Color on the outline of the body where you feel each emotion.” Often it can be helpful for people to have an increased awareness of how they actually experience emotions in their body, instead of thinking of emotions and thoughts as somehow disconnected from our bodies. Take a minute to think about each emotion, imagine the last time you felt it, and think about how you feel that emotion in your body. “List the emotions that you feel most often and then assign a color to each emotion. To help link emotions to bodily sensations: It is also very calming to use with children when they become angry or escalated. This is a great intervention to use when a client is feeling upset and struggling with how to express this. Choose different colors to represent the emotions you are feeling.” Generally, I will provide the client with a pre-printed circle or trace a circle on a paper to provide some sense of containment. “Color a picture, without using symbols or words, to show how you are feeling right now. In doing Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy, I often use this intervention to introduce the “Affect Regulation” component of treatment.Īs a way to express emotions in the hear-and-now: This intervention can be done near the beginning of therapy as an assessment and then done later to evaluate changes. I then use the completed art piece to discuss with the client what triggers certain emotions and whether the client would like to change the amount of any emotions. As a variation, a client can cover the whole page or paint a whole canvas, but that amount of empty space can be overwhelming for many.

Fill in the shape provided to represent how much you feel each emotion.” I usually provide an outline to color in, such as a human figure, a heart, or a circle. “List as many emotions as you can think of (or “list all the emotions that you feel in a week”) and then assign a color to each emotions. This can be a great intervention for children or adults, can be done with any media, and can be tailored to the particular situation, client, or need.Īs a way to increase awareness of emotions, try this directive: The basic intervention is to have the client choose colors that represent their feelings and then color an abstract picture. Today I would like to share a related art therapy intervention. In my last post, I discussed symbolism and meaning of colors in art therapy.

Many colored days book