TERAPI TANAH LIAT

DISEDIAKAN OLEH :

ANISHA A/P BHARATHI DASANKALPANA A/P LECHUMANAN

VITHIYAAVATHY A/P NITTIANATHAM

CHILDREN Difficult for children to access their feelings at a verbal level

Do not have the cognitive or verbal ability to express what they are feeling in a manner that can be expressed into

words

So, how to get into the world the children?

CLAYAn important

tool for therapist

One of the primary devices for helping clients to explore

difficult concepts and express fundamental

emotions in a non verbal manner

Children are naturally attracted

Strong expressive medium and is ideal

for enhancing children’s

development and holistic learning.

Clay involves a very primal mode of expression and communication as it involves touching.

• Touch is the way in which feelings are communicated and experienced.

• The sense of touch is closely linked to early attachment.

• Help children or adults not only to explore their early attachment bonds but also help them examine and look at their current relationships.

• Allow the clients see their inner trauma and places of wounding.

• Using clay put the client in touch with primitive sensations and emotion.

• Clay is cathartic - allows the child to express an array of emotions. • Catharsis allows for the release of previously restrained and

interrupted affective release via emotional expression such as pounding clay.• Particularly soothing • Useful for releasing tension • Safe outlet for frustration and aggression • Working with clay could function as a control window to these

unconscious non verbal representations and maybe helpful with people who find it hard to express themselves verbally or who are defensive.

Psychological relief through the open expression

• Clay is malleable and three dimensional and it can become anything a child wants it to become. • It can embody a representational

form or an abstract one.• Creating different forms can help a

child find a way of expressing their inner emotions and thoughts.

Example of RELEASE OF ANGER• He was referred to play therapy as he had some difficulties mixing with other

children in the school. He became very aggressive and anger at times and the school were concerned. His mother said he appeared sad a lot of the time. He was an only child who lived alone with his mother. His parents were young when he was born and his father is drug addict. His father has been in and out of prison due to his drug addiction. He does see his father but it is very irregularly and he has come to see him as an acquaintance rather than a father. He used to just come into the room and throw the clay at the board. I noticed he did this when he was annoyed or angry about something not necessarily his father but something that had happen in school or if he was anger with his mother or teachers. He eventually made it into a game. He drew a circle on the board and the nearer he threw the clay to the centre of the circle the more points he received.

Example of OUTLET TO EXPRESS THEM IN A NON VERBAL WAY.

• Clay being an earthy medium by its very nature can take a lot of anger and rage. Clay in therapy provides a medium to work through issues such as anger, grief, and fear and move the client on in their therapeutic process. Another client used the clay to represent lot of different emotions. The client was a ten year old girl that lived with her mother, her brother and half sister in a disadvantaged area in the city. Her parents had separated two years previously and at the time the sessions commenced she was having difficulty accepting the situation. Her father and his new girlfriend had a baby and he moved in with her and created a new family unit. She did not consider herself to be part of this new family and over the course of the sessions she became more isolated from her father and felt abandoned by him. She had difficulty using any of the tool kit but when the clay was introduced she used to throw at the board and the walls. She used feel energised and it would improve her mood. Interestingly, in the latter phrase of her play therapy she began to make smiley faces. On one occasion she used the clay to do this. This client found it very difficult to talk about her real feelings so I felt the clay gave her an outlet to express them in a non verbal way.

Creativity

Need very little skill – X

failure.

Non directive – no

boundaries

Focus on the process

Unlimited opportunities to create, through the construction of clay -

gain a sense of confidence and self

efficacy that boasts their SELF ESTEEM.

Freely express in a confident

matter and with out restraint

Children see themselves as

capable of engaging in a truly purposeful

activity.

Group work• Using clay can also be a very social activity. • When appropriate, groups of children with similar presenting

concerns are encouraged to interact together verbal communication skills, confidence and social skills are developed and promoted. • Children will often exchange ideas and suggestions on how

something can be made, and being able to show another child how to make something can be particularly rewarding. • Co-operation and sharing of ideas in groups promotes a sense of

identity and a sense of belonging.

Example of USING CLAY IN GROUPS IS VERY PRODUCTIVE IN PROMPTING DISCUSSIONS

ABOUT FEELINGS AND RELATIONSHIPS

• An interesting observation

• One of the girls in the group made an ashtray for her father she spoke to the group of how she was very worried he would die if he didn’t stop smoking. These revelations led to another member of the group opening up about her fears for her mother who also smokes.

Using clay as a metaphor• Allows a client to access to their unconscious• Metaphors are a more effective way of capturing meaning than

talking. • The use of metaphors allows for the exploration of client’s social and

emotional difficulties without having to confront the issues directly or resort to negative criticism by creating symbolic equivalents to their thoughts feelings and behaviours.

LIMITATIONS• In order to use clay as a suitable therapeutic medium it is important

that the child has some ability in to think abstractly• Therapists often feel under confident in terms of using clay \which is

probably one of the reason that it is absent from many therapists tool kits. • Therapists should spend time getting to know the medium and feel

what is like working with it personally.

10 Great Reasons Why Children Should Be Playing With Clay

It's Therapeutic

Learning the value of

excellence and discipline

Facilitates Emotional Expression

Promotes sensory

development

It’s called Play-based learning!

Improves social skills

Creative Explorations in colour

Learning creative

symbolism in a fun way

Promotes a holistic left &

right brain development

THANK YOU!