therapy

Introduction to the paper

1. Identification of patient group characteristics:

· Estimate of aggregate functioning level: Patients were functioning at least at a 5th grade level and above

· Estimate of tolerance for group setting: Patients were rambunctious some patients were talking out of term during the art therapy group communication

· Estimate of participant’s interaction potential: I believe all the patients had the potential to participate, however one was sleeping, one was yelling and cussing, and there was a patient who just wanted to observe.

2. Intent of the therapeutic activity:

· Goal of the activity in terms of patient outcomes: Engage patients in art therapy so that they are able to express their feeling

· How this activity achieved those outcomes: it allows patients to express themselves freely without judgment.

3. Description of the activity:

· Materials used: playdough, construction paper, stick glue, string, stickers, markers

· Steps in the implementation of the activity: My partner and I passed out initially pumpkin cut outs and allowed the patients to either draw or paste expressions of how they felt on the pumpkin while playing Halloween music in the background that the patients were allowed to choose. Than after we would go around and ask the patient to hold the pumpkin up and say why they placed that expression on their pumpkin. One patient placed a sad face and he stated because he missed his daughter. Our next activity (we still continued to play Halloween music in the background) we had the patients do more arts and crafts except for this one we had them make turkeys and on the feathers right what they were thankful for and share with the group. Last game was to ask questions and whom ever had the Styrofoam pumpkin had to answer a question (ex: what makes you happy? What is your best memory? Etc… the patients would answer while passing the pumpkin around and if they were able to answer the question we gave them playdough as a gift.

4. Evaluation of the results:

· Strengths: they were very good at expressing their feelings and stating how they felt during the activities

· Limitations: Their attention span

5. What would you do differently next time? (Conclusion) Instead of maybe giving them cutouts of pumpkins I would have given them blank sheets of paper with markers/crayons and draw any Halloween expression and what Halloween meant to them.