She's smiling

GH session: I am very happy to see that a young patient, Sifa started to talk to me after I play with her for few times. Last week she begun to respond to me by nod and shake her head to tell me what she wants and does not want. This week, she can verbally tell me what she wants to play and take the initiative to interact with me while playing her puzzle. Even it just a small breakthrough, but it gave me a sense of accomplishment. It is glad to see that she is getting healthier and can walk around the room. =）

therapeutic storytelling

As we doing our play therapy in general hospital, another activity we can do to interact with the kids there is story telling. We can convey our message by using metaphor and imagery in the story to change the way the kids see their lives and the world, at the same time offering healing and growth to them. The story can be an encouragement and comfort for the kids. So today, Alex teaches us about narrative skills in story telling such as how to maintain eye contact with all the participant, get their attention, physically and mentally prepare them to listen story and etc.. The most important thing is the story teller has to enjoy telling a story. In order to make the story more interesting, the story teller has to add adjective and description in story to the children. This is to help the children more involve in the story and  visualize the story. We are actually given the chance to tell a story in front of the ‘kids’. The story i choose to tell is about the prodigal son. What Alex said is true that kids might feel hard to connect themselves with the story. Thus in order to relate the story to their age, I change the ‘father’ to ‘Daddy Rabbit’ in the story. When we playing different roles in the story, we need to pay attention to our voice and tone. It is to differentiate which character we are playing.  

      Another thing we can do is puppet playing. We can either use the puppet to tell the story or use the puppet to interact with the kids. Again, we have role play in puppet playing. Each of us have the change to play/talk to the puppet and showing an emotion by using puppet. I never though it can be so challenging. Puppet is not just we play with it by using part of our hand but the whole self have to be commited into the role. In the past, my understanding about narrative skills is how we create and tell a story. But from the training today, I get to know more about the therapeutic technique about storytelling and how we choose a story. One particular thing that I need to remind myself is my speed. When I talk, I used to talk fast. I have to slow down my speed in my speech else the children or my client might not manage to get what I trying to tell and if I talk too fast, they seems to have hard time following me. It’s time to me to prepare one story in mind so that I can use this technique to approach the kids there. Alex suggested the story can be related to how to dealing with pain as the kids were suffering from physical pain. By doing so, the story can be valuable source of healing for kids.  

the doll has something to say (this is not a ghost story)

I love what has been learnt today as it’s something new and useful for me that I can apply it for my next hospital session. When there’s patient that only focus on his or her playing without interacting with me, normally what I will do is sit next to him or her and observe how he or she is playing. What I thinking is, I will not forcing the client to interact with me if he or she is uncomfortable to play with me. I will let him or her play alone. But today what Alex has taught is like a ‘that is so!’ in my head.  When the client is unwilling interact with us, what we can do is modeling; we follow what he or she is doing. We get the same object with the client and imitate the way he or she is playing.  By doing so, we begin to build up the connection. We can even send our message to the client through the object. This also can get the client’s attention in what we are doing rather than being passive. What we can do is we talk to the object what we actually want the patient to know.      Alex even requires us to get attach with a doll. It’s kind of weird at the beginning as there are so many eyes are looking at me. But as I take some times to really feel the doll, to sense what kind of feelings that I have when I holding the doll, somehow I manage to involve myself into the role. The open armed doll makes me feel accepted and welcomed. As I let her lay down on my shoulder, I feel both of us are closely related. This also reminds me I used to talk to my doll in the past. I guess there’s why I manage to connect with the doll easily. Another issue that I need to overcome is doing it without care about how people might respond to my behavior. It’s true that the first thing come into my mind when seeing a lady talking alone to the doll is ‘I think she is mentally deranged. But if I really wish to get connected with the children patients, this is something that I need to overcome.

play session

As I observe the way sue plays, she reminds me about compliance personality. I was surprised a compliance personality can be so obvious in a six years old kid. She is systematic and organizes in her playing. She wants very thing to be accurate just like the moment she drawing the straight line.  Min See tells us that this can be part of her personality but also may because of the expression of her psychological needs. When Sue cannot control the real life situation (such as her father remarry issue), she will try to control those things that she can control. Throughout the session Sue did not show any sign of self-harm behavior, she is very quiet and polite instead.  She is very passive and didn’t talk much with us, only talk to us when she needs something. Most of time she talking with herself; even I tried to draw near I still couldn’t heard clearly what she is saying. When she wants to play at another corner of the room, she didn't directly tells us she wants go move over there. She will look at the corner and waiting for us to ask her. Min See told us that this is because she need affirmation/assurance to do something. I personally feel comfortable to play with Sue even though she did not talk much with me. Working with children in the play session requires more attention and observation, because we not just playing with them but we have to be aware of what the children trying to tell us from the toy they choose, the way they play and so on. 

ALS homework

What I see in the picture is a black lady with long eye lashes, wearing white colour dress with white hanging earring. She has black long hair tied by white flower hair decoration. Closed eye.

Her hands is open up, butterfly stay on both hands. there 14 colourful butterflies in the picture. The background colour of this picture is green and yellow. 

self-others-ideal

-how i see my self-

I'm introvert people

compare to hanging out with a group of people,

I prefer to being alone and have some self talk or journaling, reading, listen to music.

I'm being loved and taking care of

-How I think others see me-

others often regards me as extrovert people, sociable and easy get along with

-My ideal self-

 

I hope that I can be more open up myself and connected deeply with people around 

 instead of being love, I hope that I can express more of my love to people that I appreciate. 

The reason that I choose two cards to represent my own perception about myself and my ideal self is because both card also can exactly represent my thought. There are obvious contrast between how I see myself and how I think people sees me. People often get shock when I telling them that I enjoy being alone. In front of others I can be very talkative, making fun around but this does not mean that I can't enjoy loneliness. Being extrovert is my persona, it this the mask that I choose to show to the world.  I do hope myself can be more open to those people that is love me so that I can connected with them and sensitive to their needs. The contrast for this is in the card I choose to represent how I see myself is just one person in the card but when come to ideal-self it become four people. Another picture that I choose to represent myself is the picture with small plant and the ideal-self is the small plant become a flower and the hand that is open up represent giving. 

the flower stone

A stone is staying under the sea happily. The sea is her comfort zone; the stone is safe in the sea. Every stone will transform into a brilliant flower. But if after the stone turn into flower, she will being attacked by insect and strong wind. Insect will eat her leafs and wind will makes her sick.   So the stone refuses to turn herself into flower, she chooses to stay in her comfort zone. Then the leaf around the stone encourages her, give her support. Day by day, by the nutriment of the leaf, the stone willing to risk herself and become seedling at last.

I actually didn’t think much of what I want to draw after I draw a stone in beginning of the story. So let the feeling leads me. Instead of drawing an ordinary stone, I want the stone to be different. Because I love something that is special, that is out of ordinary. It also represent each of us is special and unique. For me, sea reminds me about freedom and calm, so I think it is the best place for the storm to stay; hiding under the sea. When I was asked to think of the mission for the stone, I really can’t think of any of them. What does the mission a stone ever had? == Again, let my unconscious lead me. Draw whatever that comes into my mind- a flower. It might be sound ridiculous for a stone to become a flower, but the thing I like about arts is I can throw away all the logical thinking and give free rein to my imagination.

Then I realize, I am the stone. For me, stone is strong, did not show up its weakness and emotion and keep everything inside. I see myself as a stone in the past. I can be very tough, efficient and independent in order to protect myself from being hurt. I thought it was a right choice to make but I started to lose my heart.  I set a very strong boundary between myself and others, just like detached personality. The only thing is know is I must protect myself.

But then, I see the purpose of my life in to love. There’s something that only Eve alone can offer to this world. I draw a flower to represent the beauty that only women can give to this world. The beauty does not refer to the appearance but something internality. I have to admit that I am social creatures who yearn to belong. And here come the challenge; to love we have to open up ourselves and its risk taking. We might be hurt, rejected and disappointed. Just like the insects will eat the leaf and the leaf will lose part of itself.  The leaf represents God and the good friend around me.   They encourage me in order to love and loved, I have to risk myself. God will be my resource to love and to open up my heart. At last, the stone begin to sprout. I now manage to open up myself and express my love to people. 

Then the time came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. 

<Anais Nin>

After I complete the last drawing, I come to realize it’s not a stone, it’s a seed.

I’m not a stone, I’m a seed who meant for blooming =)