Art & Addiction (The Other AA)
Hey, it’s Rebecca! I’m excited to announce Half Full’s very first weekly art therapy group, Art & Addiction (The Other AA), beginning on Sunday, June 28th!
Art & Addiction (The Other AA) will address substance use disorders using art therapy directives in a group setting. Directives will be focused on building insight into factors that contribute to substance use as well as identifying alternative coping skills to be utilized in response to cravings and urges to use.
Collage and drawing will be the primary artistic mediums used in group and all materials will be provided. In the first session, participants will create a collage as a means of getting to know each other and the art materials. A second collage focused on identifying coping skills and working through all or nothing thinking will be created later on in the group process. In addition to collage, participants will utilize markers and colored pencils in structured art tasks, such as tracing hands and writing inside and outside the traced shape. As with any art therapy, what the end product looks like does not matter at all, and you don’t have to be “good” at art to participate! The goal is to use art to explore and practice coping strategies and you will never be judged or graded on whatever you make.
This group will be facilitated by me (Rebecca Ebben-Shultz LCPC ATR-BC), drawing (no pun intended!) from my experience working with substance use disorders in both inpatient and outpatient settings. I began my career in this field running art therapy groups in a substance use treatment setting in 2018. I worked in a program that offered many alternative treatments for substance use, including not only art therapy but also SMART recovery groups, brainspotting, and acupuncture. These eclectic approaches were influential on my view of substance use treatment, especially in the ways art can be used to reject the “one size fits all” narrative of recovery. I was trained in REBT while working in this substance use treatment setting and I continue to draw from behavioral approaches when utilizing art therapy to treat substance use disorders.
Art & Addiction (The Other AA) will take place in-person in the conference room across from the Half Full office at 2650 W Montrose; the group will be capped at 6 participants due to space. This will be a 6 week group, every Sunday at 6pm, spanning from June 28th to August 9th, with no group on the holiday weekend of July 5th. Attendees should also be age 18 and older. The cost per group session is sliding scale between $20 and $50.
If you are interested in participating or have any other questions, please reach out to me at rebecca@half-full-therapy.com !
♡ Rebecca
