Keene State’s Wellness Center staff is getting creative with the forms of counseling offered to students.
One of the therapy groups running throughout the spring 2024 semester is “Art for Self Awareness,” an art therapy process group led by intern counselor Molly Hoekman and counselor Bridget Love.
“Art for Self Awareness” meets Wednesdays from 4 to 5:30 p.m., according to posters found around campus. The group’s first meeting on Feb. 14 was an introduction and brought in four participants, according to Hoekman.
“Six to eight is really a great size for a group,” Hoekman said. “We want it to be small and intimate enough that people feel comfortable speaking up and have the time and space to do so without feeling like they’re not being heard.”
Last semester, an art therapy group called “Creating and Connecting” ran through the Wellness Center, according to Hoekman. “Art for Self Awareness” is a successor to the group with several changes made to the program’s function.
“Creating and Connecting … was really meant to be a place where people could come together with a shared interest of creativity and artistic process,” Hoekman said. “This semester, we’re taking more of a targeted approach at understanding and offering art directives that can support individuals in their self-awareness and their identity.”
Hoekman cited a sense of stability as one of the reasons for switching from a drop-in support group style art therapy program to a process group model. According to Hoekman, a constantly fluctuating lineup of participants will also cause the group’s chemistry to fluctuate, which can generate feelings of unsafety. In a more consistent group, that sense of unsafety is kept under greater control.
The first directive the group will use, which was touched upon in the first meeting, is one of inside and outside masks, Hoekman explained. Student participants will use art to explore how they perceive themselves as well as how they feel others perceive them.
Another example of what Hoekman said they hope to do with the group is blind contour drawing, where participants draw without being able to see their own work until after it is completed.
“What happens in those situations is we’re not focused on the product on what we’re making,” Hoekman said. “We’re focused on the process so much more … Art can be a really great avenue to access those nonverbal things or to get underneath that cognitive strain that we put on ourselves … We’re not worried about it looking ‘good.’”
Hoekman said the directives used in art therapy can be seen across many forms of counseling, whether used in a group setting or one-on-one. She also stressed the importance of letting group participants have control over what happens in the group.
“Everybody contributes to a group,” Hoekman said. “It’s not up to the group facilitators to make it happen. We’re certainly a catalyst and support in getting things going, but like it’s just so much fun to sit back and see everybody show up as themselves in that moment.”
Charlotte King can be contacted at
cking@kscequinox.com
