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Clay Making

Media Process: Clay making

Population: Adults Disorder: Substance related/ Addiction disorder


 

The topic of accessibility since March has been in the forefront of my mind, as well as everyone else’s. These experiences or exploring different crafts at home, while it has been enjoyable, has been frustratingly eye opening. For our week focusing on clay, I had very little to no ingredients to make any one recipe that was listed. The only bread I had needed to last the rest of the week and through that experience alone it helped me gain a greater understanding of how a lack of resources and access can be detrimental to progress within a therapeutic setting or relationship. The clay I wound up creating was not ideal, nor would it withstand much, and I thought the metaphorical intricacies within this experience were infinite. My process was one of trial and error but what I found to be the most promising with the limited resources I had was a combination of wall spackling, coconut oil and flour.

This created a fluffy play-doh type consistency, just with more stickiness. I built the clay up around pieces of glass from a broken bowl and began carving into each piece. I had not intended to do this but set myself up with the creative freedom to explore with clay and a lot of different materials and tools that were handy. The population I gravitated towards is adults with addiction disorders. While reading Craft in Art Therapy (2020) what stuck out to me most was mention of a group member stating “You can make the clay into anything. The process is somewhat like your life. You can build your life into anything, depending on how you mold it” (p. 68). I specifically chose to work with adults who have substance abuse related addiction and not behavior related addiction because as some studies have shown, there may be distinguishable differences in how different types of additions may stem from specific processes that are linked to personality development (Zilberman, et al., 2018). Although there would be no harm done by using clay with individuals who have more behaviorally addictive disorders, for this specific purpose I will be focusing on substance abuse related addiction. Oftentimes those who are experiencing symptoms related to addiction recovery also experience immense feelings of shame and guilt. Both creating clay with resources at home and working with clay as a medium within an impatient setting I think can be greatly beneficial to the individual's recovery. Like stated above in the quote pulled from Craft in Art Therapy, clay properties allow for free exploration of shape, meaning and permanence. You can mold it into anything, and this parallels quite beautifully with the concept of life. Within this context it would also be necessary as a therapist to maintain a firm grasp on the client or patient's life through a curious and informed sociocultural lens.

 


References:



Leone, L. (Ed.). (2020). Craft in Art Therapy: Diverse Approaches to the Transformative Power of Craft Materials and Methods. Routledge.


Zilberman, N., Yadid, G., Efrati, Y., Neumark, Y., Rassovsky, Y. (2018). Addictive Behaviors: Personality profiles of substance and behavioral addictions. (82), 174-181.


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