The second edition of Draw on Your Emotions contains a new section that explains how to get the most out of combining the activities in the book with these cards to encourage meaningful conversations and take steps towards positive action. They can help promote a new clarity of thought as a first step towards positive action and bring seemingly huge, unmanageable and insoluble problems into a new perspective. The cards will not go out of date as I imagine they will illustrate life’s difficulties that are timeless. Or a prompt for a client to create a collage about family is likely to lead to an exploration of feelings that are reflected in the chosen images.

The book also offers opportunities to rehearse other ways of functioning by trying out alternatives safely on paper. For more awesome resources for learning about and dealing with emotions, please visit our Hope 4 Hurting Kids Emotions Help Center. The addition of the cards will help adults open the conversation with children/young people about difficult feelings. By witnessing the art, the therapist gives the client the experience of validation and acceptance of their feelings.The cards are designed to capture the deeper truth of how people experience their life, offering poignant descriptions for what someone may be feeling. Dr Margot Sunderland is Director of Education and Training at The Centre for Child Mental Health London, Senior Associate of the Royal College of Medicine and Child Psychotherapist with over thirty years’ experience of working with children and families. This activity is similar to the one word activity, but with drawings instead of words to express feelings. In addition to Hope 4 Hurting Kids, Wayne previously started I Am A Child of Divorce and Divorce Ministry 4 Kids to help kids who are dealing with the disruption of their parents' relationship.

Lisa Hinz shares about using warm-up exercises to enhance affective art and explains directives like “mood states/mind states” and using art to differentiate between the four primary emotions. Her books, which form the Helping Children with Feelings series are used as key therapeutic tools by child professionals all over the UK and abroad.Encouraging client to express their feelings in art is something that I have often done as a therapist, in many different ways over my years as a therapist. In addition to his work with Hope 4 Hurting Kids, Wayne is a partner in a local consulting firm, an avid reader, coaches his son's soccer team and is a proud supporter of Leicester City Football Club (and yes, for those in know, his affinity for the club does predate the 2016 championship). Here are my personal responses that I recently did (excluding the scribble), using Mungyo Aquarelle Water Soluble Oil Pastels. However, if you want to encourage greater affective expression, keep in mind that availability of vivid colors and fluid media will help with this.