Drawings Serve as Art Therapy for Children

At first glance, the crayon-colored creations hanging in the Ventura office of the American Red Cross look like typical children’s drawings. But they’re not.

The sketches depict homes with cracked walls and crooked doorways, the twisted remains of the Northridge earthquake. Other drawings show severed freeways and Red Cross shelters--unusual material for elementary-age schoolchildren.

The drawings are examples of art therapy, a technique that counselors have used to encourage youngsters to express their feelings about the earthquake.

“It can be effective, particularly with younger children or children who have a hard time talking about things,” said Don Kingdon, director of the county’s mental health department for children.

Kingdon said art therapy became popular after the Los Angeles riots as a way of getting children to communicate their fears and emotions after a devastating event.

Ventura County mental health counselors started using art therapy immediately after the earthquake by going to shelters where displaced children were in need of assistance.

Counselors asked children to draw scenes from the earthquake on one side of a piece of paper, and draw a place, person or thing that made them feel safe on the other side.

Laura Eaton, an art therapist and Red Cross volunteer, said the sessions were beneficial. “Art therapy is a visual language; it helps people express thoughts and feelings that words can’t,” Eaton said. “When the pain is on the page, the children can gain control of their emotions.”

Parents who sense that their children are still trying to cope in the aftermath of the quake can use art therapy at home, Kingdon said, but added that parents should seek professional assistance if problems persist.

Recurring nightmares, bed-wetting and fear of separation from family members are symptoms of post-traumatic stress, he said.

“There are children in all populations that are at risk, and some of those children will be adversely affected no matter what parents and schools do,” Kingdon said.