I often get asked what records I keep of clients' art. One of the cornerstones of my record keeping is keeping a record of the art produced. In my last blog I looked at who keeps the art, client or coach, and what happens if the client chooses to leave the art behind.
Who keeps the art produced by a client was a great question raised at the last Introduction to Art in Coaching workshop. On the surface the simple answer is the client as the image belongs to them.
Art in coaching has an ability to create transformational shifts in perception, understanding and meaning. Coaching with art enables our clients to access a deeper level of awareness. An awareness that may be unconscious to them and may be really difficult to articulate.
When Sam and I met for her second coaching session, Sam wanted to focus on her feeling of ‘otherness’. This feeling came out very strongly in Sam’s first session when Sam was exploring where she saw herself in the organis
Sam had recently joined a professional organisation as a director to help bring about change and introduce best practice.
The wonderful thing about our left brain is that it helps us to know the world around us by analysing, categorising and labeling that which we encounter. Its has an important role in helping us to maintain a consistent and stable world.
This wonderful exercise can be as long or as short as you like and is great way to take a pause in this helter skelter world we live and work in. The picture above is one of my doodles I did with a biro.
When working with art in coaching, I find that most of the images created by coachees are abstract pieces of work where the colour, textures, mediums and marks made become the language that allows the hidden to come through.
One of the great benefits of working with art is that hidden themes can start to emerge, adding richness and depth to coaching conversations. In this example, the heart motif became a recurring image in this person's work and had significant meaning for them. Emerging themes arise over time and through a number of images.
Art and communication is nothing new. 100,000 years ago human beings came out of Africa, spreading across the whole world, taking with them this amazingly complex brain that we all share today. A brain that drove us then and drives us now to communicate, explore and be creative.
