Group Art Therapy: Breaking the Silence of Isolation

by Sally Hale, MA, LPC

One of the most unsettling aspects of living in the city is the daily encounter with real people living in poverty and homelessness. Fortunately, LaSalle Street Church received a grant to provide psychological services to these dear ones in need through their ministry, Breaking Bread (A weekly dinner for the local homeless/low-income neighbors). CCCOC has partnered with LaSalle to provide these services. We have been giving a seminar series on basic communication skills for attendees to the dinners. The participants have been attentive and engaged, which has been exciting as we did not know exactly what to expect!

In this newsletter I’d like to share specifically about the art therapy sessions that I led for this group last fall. Typically there were fifteen attendees total, with six to eight attending regularly. One other CCCOC staff member or LaSalle St. Church member assisted me as we guided the participants through some kind of expressive art activity meant to increase self-awareness, coping, and communication skills.

The first session we made “self-soothing collages” by cutting out images from magazines that help calm oneself when feeling anxious or depressed. As we shared our images with one-another I laid some ground rules:

1) listen when someone is speaking

2) respect one another’s different ideas.

This proved to be particularly important when, amidst more common pictures of the ocean and calming landscapes, one man chose images of thorny insects and multi-colored frogs! After session number one, the formation of the group and its norms had already begun.

The fourth week was particularly interesting. I split the group in half and had each team paint a poster, hoping to stimulate group interaction and improve communication skills. I was scared that it wouldn’t go well since so many of the participants seemed unable to interact with one another positively. However, the self-identified leader of one of the groups was so positive and enthusiastic about the project that it spread to everyone by the end of the session. Many of the participants expressed how much they enjoyed working together as opposed to individually! It dawned on me how isolated many individuals in this population feel, spending most of their time alone, often shunned by the greater community. Of course they need to work together! From this point on, group art therapy became an atmosphere where people have broken the silence of loneliness by communicating with one another.

The last session was powerful in how much people gained comfort from one another by seeing that they were not alone in their struggles. First I split them into pairs and asked them to identify something that they shared in common and to draw it together (again meant to decrease isolation and increase social skills). Shortly after the group had come together to share their drawings, one member walked in late. Several in the group were annoyed and said “you should have been here on time!” This showed that they valued the group and feared that he was not showing the same sentiment. A moment like this in group work is known as “storming” – an important stage of group formation. After the group welcomed him to sit down, one of the pairs shared their drawing entitled “the relationship teeter-totter” showing the “ups and downs” in their relationship. The entire group laughed and identified with them, stating things like “I know what you mean! I’ve had my share of those!” It was a wonderful moment of group cohesion, one of many where people found comfort in shared difficulties and joys common to men and women.

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