Jacinta Burke

The Art of doing nothing Jacinta Burke

Child Art Psychotherapy ( C. A. P. ) is informed by Psychodynamic Theory whose basic premise is that behaviour and relationships are determined by the interplay of conscious and unconscious forces. ( Freud ). ( Jung ). The general rules of good clinical practice also apply including the maintenance of ethical relationships, confidentiality etc. In addition there are four basic principles which, give the theory of C. A. P. It's unique characteristics. Here I will outline those principles together with their clinical application. Small extract: Words are produced by the conscious mind, while an image is a direct link to the unconscious which bypasses the defense mechanisms. The child is encouraged to use colours that represent their 'good' feelings and other colours to represent their 'bad' feelings. This forms the basis of the child's production of her own pictorial language which will develop in complexity in terms of symbols etc throughout the course of the therapeutic sessions.