BRIK - Art From the Heart

What Problems does Art from the Heart address?

The relational crisis of early adolescence
Need for authentic connection in an anti-relational school-world
Exclusion and bullying
At-risk girls' need for resilience-building connection
The need to learn to recognize a growth-fostering relationship before adolescence begins
Schools' construction of art as a field of competition
Individualistic shortcomings of typical art therapy groups

An example from an Art from the Heart Group

A group member might pretend that she is going to paint over the work of another member whom she perceives as a “better” artist, but not actually do it. While she wants to connect with her fellow group member, whom she admires, she fears rejection by this valued peer — especially if this peer sometimes uses her superior ability in a power-over way, to “show off”: this is her own strategy of avoiding connection which she too fears. This leads to interaction in which the girl who perceives her art as less proficient expresses both her resentment at being denigrated, and her ability to withhold an impulse that would damage the relationship. Under the guidance of the relationally trained leader, the two group members can be helped to work on their ambivalent relationship. The more successful child can decrease behavior that denigrates others, and the child who feels “one down” can learn to express her strengths rather than her resentments of others' success. She is congratulated for NOT painting over her colleague's work, and her colleague is allowed to express how she would have felt if her peer had obliterated her part of the project. When she expresses feelings of vulneratbility, she opens herself to authentic interaction (Jordan, 2004) with her peer, who may then find her less intimidating than she thought.

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