Hi! I'm new to blogging. I will be blogging about children and teenagers. I am a masters level therapist with 25 years experience working with kids, both in an inpatient and outpatient setting. I have recently finished a book called Fingerpainting in Psych Class: Artfully applying science to better work with children and teens. I will be posting sections of the book and would love your feedback. Here's the first entry:
I like to remind myself that every child (or adult, for that matter) I come in contact with is a “masterpiece in progress.” I once saw a bumper sticker that put it this way: “Don’t criticize me. God ain’t through with me yet.” I don’t ever want to inadvertently mar or damage a valuable piece of art. Ideally, I would like to join in the creative process so I might be able to enhance it in some way.
I hope you, the reader, will use this book to develop your “craft” so you can approach any “canvas” or “lump of clay” with quiet confidence and an artist’s eye. Insight, intuition, and creativity can guide you to novel and imaginative ways to really help children and assist them in the always-challenging endeavor of growing up.
To get started, you might feel the need to put your thinking mind in timeout. It’s been overly busy and is always trying to run the show. Then, consider taking your intuition out for a long, leisurely walk. When you’ve found a nice place, let your creativity off the leash and see what it brings back to you. While you’re there, take the time to be inspired; but let your inspired work be with your child, not on your child. And let that “work” take on a clever disguise. Make it engaging. Infuse it with enthusiasm and positive energy. Let it be lighthearted and playful.
If parenting or managing children has been perplexing, frustrating, or tedious for you, I suggest you shake things up a bit. Put that old “parent by number” book away, and try “finger painting in psych class.” From the Preface of Fingerpainting in Psych Class
