A Creative Approach to Healing: Blending Art and Wilderness Therapy

By Meghan Vivo

As children, we spend hours each day drawing, filling in coloring books, chalking hopscotch grids on the pavement, and even using crayons or markers on walls or furniture when no one's looking. But as we grow older, many of us almost instinctively replace our zest for the creative with a focus on homework, jobs, errands, chores, and the pursuit of success. Of course, all of these are a customary part of modern life, but there's not one among us who couldn't benefit from a little more imagination.

The same is true for teenagers. At school, at home, and in the world at large, young people are trained to "be like the other kids." For those who learn differently, or who have experienced trauma, family struggles, or other issues, life may not come so easily. Many families turn to wilderness therapy programs to get help for teens who have behavioral issues or learning differences. These adolescents often thrive in experiential learning environments like wilderness, where they are given the opportunity to experience change, not just talk about it.

As part of this experiential approach, Lynn Anne Madory, a therapist at Aspen Achievement Academy, one of the oldest and most reputable wilderness programs for adolescents ages 13 to 17 in Loa, Utah, has incorporated art therapy into her treatment of struggling teens.

For young people who flounder in a traditional learning environment, art therapy provides another option: a non-verbal, non-intimidating mode of communication. For those who are resistant to traditional therapy or who are too withdrawn to communicate effectively, drawing, painting, sculpting, and other forms of art open up new avenues of self-expression.

"Sometimes, when students say 'I don't know' it means leave me alone, but sometimes they truly don't have the words to express themselves," says Madory. "When I take art to the field, I've never had someone refuse to participate or not want to get involved. For being supposedly horribly oppositional adolescents, they've never said no to art."

Another Form of Self-Expression

Art can be stress-relieving and cathartic, and is another means of getting adolescents engaged in the therapeutic process. Adolescents have a strong desire to share their opinions and feelings, and have tremendous creative energy, but are often reluctant to share it with others. Because art therapy doesn't feel like therapy - it feels like the playtime they had as children, but with a therapist who can offer insights and ask questions - young people are often highly receptive to this form of self-exploration.

According to Madory, who has a master's degree in art therapy and transpersonal counseling psychology as well as a wilderness first responder certification, there are a lot of misconceptions about what art therapists do. "We don't review a young person's artwork, trying to pick it apart for psychoanalysis," she explains. "We simply give adolescents another way to communicate, and then try to understand their answers and help them gain insight into their own struggles."

The way art therapy generally works in the wilderness setting is the art therapist brings a series of art supplies to the field, lets the students work for about an hour on a designated topic, and then processes the artwork with the students either individually or in a group setting. At Aspen Achievement Academy, Madory likes to display a collection of images depicting weather patterns and ask the students which image reflects the way they feel that day. Or she may ask students to pick out magazine clippings of what pain looks like and have them make up a story about what's happening with the person in the image. Often, the young artists will project their own story and pain, without the pressure to speak directly about themselves.

"Art takes the focus off of the therapist and off of the student, and puts it on the art as a separate entity," says Madory. "It's much easier to talk about a drawing or portrait than it is to look at a teenager and say 'let's talk about you.'"

The Therapeutic Value of Art
Paying attention to the art supplies students choose and how they use those materials can help art therapists understand a teenager's emotions and coping mechanisms. For example, if a student is very controlled emotionally, Madory won't give him pens or pencils that allow him to strictly confine his drawings. Instead, she will give him a huge piece of canvas and brightly colored paints and tell him his only job is to cover the entire space.

"By choosing certain materials and assignments, you can help students get loose and grounded in their bodies and their movements," notes Madory. "Many of these young people haven't done well in school or life because of the expectation that they'd be a certain type of learner. But not everyone fits the same mold. Some learn best by reading and writing; others are visual or kinesthetic learners. Art appeals to these different styles, which frees the kids up for expression to flow through."

Influenced by the work of Viktor Lowenfeld, an early art educator, Madory also looks at the characteristics of art in terms of the stages of development. For example, most young people start out scribbling between 2 and 4 years of age; then they progress to creating closed shapes and realistic images around 8 or 9 years of age, and their artwork becomes increasingly sophisticated as they reach adolescence and beyond.

"If a student 13 or 14 years of age consistently draws scribbles or stick figures, this may be an indication that something happened in his life that got him stuck emotionally at a much younger age," says Madory. "This observation may lead us into a discussion of past traumas or difficult experiences that are sometimes difficult to draw out in talk therapy."

Another creative approach Madory takes is to create her own art that she thinks represents where the group of teens is as a whole. For example, one image that sparked a group conversation depicted a car full of passengers joyfully listening to music that was driving up an erupting volcano. The group discussed the way they were keeping up a happy exterior without addressing the glaring issues brewing under the surface.

She also creates artwork after an individual therapy session that she thinks encapsulates what the student was trying to say. The following session, she will show her artwork to the student and ask if she got the feelings and issues right. A student may explain why her representation was accurate, or critique her work, noting that there shouldn't be any people in the picture or there should be more of a certain color, which then leads to a discussion of what those changes would mean.

A student's artwork also gives art therapists an opportunity to discuss any incongruities in the student's perceptions of herself. For example, one of Madory's students painted a picture describing her relationship with substance abuse. In it, the girl was painted white and she was holding a string of white stick figures in the air on one side of her body, and holding up her hand on the other side as if saying no to a group of images of different types of drugs and alcohol.

The student narrated that she was fighting substance abuse with this long string of people supporting her. But what stood out most in the picture were the eye-catching, brightly colored representations of drugs and alcohol and the fact that the "supporters" looked more like they were being dragged along in this fight. Madory discussed these incongruities with the student, which led both student and therapist to greater insights into her substance abuse.

Another benefit of art therapy in the wilderness setting, according to Madory, is that there's a tangible manifestation of the work a student has done. When a student is preparing to graduate, Madory often brings her full series of work to the field to reflect on the body of art as a whole. With one student, Madory noticed a clear trend:

"The student's first piece of work was enveloped by an immense black cloud, which was an ongoing theme in every piece she did. When her work was spread out and taken as a whole, you could see that the black cloud was shrinking in each subsequent picture. The student didn't even realize until I brought all of the paintings out together."

Using Art to Understand Others
Art is also a safe and validating way for students to offer feedback to one another, says Madory. In one exercise, Madory asked each student to make a portrait of another member of the group. One student drew a portrait of another girl that resembled a marmot, a high-elevation, gopher-like animal that hides in the rocks, pop its head out, and makes a shrill alarm noise if anyone gets too close. The artist explained that she wanted to learn more about this girl, but got the sense that the alarm would go off if she got too close.

"It's amazing to see how well these kids know one another," says Madory. "They're out there 24/7 together, and they really understand each other's issues. Teenagers are highly influenced by their peers, so it can be ten times more effective than individual therapy when other students call each other out."

Erin Pratt, another therapist at Aspen Achievement Academy who uses art in her work with the students, uses clay, paintings, and other forms of art to start discussions about the masks we wear and the societal messages girls receive about body image and self-esteem. She also uses art as a vehicle for peer interaction and feedback.

"Art helps these students be seen," says Pratt. "Because paintings, sculptures, and drawings are outside of themselves, it makes the discussion less personal and easier to absorb. Some of the students are willing to take honest, constructive feedback they wouldn't ordinarily be receptive to because they know the other students are actually seeing them. In that sense, art fulfills that deep desire within all of us to be seen and heard."

Art and nature inherently complement one another. For struggling adolescents, wilderness alone can be a highly impactful intervention, but when combined with creative and expressive therapies like art therapy, young people have a full range of opportunities to learn about themselves and share themselves with others.

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