Books by Caren Sacks

A Note to Parents…

Draw and Discover: An Art Making Journal for Kids supports art making to develop self-expression, self-awareness, and strong communication skills. It also offers the experience of making art to feel calm. 

Art making and storytelling offer your child ways to share all kinds of stories with you. Some may be about challenging or difficult experiences, thoughts, or feelings. You know your child best. If their art, stories, behaviors, or relationships concern you, seeking professional support can be helpful for you and for your child. 

Please note: This art making journal for kids in not a substitute for therapy and it is not Art Therapy. If you have concerns or if your child is struggling daily with difficult feelings and worries, you can discuss this with your child’s pediatrician. Therapy may be helpful when there is a challenging life event or family changes, or if you see your child struggling with managing their feelings, relationships, or behavior. There are different kinds of therapy: traditional verbal therapy, Play Therapy, Drama Therapy with whom both you and your child feel comfortable. Word of mouth, a school counselor, your child’s pediatrician, and your own research can help you find a therapist for your child. 

A Note for Counselors, Therapists, Clinicians and Teachers

Draw and Discover: An Art Making Journal for Kids can offer counselors, therapists, clinicians and teachers, ideas for art making invitations to use in the treatment room or classroom. The invitations were carefully created, with the specific intention of helping children become aware of their feelings, name them, express them, and pay attention to the physical sensations that come with them.

When introducing art making to a child, please be mindful that the focus is on the process of creating, and the story a child may share not on how well executed the image is. If you are not familiar with art making materials it can be very useful to try them out, as well as attempt some of the invitations in this book prior to offering them to a client or student. This can support you in choosing which invitation may be appropriate for a child at a given time. 

Also, of importance is the awareness that art materials offer different qualities of expression, for example, watercolors and other paints are loose materials, as is finger paint and can lead to regression, while markers and colored pencils are experienced as having more control. This is important in making appropriate decisions and choices available for each individual client.

Children often can communicate difficulties through their artwork, and as in other forms of communication: play, stories, etc, children may use metaphor to address concerns. As we stay with a child’s metaphor in other arenas of treatment, we do so with a child’s art making. We need to be mindful that art making can evoke strong feelings and reactions, thus they need to be discussed thoughtfully.

Explore the artwork without judgment, with curiosity and interest, in a therapeutic and ethical manner. Use the invitations with care, playfulness, and thoughtfulness. 

Please be mindful that in therapy, a child’s drawings, whether the therapist is an art therapist or not, has ethical issues to consider. Children’s art making holds the same weight as verbal sharing, thus are held to similar ethical considerations as confidentiality, consent, documentation, as well as added issues such as ownership of the art work, how and when it may be appropriate or not to display (art work created in a therapeutic environment is different than art work created in social or educational venues), how to keep the artwork safe, and how, when, and with whom  the art work and comments made about it may be shared. 

Another important issue to be aware of is no one art piece, either, drawing, painting, clay, construction, or collage, can be used to identify a diagnosis. 

If you are unsure about how to process an art piece or you feel a client can benefit from working with an Art Therapist, the American Art Therapy Association, can guide you to Art Therapists in your area.

Even as a trained professional, if you are using art making to enhance and support the child’s treatment, please refrain from referring to it as Art Therapy. In NY and other states, Art Therapy is a licensed profession that states only an Art Therapist can offer Art Therapy. This clearly does not preclude other professionals from incorporating art making into their treatment, it only addresses calling it Art Therapy.