The Light of The Heart attended the El Dia De Los Ninos festival this past April in Aurora and what an amazing festival it was!  This festival celebrates and honors all children and is a gift from the Latino community.  Books were given to the kids at the festival along with a multitude of activities.  These children represent the hopes and dreams of every community.  
              
Hector Ochoa Jr.,Chair of the Aurora Hispanic Heritage Advisory Board, directed this very successful event which took place at the Aurora Transportation Center parking lot on Lincoln and Spring, April 26th of 2014. Thank you to Hector and the AHHA for sponsoring the mask making at the festival. 

This free family event included a donation of 5000 books, music, dancing, stage performances, food and other activities like The Light of The Heart’s Mask making event.
             
The Light of The Heart tent had masks for the kids to decorate with paint, glitter, jewels, stickers, letters, feathers, and more! The kids of Aurora quickly found out about the mask making and came to our tent in droves!  Lisa Kolodziej, and I, TLOTH interns, ran the booth and helped the kids (and some of the adults to!) to find their creative side by decorating these masks in any way that they wanted.  Our mask making was so popular that we ran out of masks in only two hours.

Lisa and I were amazed at how creative the kids were and how much they were starving to make art. The language barrier between Lisa and I and the Hispanic families that attended was not a problem at all considering that art is
a universal language.  The kids and their families were so proud of what they created that they all wanted to show
us what they had made.  Each mask was unique and special and as facilitators of this creative endeavor, we felt
special as well because the kids enjoyed themselves so much.

Next year, we hope to have more art materials available so that everyone can experience the power of art making. 
Thank you to Hector Ochoa Jr. and the AHHA for this wonderful opportunity to create with the incredible children of Aurora at El Dia De Los Ninos. We look forward to next year!

~Jacquie Stone
2015 MAT Candidate
Adler School of Professional Psychology

During Open Studio Art Making at Culture Stock this past month, we created scribble drawings.  This is a commonly used art therapy technique that can be done by anyone of any age.  Scribble drawings are relaxing and can help us to focus our attention on the present moment.

As a lifelong artist, I have grown up hearing comments from others such as, “I can’t draw,” “I’m a terrible artist,” or “I can’t even draw a straight line!” 

When it comes to art, how often do we hear others saying things like this? And, how often do we find ourselves saying the same things?  One of the beautiful things about art therapy is that anyone can benefit, regardless of their artistic abilities.  Scribble drawings are a great way for those who feel they have little artistic skill to experience the benefits of art making.  Because a scribble is not perfect, and there is no right or wrong way to make one, we are less likely to judge ourselves, leaving us free to enjoy the process of creating.

We had a rather large group for this particular Open Studio session.  The adults in attendance had varying amounts of previous experience with the arts.  Some were already a bit familiar with the technique, and all reported that they enjoyed the activity.  The children in attendance did a wonderful job with this activity as well.  Some created several drawings, while others spent more time adding lots of detail to one drawing.  The artwork that resulted was filled with beautiful colors, lines, and images.  This was such a positive, warm, and welcoming group of individuals.  I am grateful to everyone that attended, not only for their participation, but also for the conversations and suggestions that came from making art together.

~Lisa Kolodziej
2014 MAT Candidate, Saint Mary of the Woods College
TLOTH Clinical Intern

Throughout the month of March, we spent Friday mornings at Family
Focus conducting a parent education group on Positive Discipline (www.positivediscipline.com) with moms in the Parent Mentoring Program. These strong, intelligent, and kind women shared stories of pain and frustration.  Over the course of four weeks, they were able to learn and test new ways of interacting with their children.  Perhaps without realizing it, many of the women had already been using Positive Discipline techniques.  
 
We co-led the discussions each week, focusing on a variety of topics such as encouragement versus praise, consequences versus punishment, and how to talk to children with both firmness and kindness. They encouraged each other with stories of their successes and found relief in seeing what they could change and how. Some women spoke predominantly Spanish; the mothers helped each other understand the concepts and translate between English and Spanish. We also gained valuable insights about family values and parenting styles in Latino/a
culture. 

It was amazing how quickly the group formed a close and cohesive unit, and in the last session the women
expressed their gratitude for having a safe place to discuss these issues. They appreciated being able to get to know the other women better and developing a new support system.

It was an honor and privilege to hear their stories and share in their journeys.  We heard one woman talk about how she tries to put herself in her adolescent son’s shoes when she wants to react, another share how she learned to
respond to her 2-year old and 14-year old fighting with love and patience versus frustration, and several women talk about wanting to parent differently than they were parented.  What a gift to be able to offer that space for these women pause and reflect on their roles as mothers and parents in a new way.

We hope and believe that the discussions we had during those four weeks will stay with these wonderful women, and that they their relationships with their children will continue to grow and blossom.

~Carla & Briana
TLOTH Clinical Interns
2014 MAT Candidates

This past Monday started out like any other Monday.  I took an early morning commuter train from downtown Chicago to Aurora, ready for a full day at my clinical internship. As it was the first Monday of the month, I knew I’d be starting the day with our Art Therapy group at Elderday Center, where we work with older adults who have varying levels of dementia.  I
hadn’t seen this group since before Christmas, due to a change in my schedule and the Polar Vortex earlier this year. I felt a little rusty and a little
unsure about what we would be doing.

I shouldn’t have worried. This group never fails to make me smile and remind me why I’m in this field. Carla, my co-facilitator, and I decided
the directive needed to be active and colorful, due to it being a cold gray day and they do so much sitting and listening.  We walked into the room with big smiles, small canvases, and a plethora of paint colors. 
Each canvas had a scribble on it, with which our clients could find a
picture, color in a design, or paint over completely if they so desired.  Before all the materials were even handed out and the directive fully explained, some of our clients had started painting.  They so clearly needed
the colorful and artistic outlet that day!  They were focused, creative, and
  engaged.  A gentleman who has given us the grumpy “I’m not going to do it” attitude in other sessions started painting without being asked twice. He covered his canvas with purple and yellow “A” and “X” shapes. Another older gentleman who regularly questions why he should participate in a particular project completed two abstract paintings with blues, greens, and yellows.  One lady who often hesitates to participate because her friend is very anti-art completed a red and blue painting, and shared a huge smile and “Thank you” when we finished. 

Throughout the art-making were conversations about the Super Bowl, Italian opera, and grandchildren.  How could I have ever been worried that this group wouldn’t go well? It always goes well, because we are making art together and sharing our lives with each other.

One of the gifts of art therapy, beyond the capacity for  healing it brings to many people, is how it builds connection and brings relief through the simple process of creating alongside another person.  Last week, TLOTH’s newest clinical intern, Lisa, arrived.  During group supervision we spent time making art together. It was so much fun to sit with the other women I work with at TLOTH and share our hearts and minds through our creative processes. 
We didn’t even have to talk about our pieces or share deep insight – the pure pleasure of creating beautiful images together was enough.

Days like Monday and moments like I experienced at Elderday and in supervision last week remind me why I am called to art therapy and why I do what I do.  I’m excited to see what the rest of the semester brings, as we start new groups and continue bringing art and light to Aurora and our partners.

~Briana Colton, 2014 MAT Candidate, Adler School of Professional Psychology

In my six months as a clinical art therapy intern, I have learned a lot about what it takes to run a not-for-profit and how to be a clinician.

I began my training long before I started working with The Light of the Heart. I have always used art to express a variety of moods, and this has
evolved rapidly over the past few years. For instance, I have learned to make art to understand coursework, reflect on the process of graduate school, and work through general life experiences.

I have also learned to notice how much I hold inside my body. I carry my own emotions and experiences, but I also carry my clients and others  with me. At my best, I have revelations about art therapy directives for particular clients when I’m stirring pasta sauce or going to work or washing my hair. At my worst, I want to just hide under a table and let the world sort out its own problems. When I see too many emails or feel overwhelmed with work, I have the urge to grumble in a prickly, cryptic voice, “Stop asking me for things.” This is hard work that we do, but necessary.

This leads me to one of the most important things I’ve learned—self-care. Some days, I take better care of my movie and music collection than myself. I actually hadn’t heard the term until grad school, when classmates would chidingly say, “Self-care” when I mentioned getting only four hours of sleep or when I declined an invitation to hang out. Self-care, Carla. What? Self-care.

The term stumped me. I’ve come to realize that it’s an ongoing, changeable process, and I will always be working on
it. For example, a few months ago, I smashed a few of my ceramic sculptures on the driveway and later affixed those pieces to a multimedia board to make a new artwork. You may say, “You need more positive outlets to deal with
your anger!” But art is one of the best ways to channel that emotion in a positive way—to make it therapeutic.

More recently, smashing terra cotta and stoneware has given way to scratching words on paper—haphazard words coming together to form a verse. Thinking made visible, offering a clarity that only art could provide. It’s
self-care.

It’s baking to get my hands dirty and spill flour everywhere.  It’s running through the woods and scraping my knee. Or taking a 45-minute nap. Painting. Turning down a friend so I could read a good book or watch a movie.
What I need will change day by day. Likewise, my clients’ needs will change and I have to watch for that.

Knowing all this helps me feel less…stuck. I also feel some relief knowing that I don’t have to interrogate my client, or do my best Tom Cruise Jerry Maguire impersonation and insist, “Help me help you” over and over again. I can use my intuition or feelings—the dreaded ‘f’ word we are often criticized for having—to help guide the session in a way that’s beneficial to my client. Sometimes, I’ll be wrong, and the client will tell me somehow. This is a process I’m
learning.

I look forward to seeing what else my clients and my time at The Light of the Heart will teach me.

~Carla