ABSTRACT
During a co-led art therapy session, a ten-year-old child suffering a mood disorder attempted to draw a cat and ended up with a stereotyped cartoon version that he erased over and over again. Frustrated, he expressed to his intern (a student on placement) a wish to create a picture of the cat, which it turned out was recently deceased. The intern began by having the child describe his cat in detail as a kind of meditation prior to art making. This guided imagery-type exercise went well until it was time to draw. Try as he might the child found his own drawing to be `like a baby's': so cartoonish and immature that he put his pencil down in despair. A skilled and gifted artist, the intern drew a sketch of a cat based upon the child's description, though in a very realistic, anatomically correct style in a dynamic pose. The child took one look at this masterful drawing and dropped his head into his hands, giving up altogether. Some moments later she reported that her supervisor at the placement, who was co-leading the group, intervened by creating another image in pro®le as per the child's request. This drawing recalled the style of a ten-year-old who was still childish and stereotypical in form, yet it possessed the essential characteristics and proportions of a cat. The art therapist left the details of the face just faintly sketched and without expression ± a kind of tabla rasa cat that could be adopted by the child and re®tted according to his own memory of his cherished pet. The child did indeed take up this sketch and began to superimpose his own concept of a cat on top of the art therapist's form. As it turned out, the outcome was a cat that seemed to evoke more person than pet ± its face simple and childlike, yet also realistic (Figure 5.1). Whilst the cat may seem somewhat stereotyped, he was enormously pleased with it ± proudly stating that this picture `is just like my cat '. In discussing this session with her supervisor, the student was distressed that her therapeutic intervention had foundered. They had a long-standing trusting relationship at this site, which enabled her to re¯ect upon her intervention as a constructive learning experience rather than construe it as a personal attack. Later, at the university in
supervision with this author, she was able to expand upon her re¯ections in a more academic setting.
