2020.09 59-3 The Effectiveness of Single Clay Therapy on Adolescence with Negative Emotions
Clay was with the characteristic of moldability. In dealing with negative emotions such as loss, anger, counselor worked through the characteristics of clay to allow client to find internal resourcing and the feeling of empowerment. Negative emotions were expressed and transformed by the clay, and originally unspeakable
emotions can be visualized. And those parts of the original unspeakable can be visualized. For adolescents that were not good at verbal expression, clay has good facilitating effect (Sherwood, 2004). In this study, we use the human face doll deflating ball as warm-up materials and the ultra-light clay as the intervention materials, so that young people through the creative process to achieve the effectiveness of release stress. Data were collected by semi-structure interview and analyzed by thematic analysis. There were five adolescents with negative emotions were interviewed. The interview outline topics included feelings and thoughts about clay creation, impacts for negative emotions, and helpfulness for emotions.
The results showed that (1) It was very helpful for adolescents to use clay plasticity to release stress and transform their emotions from negative to positive. Through different creative and contacting movements with clay, emotional catharsis could be achieved, along with reconnection to positive personal life experiences. (2) Clay, with its characteristics of empowerment and reframing, could stimulate internal needs, self-dialogue, and integration of experiences such as important events in early life, to reconnect to emotions from the past and imagine life experiences in a bright and colorful way. The creative process generates self-dialogue and expresses internal needs, for example: "cases emerged from a state of silence," "the comforting effect of human venting balls," "self-homogeneity through the plasticity of the medium," "the finished product helps rethink the dilemma of life.” The semi-fluid material could enable the re-experiencing and reorganization of the inner emotions; its connotations include "re-framing the meaning of being rejected by peers," "reconstruction of self-confidence," "enhancement of self-awareness ability," and "Reframing emotional expression.". (c) Through the unique characteristics of clay, they could link their inner and outer worlds, time context, and the meaning of their actions, resulting in activating their own inner healing power. Further, according to the study, clay could be used as a medium in counseling situations; however, the choice of clay needs consideration. The sensory feeling of the medium is beneficial for promoting the "re-recovery of the human-face doll discharge balloon," which can be reshaped through the sensory feelings of "beating," "slapping," "pulling," "pressing," and "vision" and "smell," so that the sensation can be re-experience, and thus can catalyze and accelerate the communication of emotions. Concretizing inner feelings represents a "re-reminder of the positive attitude of a particular work to the right full," "a symbol of the power of self-healing within an individual," "a magical self-suggestion and metaphor," and "a buffer bridge to form a link between the parties and emotions." It could also be used as intervention to overcome the negative emotions of adolescents through different art media, to understand the differences, and to apply clay to different groups to study its effectiveness. Based on the results of this study, we provide suggestions for related studies and practical activities of expressive art therapy in the future. For example, use of clay in psychotherapy and counseling processes could enhance personal self-awareness; and to explore the effectiveness of different clay such as oil modeling clay, resin clay, pottery clay and light air dry clay may be applied in art therapy research and to apply in different groups. The limitation of the research was that intervention frequency and the small number of participants resulted in certain effectiveness which was discussed, but should be investigated further in different fields.
Keywords
Adolescence, clay therapy, negative emotion.
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