The world is a lonely place
I often integrate psychodynamic therapies with CBT and find this extremely effective.
In addition:
Whenever a client is willing and able to draw a picture of his/her feelings, this drawing becomes an important asset to the therapy. An example is the above drawing of how a depressed client sees the world. But there is hope -- the figure is painted blue and there is a door out of the depression. When asked about the door, the client said that it represents his coming to therapy.
Additional integration of therapies is an intervention that I often use that includes my drawing of client narratives, dreams and processes when they feel that they cannot express their feelings enough with words and are not able to draw themselves pictorial representations, and do not want to choose pictures from keg therapy cards (keys to emotional growth) (see videos in you tube). An example of such an integration is a client who claimed that he felt disconnected from his wife and had no clues as to her feelings and thoughts.
I then drew for him a black background with the nude back of a woman painted/ colored red and I told the client that this is what I felt when he spoke
about the relationship. He started to cry and then went deeply into his feelings and earlier events connected to his relationships with women and with his mother. This picture was a jumping off point for weeks of psychotherapy and further narratives, and also served as a catalyst for the client's additional drawings.
When a client cannot create his own artwork, we can help him/her with our projections of how we feel when hearing their stories, narratives and dreams -- I believe
that this process is helpful as long as we stress that these our our projections and NOT theirs. Keeping clearly defined boundaries is very important.
Eleanor
keg cards = keys to emotional growth
================================