In my Capstone A class, I worked with a group to create a mural on our campus grounds.  My group consisted of Abby Carlin-Le, Sam Decker-Hoppen, and myself (Zoë Shulman).  In our mural, we represented the experience of being student art therapists using three major symbols: 1) Abby’s yucca plant, representing grounding and growth through messy tears and fiery adversity, 2) Sam’s cracked golden egg, representing inner metamorphosis and the initiation into our new identities as art therapists, and 3) my zen gem, representing the clarity, transparency, healthy boundaries, and stability that emerge through extreme pressure and personal refinement.  Additionally, Sam’s golden egg is a reference to the Japanese ceramic art of kintsugi, in which broken pieces can become more beautiful through mending.  On the horizon, the blood-red Sangre de Christo Mountains represent the initiate’s journey of being forged through fire.  Up in the night sky, the gold, silver, and green stars bursting from Sam’s golden egg are a creative healing force spreading throughout the universe.  The three yellow stars represent our group contributing to this creative healing force.  I used my six-pointed star sponge to stamp my yellow star and represent my Jewish identity as a Star of David.

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Zooming out, I have considered the power of murals and the inspiration and reflection we initiates wanted to offer the Southwestern College community through our symbolic metaphors.  Altogether, these symbols create the overarching metaphor of our initiation into becoming art therapists and all of the transformational challenges and joys that accompany this process.  For example, the messy tears falling like raindrops help the yucca to grow in its ability to ground itself through fiery adversity.  Another metaphor is the tension between the golden egg and zen gem expressing the need to balance openness and expansion with healthy boundaries and stability.  Such a balance is required to avoid burning out our bright stars and to maintain our altruistic roles as art therapists who can effect greater social change.  In a spatial sense, I think it is fitting that our mural is positioned next to Southwestern College's main campus entrance and exit.  As students enter and exit the campus, they can reflect on what their initiations mean to them as they gradually move out to become part of a larger creative healing force in the world. 
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Please click the image below to download my PDF file and read about my mural process.

My Capstone B project used the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) as a virtual sand tray to represent, process, and integrate my internship experience.  My internship site is Tierra Nueva Counseling Center, and my clients are typically low-income minorities from the greater Santa Fe, New Mexico area.  ACNH is a social simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo.  In ACNH, the player assumes the role of a human character who moves into a rural village populated with anthropomorphic animals.  Gameplay is open-ended; players have no defined objectives and spend their time in the village collecting items to landscape, furnish, and decorate spaces.  Throughout the semester, I played 4 sessions of ACNH, totaling 11 hours of gameplay.

 

During my sessions, I designated an area of my game’s island (e.g., a bedroom in my playable character’s house or a garden plot) and artfully placed objects that represented aspects of my internship that needed deeper processing.  For example, I transformed two of my villagers' houses into therapeutic spaces for my clients and chose interior decor (i.e., wallpaper, flooring, furniture, decorative objects…etc.) and character outfits and expressions that helped me to process my successes and growing edges as an art therapy intern.  I wished to explore how the intentional playing of video games within the social simulation and sandbox genres can replicate or surpass the benefits inherent in sand tray therapy.  By completing this project and publishing the results on my ePortfolio website, I hope to illuminate the value of this virtual therapy for the community.

 

Overall, I found it very helpful and supportive to use ACNH as a virtual sand tray to represent, process, and integrate my internship experience.  Not only had ACNH been a central part of my self-care routine, but playing the game with the intention of integrating my internship experience helped me to represent and process ways that I could improve my therapeutic approaches and interventions with challenging clients.  This combination of self-care and integration supported me in safely exploring solutions and expanding my window of tolerance as a therapist.  By landscaping, furnishing, and decorating spaces within ACNH, I felt I was better able to put myself in my clients’ shoes and increase self-compassion for my countertransference.  For me, ACNH surpassed conventional sand tray therapy in that it allowed me to represent and process my internship experience in an interactive environment.  For example, creating my secret cave garden in a happenstance rainstorm added an unexpected layer of deeper meaning.  Further, being able to interact with the unique personalities of residents in their redecorated homes helped me process my interpersonal relationships with specific clients.  These moments of in-game magic are what made my Capstone B project the most fun!

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Please click the image and video below to read and watch my project presentation.