Therapy Supermarket

By Trafford Publishing

Therapy Supermarket is a self-guided, creative arts workbook:

PART I: Touches on various media, beginning with cartooning, using the alphabet to make a list of different types of therapies we've tried. Whatever comes to mind, then drawing your own version of the subjects (either cartoons, abstract, or whatever goes through your mind), then looking at each drawing and writing a commentary to go with the picture. One by one, moving along to the next cartoon or drawing at your own pace.

PART II: Writing poems as therapy, cruising through the alphabet again, listing names of those who have helped us along the way, expressing gratitude to each one you choose to thank in your own unique style and version.

PART III: Creative directions explores the ongoing process of creativity in our daily lives with various projects, with instructions, such as the Wisdom Calendar, painting Styrofoam ice chests, murals, postcards, and making hand puppets, tetrahedron kites. The last section, Responses, Communication and Feedback, includes a few letters from various readers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Aug 30, 2005
• ISBN: 9781466962507

Book preview

© Copyright 2005 Jane M. Keller.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4120-6277-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-6250-7 (e)

Trafford rev. 09/18/2012

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THERAPY SUPERMARKET

A self-guided Art Therapy Notebook using creative arts of our choice, in the present tense, as the opportunities arise; using the alphabet as a stimulus and outline to return to; keeping afloat on the healing path of creativity; and humor as we organize our thoughts to fit into the big picture of benefitting the direction of evolution for all life on this planet.

Self-guided means that you are in charge. You do the organizing, drawing, painting, cartoons, crafts, interpreting, and writing., rather than some mysterious expert therapist or teacher. These are your notes, your book, and your ideas to be entered into blank notebooks. There are tablets or analyst pads which you can buy at any discount store, either typing paper or regular lined tablets. You can experiment with pens that best suit your needs.

A treasure of arts and humor lies buried within each of us, which we can discover and express, moment by moment. There are no rules or special formula here. We can do whatever we like in Art Therapy, as long as it doesn’t harm others in any way.

Each of us projects our own version of reality as we process what we see and hear through our own unique filter of experience. I see the world through a pair of lenses that is different from yours, and this view is constantly changing. In this way, we are able to keep our balance on this unsteady ship we inhabit, making sense of this wonderful but perplexing alphabet soup we float on.

In our Alphabet Therapy, there is nutrition for heart and soul, waiting for us to taste, smell, and enjoy with gusto and humor, and with peace, love, and happiness in the hope that we can all evolve together in a beneficial path, helping one another to make these healing therapies a part of our ordinary world.

PART I

Cartooning

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A. Acupuncture I

Acupuncture II

B. Biofeedback

C. Cold Turkey

D. Dogs, Pets, And Therapies

E. Experimental Behavior Modification

F. Fortune Telling, Psychic

G. Group Therapy

H. Hang Gliding

Hints From The Past

Hypnosis / Hypnotherapy

I. Intoxication

J. Jungian Analysis

K. Kick The Addiction

L. Lactobacillus

M. Massage

N. New Age Specials

O. Organic Herbs

Origami

P. Pyramid Power

Q. Quitting Smoking

R. Root Canal Removal

S. Speaking In Tongues

Seeing Past Lives

T. Table Tennis

U. Underwater Tai Chi

V. Voo Doo

W. Wheat Grass

X. X-Rated Movies

Y. Yoga And Meditation

Z. Zen

Although the world is full of suffering,

it is also foil of the overcoming of it.

—Helen Keller

ACUPUNCTURE I

My first exposure to acupuncture was in a bungalow where Dr. Dong practiced. The house next door was his home, and he wandered back and forth between his home and his office during the procedure. He stuck about fifty needles in my body and several into the soles of my feet, so I couldn’t get up and run away, even if I wanted to. I lay motionless for thirty minutes, all alone in the bungalow, while the doctor ate his lunch next door. He returned, reeking of fresh garlic, and removed the needles. I can’t remember why I went to him, but I distinctly remember that his rich garlic breath made me hungry and that I sped on to a Chinese restaurant nearby for my favorite triple delight after his treatment. I can still taste the garlic shrimp in my imagination.

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ACUPUNCTURE II

My second acupuncture was by accident in Willcox, Arizona. Someone knocked over a potted cactus plant which somehow stuck me in several places. We decided that I had gotten a free acupuncture treatment. The needles were thin and harmless, and I could swear that the next day my allergy to dust disappeared. This was my first experience with alternative medicine.

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BIOFEEDBACK

Biofeedback must be like meditation, I think. You just let the noise and distraction float through your head like a mist, without judging any of it—staying in that soft spot of vulnerability, without trying, just being in the here and now. It’s so easy. I could go to the dentist and get a filling without any novocaine—just be empty and dive into the center of the pain and stay there. It’s over before you know it, and there’s no problem, so they tell me.

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