I’ve been to a lot of counseling and therapy classes over the last year, but I think my favorite was my last care givers support group where we got to have 2 art therapy sessions. I’m not an artist by any means – stick men are my specialty. In high school I was mildly interested in art class, but was told I was meant for music, not drawing, so I didn’t even bother trying.

For some reason, the idea of doing something with art seemed an exciting challenge to me, and for some reason we all thought we’d be doing a family tree project. That wasn’t the case at all. We were put in a large room. With very large pieces of paper. We could use felts, crayons, pastels, chalk or paint. We all sat at our own tables and they turned on soothing music. Then we were given the assignment:

1. Draw a tree to represent you
2. The trunk represents our life, and the top of the tree describes how developed our life is
3. Marks, knots, or holes in the trunk represent trauma or difficult times
4. The roots represent our family history, traditions, and grounding
5. The landscape describes the mood or atmosphere we are planted in
6. Pests and bugs represent problems
7. Animals represent fears
8. Birds or butterflies represent hopes and dreams
9. Branches represent events, triumphs, tragedies, things we are proud of
10. Weather, sky represent current atmosphere or mood
We were given the rest of the night to start the project, and one more night to finish and present our tree to the group, answering any questions.

I’m not sure what came over me, but I found the project tremendously exciting. I sat down at the table, laid out my paper and pastels and began to draw. It was like being suddenly transported to a different world. I was thrilled. The next 40 minutes went so fast and I was really disappointed when the class ended.

For the next two weeks I thought about my tree. I couldn’t wait to finish it, and to my surprise, the other parents were excited too. We all sat down again, and spent another half hour drawing. No one could see what the other was doing, and even the counselors participated. When we were done, we reassembled in the counseling room to present our trees. Some parents got very descriptive and drew trees with words. Some put down colors and didn’t really draw anything that even resembled a tree. Others drew graphs and charts to explain parts of their tree. I took the drawing very literally.

I can’t tell you how therapeutic this was. I would challenge you to get in to a quiet place and try this exercise, uninterrupted. I actually learned so much about myself and the things that have happened to me in my life. As I presented my tree, realizations came to mind that I didn’t even understand while I was drawing. What I really realized is that I have junk I need to deal with that still hurts and could very likely be holding me back in things I want to accomplish.

My tree contained twisted deep roots, knots and broken branches, grass, dirt and ants, squirrels, butterflies and birds held in long, high swaying branches. My sky had daylight and a sunset, and the fruit on my tree was bright and colorful. When all was done, I rolled up my picture and brought it home. Others would look at it and perhaps laugh and not understand, but when I see it, I can feel all the emotion behind the trials and triumphs that have happened all through out my life. To me, it’s a work of art, and what better way to represent life than with art.

I think part of helping others is self discovery, which can be a painful thing, but when you’re ready, it’s beautiful. That’s life.