During a coaching session, a client talks about feeling fragmented at work.  I ask her if she would like to draw an image that captures her experience.  She readily takes a piece of paper and draws a simple, full-body image of herself.  Then she draws lines across the picture of herself.  She reflects upon the drawing for a moment and then asks for scissors.   With scissors in hand she cuts where she has drawn the lines and separates the fragments of "herself."  "There!" she says. "I feel much better now by just expressing and seeing exactly how fragmented I feel at work.  How I feel cut in pieces and unfocused. This art work is so telling!"   The client realized that everybody at work "gets a piece of me".  She proceeded to re-think and re-vamp her leadership style, which led to effective systemic changes in her organization.  

We live in a world filled with visual images.  Symbols, icons and visual metaphors surround and inundate us.  We instantly understand these images that hold many levels of meaning.  Your own business card probably includes a logo or symbol that has a significant meaning and that conveys meaning to your clients.  You or someone else gave careful thought to this symbol and what it reflects about the organization.  Your business card uses a symbolic form to convey a complex message.   

Visual expression is also a way, for people to quickly get to the heart of what is going on internally as we face life’s issues and opportunities.  As may client’s story shows, the drawing gave her a clearer sense of her degree of fragmentation.   It was equally enlightening to me as a coach because I gained more insight into her circumstances.  I could viscerally feel her fragmentation by seeing her re-creation of it. 

In my practice as an art therapist, coach and facilitator I see many benefits of using visual expression.  I believe you will find art experiences useful when you are seeking the kinds of outcomes discussed below: 

Creating a different kind of conversation
Working with images helps us have a different kind of conversation both with ourselves and with others.  It can be more effective than words alone. This is because art making has the potential to take people to very deep inner levels of awareness that operate outside the access of our conscious, rational “left brain.”   Making art bypasses our defenses and rationalizations and quickly gets to the essence of an issue.  Then the conversation reflects this depth, often more readily than a purely verbal discussion would.    Images also provide concrete and tangible data that enables people to show others what they mean.  They are a powerful way to share valid information.    

Images also serve as a catalyst to address and discuss difficult issues that are often more challenging to express through language alone.  For example, as facilitator I asked team members engaging in a difficult conversation to reflect upon their contribution to the team's conflict and tension.  I proposed that each person draw an image or symbol representing this dynamic. Drawing and discussing these images enabled individuals to have a revelation about their role and then share it with the group. One woman drew herself as a judge in a courtroom.  In discussing her image with the group, she said, "I behave like a judge in a courtroom, I am too judgmental of my co-workers and being this way doesn't work."  She and her co-workers agreed to use the judge image as shorthand  when describing their own judgmental behaviors. Creating and speaking about their drawings enabled the team to have honest discussions about the elephant in the room: their judgmental behavior with one another.  This transparency contributed to shifting the team’s culture away from blame and towards compassion and understanding.   As a result the team became more collaborative and cohesive.   

Deepening learning
Making art seems to increase people’s internal commitment to learning.  This occurs because a number of modalities (visual, kinesthetic, and auditory) are involved as we bring forth symbols and images from inside ourselves.  We immerse ourselves in the physical act of creating, in addition to thinking and talking about an issue.  My experience has been that the more modalities we engage, the more we are committed to the learning process. 

Building Common Language
In addition visual imagery builds a common language of symbols and images, rich and specific in their meaning.  A bond develops when visual language and images are openly shared and respected within an organization and coaching relationship.  For example, a coaching client of mine drew a straight road with a yellow line down the middle as a reminder to stay focused on his business goals.   This visual metaphor helped him maintain his direction.  In our subsequent sessions, we would reference the road metaphor.   We both instantly knew the meaning. The clear metaphor enhanced his commitment to the learning process as well as enhanced his insights. 

Fostering innovative thinking
With art we can practice 'beginners mind'. "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."  (Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Shunryu Suzuki, Weatherhill, 1970, page 21).   “Engaging in a new and different art medium, where we may not have expertise, engages our playful human nature.   We are able to view a situation from a fresh perspective, make new connections, and generate creative ideas.  (Making Art of Work article by Dale Schwarz, published in Journal Association for Quality and Participation, Vol. 24, No.1, Spring 2001, Page 56.)

Increasing risk taking
Expressing ourselves visually is an invitation to experiment and take risks without negative consequences.  When you hold a lump of clay in your hand, you don't know what you will create.  When you take a risk, the unexpected emerges.  Practice venturing into an unknown territory and gaining new insights builds capacity for greater risk-taking in other arenas.  Because we are the creators and interpreters of our images, our actions are self-empowering.    We unearth our own insights through our self- made creations.  As one coaching client put it, "With the paintbrush in my hand, I feel I am the master of my world.  I can paint my life the way I want it to be and feel the power to make it happen." 

Art making can also help us become more effective coaches and facilitators.  Part of our preparation as coaches and facilitators is to become more familiar with the unknown.  The more ease and agility we have entering the unknown, the better we can guide others.   

Deepening compassion and personal awareness.  Our visual expressions are a reflection of ourselves at a given moment in time, and they exist outside of ourselves.   Therefore clients can gain perspective, objectivity, and acceptance about themselves through this approach, just as this woman did with her judge drawing.   

Connections between people also tend to deepen when visual images are shared because people feel seen, witnessed and heard by others.  When this occurs we often feel increased compassion for others and for ourselves. In the story above about the courtroom judge, this woman showed compassion toward herself as she described the judge part of herself without condemning herself in the process.  Back in her work setting, this translated into her capacity to intervene on her own behalf when her judgmental behavior and attitudes arose.  

In coaching and facilitation, getting to the core of our own personal issues is often essential for an effective outcome.  These issues are often the under-pinning that causes us, and our clients, to act out of fear and shame, disregarding the skilled facilitator ground rules and behaving in unilaterally controlling ways.  We all have experiences of shame and/or fear caused by earlier shaming and fears instilled by authority figure, (e.g. parents, teachers, religious figures) or by older children/peers.  For example, the shame or humiliation that can result from being reprimanded or laughed at,  in a classroom, for responding with an incorrect answer to a teachers question.  The early defenses we develop are often creative ways of responding to these early experiences. They are creative when we initially form them because they enable us cope with and survive  difficulties. As we get older, we sometimes hold onto what at one time were our creative responses.  Yet as adults, they no longer serve us in attaining our purpose and goals.  These defensive routines become outmoded.  They now represent a survival rather than creative mode of functioning.  When we remain caught in the survival cycle we become our own captors, responding defensively.  (Refer to chapter on "Life Learning Cycle")   

It is often easier to be compassionate towards others.  It is often more challenging to be compassionate towards ourselves.  We can develop our compassion for others and ourselves by addressing our inner critic. We each have an inner critic living inside us that speak up in varying degrees.  Invariably while making art, the inner critic's voice gets louder.  "My drawing doesn't look very good.  Others know how to make pictures, I don't.  I am doing it wrong."  Art making can be a direct route to, and an effective way to arouse our inner critic. It offers us a great opportunity to face and grapple with this aspect of ourselves.   

Though it may seem counter-intuitive, the critical part of ourselves is actually our ally.  Each time we hear our inner critic's voice, we can acknowledge it and make a choice for compassion.  The critical voice is a reminder that we can shift from judgment to compassion. The more frequently we hear that voice, the more opportunities we have.  Growing our compassion helps us take responsibility for our actions and lay less blame on others.  In this way we can offer respect, caring and an appreciation of our struggles.  We can see ourselves through eyes of compassion.   

Once we learn to witness our inner critic and acknowledge its presence, we can ask that part of ourselves to step aside, or offer it a comfortable chair to sit in, while we continue to draw.  We can also converse with our critic to further investigate and learn about this aspect of ourselves. By doing so, we take responsibility for our critical self. When the inner critic arises we can listen and make a choice as to whether or not, or how much power we will give that part of us. Gradually, by paying attention to our inner critic in this way, its strength diminishes, because we can more quickly move through the cycle of acknowledging, choosing and then releasing that part of ourselves. In this way we develop the ability to further empower ourselves and embrace compassion.  

Guidelines for Using Art Experiences:

Proceed with Care
I believe art making can enhance and become an integral part of coaching and facilitation.  This, in fact, had been my experience over the years.  Art exercises can look deceptively simple, yet they are profound and complex.  Skill is required to create a respectful learning environment and to facilitate the discussion about the completed art.  This is why I think a few guidelines are in order.

Emphasize that artistic ability is irrelevant
In this context of visual expression, artistic talent or drawing ability is irrelevant.   I encourage people to make stick figures, symbols, to express realistically or abstractly through shape and color whatever has meaning for them.   Some people prefer to create their own images, others prefer to cut and collage images from magazines or other source material. I remind clients that there is no right or wrong way to express themselves.  All that is required is a willingness to experiment.

Practice Compassion
When making art, it is important to establish a learning environment where compassion is a foundation and an integral part of the culture. It is an environment in which all present are learners and all can practice compassion in the process.  

Additionally, as previously mentioned, when making art we are often taking risks and feel vulnerable about our creations and ourselves.   A compassionate learning environment offers all learners a supportive climate in which to face our inner critic and challenge ourselves to pioneer new ways of behaving.  The learning environment is a laboratory, a place to experiment with new behavior and try them on, to gain freedom from the inner critic. 

Respect Others' Visual Expression
When making art in a coaching or facilitation context respect others' visual expression.  Each person is an expert and authority on his or her own creations. They know and can choose to tell the story of their image and their process, as revealed through their art.  The coach or facilitator, with the client’s permission, can jointly explore the meaning of the image with the client.   We behave respectfully toward the client and their creation when we observe their creation and listen to their explanation.  Our job as coaches and facilitators is to encourage and support the client in making their own meaning of their creations.  

Our genuine curiosity can guide our learning.  We can explore without asserting our personal meaning, analyzing or determining meaning for the client.  Analyzing or interpreting would be making inferences and assumptions about the meaning of another’s creation.  Interpretations, inferences and assumptions are generally subject to our own projections.  Sometimes I will make a mental note of my interpretation as I observe the art and listen to the client's description. At times, my interpretation is accurate.  Other times, I realize how my interpretation applies to me, not the person sitting before me.  The interpretation is my projection. Sometimes my projections are accurate.  Often they are not.

An additional way we show respect is to accept the client’s creations at face value.  These exercises are about the learning process, not about creating works of art.  (Though that is sometimes a by- product.)  It is best to not criticize or compliment the creations, as this can set-up a dynamic of approval/disapproval, linking back to earlier shaming processes.  It places the coach in an evaluator role rather than in the role of a neutral, compassionate learning partner.

Allowing others to interpret their own artwork provides two valuable opportunities:

1) This is an opportunity to practice testing inferences and assumptions.    Suspending interpretation helps us not go up the ladder of inference.   And when you find yourself going up the ladder, you can recognize what is happening and walk yourself  (compassionately) back down.

2) Another important reason to suspend interpretation of other's visual art relates to the mutual learning model and the core value of valid information.  By asking others the meaning of their images we are gaining valid information.  Basing our conversation on valid information rather than our own assumptions or reasoning results in increased learning and trust among all parties.   Trust develops because the clients make themselves vulnerable in the process of doing art and talking about it.   When that vulnerability is handled compassionately and respectfully, the client will increasingly become trustful and open in your presence. 

Test Drive Experiences
To effectively guide art exercises as facilitators and coaches we need to feel fluent with and knowledgeable about the exercises and materials we ask others to use.  We also need to embody the core values and guidelines addressed. This is best achieved by taking yourself through the exercise and then piloting it with others.  Throughout my career, trial runs have greatly enhanced my learning.

Wait for the Green Light 
Art exercises are best used with conscious intention and consent of the participants.  This means that we need to share the purpose and intent of each exercise beforehand so that people can make a clear and conscious choice about their participation.  Making a clear choice to participate enhances internal commitment to both exercise and the entire learning process.             

Prepare for (Expect) the Unexpected 
These exercises are a catalyst, a jumping off point, part of the journey -- not the destination.  People find their own creative responses to these exercises, including leaving the paper blank.  In one session, a participant showed her blank white paper to the group and said, "I sat with the markers and paper and realized the most powerful statement and image I can make is to leave the paper empty.  This expresses how I feel in this team.  Myself and my contributions, are not seen or heard."
 

This article was first released in December 2003.  For more information about the benefits of the art therapy process, contact Dale Schwarz.

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