Yesterday, I decided that I needed to play… so, I got my oil paints and let the process flow.  I didn’t know what I would make, or what it would look like, and this stormy mixture arrived on my page!

The creative process asks that we act from somewhere other than our thinking mind. From a neurological perspective, creativity occurs in the same area of the brain as emotions, vision and memories – the temporal lobe.

When we allow ourselves, and our children, to play creatively we give them a chance to bring their inner world out. This process helps them communicate their experience, which is considered by many a vital aspect of well-being for us complex human beings. When there is no goal, no learning objective, and certainly no demand for good sitting or good handwriting, we get a glimpse of the truth of a person. It might be a masterpiece, it might be a mess, it might be pretty, ugly or an unordered chaos. But we don’t need to understand, judge, or interpret it – we can simply appreciate that a creation has emerged and celebrate the process for itself!

Growing Me uses Art Therapy principles for the content of its toolkit. The Grownup is guided to witness and accept their child’s creation as an externalisation of their unique and valued experience.