeking help, the more it affects one’s life from different angles of education/career or personal relationships that are at a critical building stage in a young adults life. If one delays longer, the depression can completely engulf oneself in every aspect of one’s life and family members living with them are equally affected.

Once you recognize that your ability to see positive aspects of your life becoming dim, it is important that you take precautionary steps to avoid the risk of negative thinking becoming a habit. Seeking professional help can completely reverse the depression to a normal state. The more depression strikes a person as a teenager or young adult, the more chances there are that the person starts looking for negativity in persons or situations, leading to an impaired ability to deal with life.

 

Cognitive Behavior Therapy- A Brief Look

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Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)  is largely self help where the therapist (clinical psychologist) aims to help the patient develop skills not only to overcome the current problems, but also any similar problems in future. The major part of the therapy is practiced in daily life, with the patient putting into practice what has been discussed in treatment sessions.

Collaborative nature of the therapeutic relationship– The patient participates actively in the therapy by collecting information, giving feedback on the effectiveness of recommended techniques and making suggestions for improved effect

Components of CBT– CBT has two main components– a) Behavior Therapy and b) Cognitive Therapy

Behavior Therapy  emphasizes on learning principles. The focus is on correcting maladaptive  behaviors and learning new adaptive behaviors.

Behavior therapy works on the basic premise that behavior can be learned and similarly maladaptive behaviors can be unlearned based on the same principles of learning.

In behavior therapy, environment of the individual plays a vital role. Changes or manipulation of the environmental variables will bring a reduction in symptoms of the client. It stands with the scientific principles of being observable, measurable and repeatable in nature. The basic concept is that symptom are mostly controllable by effective and suitable methods of behavior therapy techniques.

Behavior therapy concentrates on behavior itself (that is affecting the person’s adjustment) and less on a presumed underlying cause. Maladaptive behaviors are, to a considerable extent, acquired through learning, in the same way that any behavior maybe learned. These learning principles, can be extremely effective in modifying maladaptive behavior. Behavior therapy does not hold that  maladaptive responses arise from a disturbed personality.

Behavior Therapy concentrates on the present. Behavior Therapists are considerably more likely to accept the clients presenting complaints as valid with a realization that they would not have sought professional help if they did not suffer from these complaints.

Behavior therapy is a combination of scientifically tested and proven techniques that are practiced universally.

Who Can Benefit?

Persons suffering from psychological  problems such as

  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorders
  • Phobias or Fears
  • Social Anxiety
  • Generalized Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Anger Management Issues
  • Lack of Assertiveness
  • Lack of interpersonal skills

The goal of the therapist is to work with the client to help address the specific problems that are affecting the functioning of the client.

Cognitive Therapy—The cognitive component of the CBT is based on the premise that that changes or improvements or relief of symptoms in the client is not a superficial change.  It works with the innermost thought processes (belief system) of clients that are dysfunctional at the moment and which can be changed using rational methods of therapeutic techniques like cognitive therapy.

The goal of cognitive therapy is not simply to make clients  think differently or feel better. Goal is to teach clients a process of evaluating  their goals, thoughts, behaviors and moods so that they can learn methods for improving their lives.  In a broader perspective, Cognitive therapy is conceptualized by

  • Cognitive (Thinking) Factors such as thought images, memories that are intimately related to dysfunctional  behavior
  • Modification of such factors as an important mechanism for producing behavior change
  • Patients/Clients learn to objectively identify, evaluate and examine their thoughts and images in relation to specific distressing behaviors or events
  • Patients are taught to weigh such cognitions against objective evidence and correct distortions or dysfunctional assumptions