Photo Credit: Monocat @Flickr

On the second floor of Steinmetz High School, 6 girls are participating in an art therapy technique called Model Magic.

Each girl is supposed to shape the clay into a feeling they have about themselves. In essence, they are to physically mold their emotions into a physical rendering. When finished, the other participants guess what the girl was trying to sculpt.

Afterwards, each sculptor reveals the intended emotion.

R, a 15-year old 9th grader, has molded several shapes that are randomly fingered and “blobbed” on the clay mat. Descriptors like angry, confused, complicated and frustrated come from around the table.

Finally, she reveals, “I named it: You cannot save me because I do not want to be saved.”

R says she was trying to sculpt destruction.

Gwenn Waldmann, the woman who heads Art Therapy Connection (ATC), says these techniques are used to tackle ideas of self-exploration, self-awareness and identity. Other therapeutic techniques like the Friendship Circles and Hand Murals get participants to draw what makes them happy or how they see themselves. 

Waldmann enthusiastically advocates the use of art therapy in contrast to talk therapy. She believes such emotional scrapbooking provides tangible documentation of one’s emotional currents, triumphs and reflections.

I find this type of “therapeutic journeying” intriguing because self-discovery never truly stops.

ATC provides the tools for (troubled) kids to connect with the disconnectedness of competing and contradictory emotions. A lot of it involves being lost, silent and frustrated.

And, perhaps, that’s why so many twentysomethings have a problem with being lost. Being lost is contradictory because you already know you don’t know all the answers. Yet, it doesn’t stop the competing desire to have some of the answers now.

Beyond the obvious sentiments of being a generation that is accused of over entitlement and arrogance, Gen Ys sometimes treat their journeys to self-awareness like 15 minute El rides. Everything should be quick. Take me to my intended destination – no matter what.

ATC’s 34-week program focuses on getting participants to open up and express themselves. Expression is important. It fosters relevance and creativity. It provides value and (re)establishes our self-worth. Nonetheless, in an environment where it is discouraged it only breeds anger, resentment…even self-loathing.

Are you leading a life of discouragement?

And, I wonder how many twentysomethings are feeling they’re in environments that breed these emotions. The pressure of accomplishing professional (or personal) expectations is overwhelming. Or, dealing with the discouragement of unrealized dreams swirls a maelstrom of emotional chaos.

Waldman tells me that kids (and adults) will either engage in useful or useless behavior. Essentially, we use creativity or destruction to find our way (or lose our way) when dealing with traumas. And, it’s difficult to recognize the traumas. We don’t like being disappointed. The upsets can disengage us as well. Some people have the tools. Others, perhaps, do not.

It’s hard to be your own therapist because what haven’t you already diagnosed yourself with? I’m wondering what kind of (art) therapy will save Gen Y from life’s chaos.