Five reasons to use drawing in therapy and coaching

I have over ten years of work experience as an art therapist with various target groups in mental health care. I use this experience in the trainings I give at Draw Your Message. From my perspective, I describe below five important reasons to use drawing in therapy and coaching.

1. Overview

Using drawings from a bird’s-eye view, lifelines, and schematic representations can help a client to take a step back from a situation or event. This can be helpful when a client is overwhelmed by emotion, providing distance and perspective. It allows you and the client to look at the problem together. It creates a sense of distance and often brings about calmness and stability. 

2. Insight

Just as drawing assignments can create distance, they can also increase insight. You can zoom in on lifelines, asking questions like, “Okay, at what exact moment in your childhood did you experience that intense situation? Which moment was the most difficult? What were your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors at that moment?” This way of working is very therapeutic, and I have used it extensively in trauma processing, for example, after abuse or war. Zooming in, again and again, helps regain control (learning to look instead of avoiding thoughts) and smooth out the sharpest edges. 

You can also zoom in on emotions. “If you feel anger, what does that look like for you (your anger is different from mine), and how does your mother see your anger? You can give anger a color, a texture, a rhythm, a certain pressure, a material, a size. Is the anger you say you feel in your stomach round or sharp? Does it have a color? Does your anger move? Is it light or heavy?” By giving shape to anger, it becomes concrete, and the client can feel validated and seen. By the way, these types of assignments are not only for children! Parents or adults can also benefit from them. I have asked a father, as an art therapist, to represent his anger in a similar way because I knew his son perceived it as something very big and scary. By placing the two different images side by side and discussing them with the father and son, insight and a meaningful conversation emerged.

3. Looking forward

We all know that having a clear picture of goals can be immensely helpful. By creating a drawing or collage of where someone ultimately wants to be, it becomes even clearer which aspects need to change to get there. Moreover, it helps to focus on something positive. The more a positively formulated goal lives, the more it motivates.

4. Clarifying Situations, Steps, and Phases

Through storytelling, lifelines, or visual life stories, you bring clarity to the sequence of events. Situations are put back in their place. Something still has an influence, but it is already in the past and that’s where it belongs! 

 For example, “Both of you, create a comic book of the morning as you experienced it. I’m curious about what caused the anxiety to suddenly escalate so quickly. For instance, on such a comic book, you can already see that while the mother was still in bed, she was checking her work emails and immediately became stressed. The son was already angry because the mother hadn’t prepared his lunchbox (as agreed), and then when the little sister dropped the jar of peanut butter, the brother started screaming, then the mother shouted at the son, and in response, the son shouted back at the mother. “Aha… so a lot is happening on both sides?!” This way of working can increase mutual understanding and clarify which agreements need to be made to prevent similar situations in the future. By placing events and processes in a pattern, the pattern becomes very visible to the client, and you can indicate in the drawing where the possibilities for change lie, thereby breaking the pattern.

5. Visual Report

By giving the client the drawing at the end of the session or taking a photo of it, you provide a kind of minutes. The drawing can serve as a tool for the client at home when discussing the session with someone else, such as parents who want to know what was discussed. 

Furthermore, repeatedly looking back at the drawing can enhance the impact of the session as the client can better absorb what was said and done. It can also help to ask the client to review the drawing just before the next session. How often does it happen that a client has no idea what was discussed last time? By having the client review the drawing, you can pick up right where you left off. 

Discover the power of visual communication with Draw your message!

By using simple, expressive drawings, you too can effectively convey your message. Business drawing, also known as visual communication, is a method that is becoming increasingly popular. Draw your message offers workshops and training in business drawing to teach you how to say more with just one image than with a thousand words. See dates of upcoming workshops here or check out our book Conversations visualized specifically for Counselors, practitioners and other care providers.

Drawing in the therapy setting

I have worked as an art therapist for ten years in various positions and institutes in mental health care. Clearly, I did a lot of drawing in my own sessions with clients, but I was only one of the few therapists doing this. Now that I have been giving Draw Your Message trainings in the Social Domain for a few years, I realize more and more how unfortunate it is that I did not incorporate drawing more during my work in mental health care! 

Why don’t we create visual aids and templates for the repetitive conversations we have? We can simply gather input from the team on what is needed and useful, and then distribute the templates/ designs. It seems like a fun and educational activity to find and visualize the essence of many conversations! We can discuss a few during each meeting, make necessary adjustments, and then put them on the intranet for everyone to use! It can only have positive outcomes, right?! Here are a few examples of visual aids and templates that I can imagine would be highly valuable within the social domain:

• Intake and diagnostic procedures
• Initial get-to-know-each other meetings
• Treatment goals and action plans
• Stress thermometer
• Crisis plan
• Phases of the treatment
• Network overview
• Assessment of resources and risk factors
• Treatment evaluation
• Aftercare and prevention plan

Wouldn’t it be incredibly useful if every therapist or staff member used the same visual aids and templates?! Here I present five of many advantages; 

1. They’re not only meaningful for clients but also serve as a framework for therapists and as a guide within the organization.
2. A uniform approach and documentation reduce session preparation time, workload, facilitate smooth handovers, and enhance internal client communication. After each session, you can take a photo and upload it into the reporting system.
3. Clients often enter sessions with high levels of anxiety. We all know that individuals under high stress have difficulty with mentalizing. Excessive verbal information is not well retained. Using drawings or engaging in drawing activities can slow down and reduce anxiety, reigniting the process of mentalization.
4. In addition, the use of visual aids and templates provides clients with a clear overview, allowing for easy reproduction of the session. Moreover, they facilitate communication with third parties about the session’s content based on the visual aid or completed template.
5. Combining words and images significantly improves information retention. By taking a tangible part of the session home, the gap between the session and the practical implementation in the client’s daily life is bridged, increasing the chances of applying what was learned. 

Discover the power of visual communication with Draw your message!
By using simple, expressive drawings, you too can effectively convey your message. Business drawing, also known as visual communication, is a method that is becoming increasingly popular. Draw your message offers workshops and training in business drawing to teach you how to say more with just one image than with a thousand words. See dates of upcoming workshops here or check out our book Conversations visualized specifically for Counselors, practitioners and other care providers.

Visual Metaphors for Complex Diagnoses

Are you part of the new generation of hospital staff who see it as their task to truly involve and inform the patient? 

Do you want to be able to visually support explanations about diseases? Fortunately, you’re not alone! 

My father belonged to the stereotype of the old-fashioned doctor—grumpy, mumbling, owl-like, with a deep voice and unreadable handwriting. For him, there was no need to explain disease processes or involve you in treatment plans. You simply did what he instructed. Fortunately, those stereotypes are a thing of the past! The new stereotype is more in line with accessible doctors, almost friendly in nature, wearing colorful clogs and scooting through the hallways. Whether that’s exaggerated or not, there is much more emphasis on the communication skills of doctors and other hospital staff. There is much more value placed on participation, understanding, interaction, and collaboration between doctor and patient. However, research in the Netherlands shows that many patients do not have the ability to understand what doctors are saying. Do you also experience how challenging it can be to explain diagnoses that are often very complex? 

In my opinion, it is logical that the anxiety people experience during conversations with doctors prevents them from processing and understanding a lot of information, which means it doesn’t stick well. Visualizing information can help organize and clarify it, allowing for better filtering and comprehension. An image provides a framework for structuring the conversation, making it easier to follow. Using metaphors makes complex information much more accessible because it links what is new and loaded (such as information about medical treatment) to what is familiar and lighthearted (like a metaphor of a vegetable garden). The fact that a metaphor is better understood and remembered than jargon and purely medical information also empowers the patient. They now have the words to explain to others (and to themselves) what is happening and what will happen to them. This gives them the tools to ask questions and a certain level of control and empowerment, which undoubtedly has a positive effect on their well-being! 

Do you want to remove jargon from your explanations of complex medical matters and support them with visually created metaphors? A lot is available already! Pediatrician Charlie Obihara, who has been associated with the Elizabeth-TweeSteden Hospital (ETZ) in Tilburg, the Netherlands for over fifteen years, developed metaphors to help children better understand their diseases. With young doctors and a group of illustrators, he worked on visualizing the metaphors and developing a website. On the website www.medifoor.nl, approximately 50 visual mediphors have been collected, which can be used to support conversations between healthcare professionals and patients. 

In a recent interview with Obihara in a Dutch newspaper, he said: “Patients often don’t understand what doctors are telling them because some diseases are simply too complex. How do you explain leukemia to a child? The metaphor of an overgrown vegetable garden makes the disease more comprehensible. When grass (the malignant cells) obstructs the vegetables (healthy cells), they can no longer grow. Weed killers are needed, a metaphor for chemotherapy. They also kill the good plants, but afterward, they have the chance to regrow.” 

The mediphor for leukemia: an overgrown vegetable garden that needs to be sprayed.
Image from medifoor.nl. 

At the moment, Medifoor contains fifty illustrations. The goal is to eventually have hundreds. If you already have beautiful metaphors, you can submit them via the website www.mediform.nl to make them accessible to a large group and make them even more valuable! 

Business Drawing with Draw Your Message

Draw your message helps you to increase the impact of your communication. Simple, expressive drawings visually convey what you communicate. Many people refer to this as ‘business drawing’ or ‘visual communication’. Draw your message teaches you how to say more than a thousand words with a single picture. We do this by providing training and workshops in business drawing. If you prefer a book in your hands, check out our book Conversations visualized. 

Wheel of life

Your work is valuable! Care providers can make a difference, for a client, for a system, and for everyone involved. At the same time, concerns are growing, there are more people in need of assistance, more help is needed! Unfortunately, we see pressure increasing from work, patients, clients, healthcare insurers… everything must be done more and more quickly nowadays. All this while the quality of your work must remain unchanged! Without positive results, the demand for healthcare will only increase. Moreover, it is evident that positive results are necessary for those who work passionately in order to avoid burnout. Healthcare is characterized by these two factors that often seem to clash. Fortunately, this problem also stimulates creativity and problem-solving. We see caregivers with brilliant ideas! Beautiful creative initiatives lead to good results. 

Working with templates is one of the ways that can help you manage time more efficiently without sacrificing quality!  

Here are some examples of how templates can support you in your work:

• A template can be filled in by the client before a session with a simple explanation, allowing you to get straight to the point during the session
• A completed template can be taken home by a client and used as a summary of the conversation when discussing it with third parties
• An empowering template can be saved as a screensaver on the phone or taken home and displayed prominently. This way, the client is regularly reminded of what was previously discussed
• A photo of a completed template can be sent to the client as a reminder before a subsequent session. This refreshes the previous “conversation,” reduces the need for repetition, facilitates reflection, and allows for faster progress

In this blog post, I will share a template that I have used extensively as an art therapist and show you how it works.

You can download this template plus 2 more for free as we give away 3 templates from our book on our website here.

“The Wheel of life” is one of the 101 visual conversation templates included in our book “Conversations visualized” The book provides a brief instruction manual, which I copied here:  

One way to map satisfaction in different areas of life is the so-called wheel of life. You can start by exploring together with the client which areas of life are important to them. Then you can give each domain a “pizza slice” and you let the client fill in the level of satisfaction per pizza slice. For example, a fully completed pizza slice represents 100% satisfaction. In this way you can create insight and a clear picture together with the client. 

When people come to therapy, stress levels are often high. High stress tends to narrow people’s focus to tunnel vision. Looking through a tunnel not only makes the world appear darker (receiving less light), but it also limits the ability to zoom out. Zooming out is necessary to experience more breathing room and to find creative solutions. Filling in this “Wheel of life” together helps the client distance themselves from their “problem” and see the bigger picture. When the client also sees what does go well, it helps to put things into perspective. On the other hand, it helps the therapist gain insight into how the client perceives themselves and their life, and what they consider important. Of course, you can expand on working with this template. For example, you can discuss with the client which slice should be the largest. If, for instance, the relationship with a partner is the most important, that slice would be the largest; if professional achievements are considered less important, that slice would be smaller. Of course, you can also dedicate an entire slice to a specific domain. For example, “school” can consist of different sub-areas such as social contacts, interaction with teachers, homework, results, external interference, attendance, and so on. These sub-areas can be evaluated independently. 

In short, do you ever work with clients who seem to suffer from hyperfocus on a specific problem? Then I would say, “Engage in the conversation using this template and experience the positive effects of working with a visual conversation template like this yourself!” 

Do you want to use drawing and templates more in your sessions or conversations? Then our book “Conversations visualized” might be just right for you. In this book, we have gathered 101 conversation templates that can be readily used by care providers or therapists.  

We wish you a lot of valuable drawing pleasure! 

The ABC model in focus

Your work is valuable! Care providers can make a difference, for a client, for a system, and for everyone involved. At the same time, concerns are growing, there are more people in need of assistance, more help is needed! Unfortunately, we see pressure increasing from work, patients, clients, healthcare insurers… everything must be done more and more quickly nowadays. All this while the quality of your work must remain unchanged! Without positive results, the demand for healthcare will only increase. Moreover, it is evident that positive results are necessary for those who work passionately in order to avoid burnout. Healthcare is characterized by these two factors that often seem to clash. Fortunately, this problem also stimulates creativity and problem-solving. We see caregivers with brilliant ideas! Beautiful creative initiatives lead to good results. 

Working with templates is one of the ways that can help you manage time more efficiently without sacrificing quality!  

Here are some examples of how templates can support you in your work: 

• A template can be filled in by the client before a session with a simple explanation, allowing you to get straight to the point during the session
• A completed template can be taken home by a client and used as a summary of the conversation when discussing it with third parties
• An empowering template can be saved as a screensaver on the phone or taken home and displayed prominently. This way, the client is regularly reminded of what was previously discussed
• A photo of a completed template can be sent to the client as a reminder before a subsequent session. This refreshes the previous “conversation,” reduces the need for repetition, facilitates reflection, and allows for faster progress

In this blog post, I will share a template that I have used extensively as an art therapist and show you how it works.

You can download this template plus 2 more for free as we give away 3 templates from our book on our website here.

This visual ABC model is one of the 101 visual conversation templates included in our book “Conversation in Pictures.” The book provides a brief instruction manual, which I copied in here: 

Many of us know and work with the ABC model, which is part of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and Cognitive behavioral Therapy, among others. The ABC model of Activating event, Belief (thought, feeling, behavior) and Consequence are set forth. This is done to gain insight into a situation, someone’s thoughts about it and the consequences of those thoughts. In this template we work with different “balloons” to show the differences at a glance. In this version, “behavior” is split into “I say” and “I do”. 

I believe that everyone in the therapy field agrees on the value of the ABC model itself. However, I have noticed that clients, even when they work extensively with this model, struggle to reproduce the different steps. The (cognitive-behavioral) therapist keeps repeating the steps during the filling process because the clients no longer remember them. This is understandable, as therapy is typically associated with high levels of anxiety, which negatively affects understanding and memory. The fact that the model remained theoretical and complex for many clients led to frustration. However, it is valuable for a client to truly internalize the model. This way, they can also work on it at home, increasing the effectiveness of the model. When the client knows the model by heart and encounters a situation that surpasses their immediate understanding, they can immediately use the tools provided to them in therapy or guidance. By using the visual ABC model, it becomes clear, lighthearted, and more enjoyable to work with. When something is visualized, the brain creates a mental photo, so to speak. By seeing the “photo,” the client remembers not only what was drawn but also where it was drawn. As a result, they can internalize the model much earlier and have it available when needed. Thus, it becomes an interesting tool for the client rather than a complicated theory. This benefits the usability of the model, the client’s (self)confidence, and the collaboration with the therapist. 

In short, do you ever work with clients for whom you want to make their behavior more understandable using the ABC model? Then I would say, “Engage in the conversation using this template and experience the positive effects of working with a visual conversation template like this yourself!”  

Do you want to use drawing and templates more in your sessions or conversations? Then our book “Conversations visualized” might be just right for you. In this book, we have gathered 101 conversation templates that can be readily used by care providers or therapists.  

We wish you a lot of valuable drawing pleasure!