When Kristi Conner, a therapist at Sound Mental Health, began using Chill & Spill with some of her teenage clients, she was thrilled to see it working right away.

“I was originally drawn to Chill & Spill because I have a bachelor’s degree in arts,” says Kristi. “Whenever I can, I like to tie art in as a different form of expressing yourself.”

Kristi found out about Art with Heart through some of her colleagues. After attending a training, she began using Chill & Spill with some of her younger clients, and is planning on trying it out with some of her adult clients as well. She likes that the book offers both structure and flexibility.

During the activity “I Really, Really Feel…” Kristi gives her clients the option to write their own mission statement, make a collage, write a poem, or use another form of creative expression. She told me the story of one teenager who was struggling to find the motivation to do well in school.

“When she started circling words that surprised her, it was like it flipped a switch in her head,” says Kristi. “With one word, she was able to see her take on school in a much different way.” Kristi is happy to report that her client is now doing fine and has not had the need to return to therapy.

We are thrilled to continue to hear stories like this of the transformational power of our books and hope to hear from you as well!

I wanted to let you know the work you do is an inspiration! I receive your newsletters and have followed what has been happening with Art with Heart for a couple of years now. It is so wonderful to connect with like minded people who believe in the power of Art and creativity. When researching Art Therapy resources for my own practice, I came across your wonderful organization and ordered your ‘Chill & Spill’ journals. They have been an incredible tool to assist me in numerous places where I have facilitated Art Therapy Workshops. Since graduating with a diploma in Art Therapy five years ago, I have had some interesting experiences using art as a healing and community-building tool – particularly during my time in the Philippines and working with Indigenous Australians. This image (left) is from Blue Gum Community School in Canberra. Chill & Spill has inspired our daily relaxations and visualizations. The “Fly Away” activity especially has helped me understand the children’s home life and therefore some of the challenging behaviors that have been occurring. The use of metaphor is so powerful, the children love expressing themselves in this way and we learn so much about them as human beings. When I lived and worked in Manila as an art teacher at the International School a couple years ago, some fellow teachers and I started a volunteer project where we facilitated expressive art workshops for street children. It was amazing to see the children go from being so unsure about even making a mark on a canvas to being so confident in taking risks with color and experimenting with different techniques. There self-esteem increased as well as the potential for breaking out of the poverty cycle they have been a part of. Many saying that they wanted to sell their artwork! The photos (right) were from a workshop inspired by Chill & Spill’s “My Place” visualization activity. So, yes…your work has spread to the other side of the world! The last photo (left)  is myself with a group of students who participate in my weekly expressive art workshops for Bungee, a resilience-building program for young people at risk of mental health issues. Chill & Spill again has inspired many of my workshops. Once rapport has been built with the help of Chill & Spill, I facilitate many collaborative activities where children create art together to foster the idea of community.  They use lots of recycled items to make sculptures –a mermaid made out of CD’s; a whale made out of woven plastic bags. etc. I have promoted your resources to many teachers and Art Therapists here in Australia. I will be coming to Seattle in August and would love to visit the source of Chil & Spill’s inspiration!

The foundation is dedicated to empowering organizations that improve the quality of life for under-served, underprivileged, or impoverished people. Their 2010 giving focus was on organizations that empower children – and Art with Heart fit the bill!

Helena Hillinga Haas is a founding board member of the organization, and was introduced to Art with Heart’s work through our Art Buddy training. She  introduced Art with Heart to the membership and championed our work through the grant process. Huge thanks to Helena for helping to make this grant possible!

This donation, along with gifts from the Kismet Foundation and Paul & Debbie Brainerd, bring us closer to our goal of being able to help 20,000 more teens through the healing gift of the expressive arts. If you would like to contribute and help youth in crisis, please DONATE TODAY!

Colby has witnessed and been inspired by the impact of Art with Heart’s therapeutic journal Chill & Spill has had on teens, and in result is “ordering them like a lunatic” to ensure that she always has a backup supply. She attests that the unique journaling process aids in providing a transformational experience for pregnant teens; as they work through feelings of shame, articulate the journey they are on, and turn their fear into celebration.

In an environment where much of the daily interaction is about vital signs and questions like, “Did you take your vitamins?” or “How are you feeling today?” – books like Chill & Spill acknowledge the psychological dimension of the teens’ health and well-being and allow them to delve into their feelings.

The journal process is often a private one.  As Colby states, ”sometimes they share, sometimes they don’t”, but the acceptance and openness that the process fosters for young moms-to-be instill confidence and self-awareness that has proven to be invaluable.

One of the most positive effects that Colby has noticed since introducing the Art with Heart curriculum is the buy-in from her staff.   Chill & Spill has made tangible the positive impact of patient reflection to otherwise skeptical hospital employees.  ”If the staff doesn’t own it or engage with it,” says Sarah, “its not going to happen.” Yet, she has found that when effective resources such as Art with Heart’s therapeutic books are provided, “others will gather around it and give it life.”

So what’s the next arts-inspired project to be born out of the Teen Pregnancy Center? Belly casting is due out next year.

Participants gained an awareness of the hospital experience from a child’s perspective, and engaged in writing, drawing, and collage exercises to deepen their understanding of how to use Art with Heart’s therapeutic books in ways that build trust, encourage creativity, and help reduce fear of the hospital experience.

All workshop attendees are eligible to become Art Buddies at Swedish Medical Center. Art Buddy volunteers work under the leadership of Evi Feltus, and spend time creating art with patients and their families.

Art Buddy workshops at Swedish Medical Center are now held quarterly, so if you weren’t able to join us this time, you’ll have 2 more opportunities this year! The next workshop date is TBA, so now is the perfect time to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter, to stay informed for all upcoming events.

Soul stirring aptly describes my day in Soweto facilitating a Chill & Spill workshop with 20 girls I’ve grown to care for as my younger sisters.

Dawn broke on a rainy, gray and cold start to our winter. I drove from Johannesburg, parked my car on the outskirts of Soweto and transferred my art materials and sandwiches into a taxi.  I watched the contrasting views – from tin shacks in squatter camps to newly built houses – until I arrived at a small, cold room deep in the heart of this intriguing township.

The girls trickled in, wet and chilly, and we all exchanged welcoming hugs. Slowly the room transformed into an energized and creative vibe. The warmth of our sisterhood embraced us.

We brought out our Chill & Spill books and chatted about the next activity – about how each girl sees herself, how others see her and how she would like to be seen. Portraits of self-reflection. This is significant, as these girls have had their photos posted on the internet. They wonder what Art with Heart’s readers are thinking about them. It’s a long distance relationship, in a way unknown and unseen.  Some don’t have access to computers and rely on me as their mediator, their informant. I’m honored to hold their trust.

This is a space where a girl who has given birth to a child can leave her responsibilities behind and be the young girl she still is. This is the space where a girl who was raped can be held and comforted. This is the space where a talented young woman who hasn’t found the opportunity for tertiary education can escape her cleaner’s job and explore her creative abilities.  This is a space for respite from poverty and its consequences.

This is a space where a girl can ask me to please keep her painted portrait safe. She can’t take it home to the shack she shares with her granny, because the roof leaks and she doesn’t want her artwork to get spoiled by rainwater.

Each portrait paints a unique picture of a girl in Soweto – her dreams, her aspirations, her challenges, her abilities. I wrapped the precious portraits and carried them home. This is not a tourist’s journey. This is reality.  This is a portrait of South Africa’s extreme complexity and contrast, through the eyes of a girl reflected in a woman.

I have written this blog as if I was writing in my own Chill & Spill journal.  It’s my own personal reflection and I hope it gives you a glimpse into the humanity of our group.

On a recent Saturday, a small room in Soweto was filled with a wonderful creative spirit. A group of young women, all orphans between the ages of 13 and 18, enjoyed a Chill & Spill workshop themed ‘From Our Hearts to Yours.’ I adapt all of our activities to fit relevant issues related to their lives here in South Africa, as they hail from an area which suffers from poverty, unemployment, child-headed households resulting from the HIV/Aids pandemic, crime, and teen pregnancy. They all live with guardians or are in foster care.

I chose to form this group as I believe strongly in the ‘girl effect’ – if we can uplift and empower young women the entire community benefits. There is a great need for a safe space to communicate what’s going on in their lives and we do it by providing a place for creativity, peer support, and a sense of ‘belonging’. Five of the group members had already received Chill & Spill journals six months previously when the group first began. Our group, named Mekgabiso Ya Pelo (“Art with Heart” in SeSotho), has grown and now there are 20 of us!

During our Saturday session, the new group met, and there was a grateful exchange of energy as they each received a Chill & Spill journal and art materials gifted by Art with Heart. I very much enjoyed giving the gifts to them.

February is the month of love, and so we focused on the love and care that each young woman can give to herself. Our theme was a variation on the ‘Me, Myself & I’ activity in Chill & Spill. I believe our potential is expressed through the quality of our experiences, so we discussed self-awareness, being good to ourselves, and loving who we are. It is important for each young woman to feel seen, validated and indelibly connected to each other through a sense of abundance.

I hope that the presence of a caring adult provides a sense of safety from which these young women can set out to discover and grow. I am touching just a few, but I hope that my touch is a significant one. Thank you to Art with Heart for their encouragement and for reaching out to us in South Africa!

Art with Heart would also like to thank The Sammamish Club for making this possible!

Youth worker Babylonia told us, “We lead a diverse group of  middle schoolers – a good portion of them are at-risk and off track. Many of them live in neighborhoods rife with violence and struggle internally with anger and confusion.”

She asked Art with Heart to participate because she felt that a workshop on non-violent expression would be very good for the Heroes.  She was particularly interested in having Art with Heart do an activity out of Chill & Spill so they could learn how to use creativity as an effective outlet to deal with the issues facing them. She continues, “It would be very relevant to our topic, and would be a way to finally engage the kids in art in our program!”

Their service topic was “The Roots of Conflict,” and they covered youth violence, gang/community violence, and methods of peaceful communication. Art with Heart invited Dr. Ana Sierra, a child & community psychologist with 30+ years experience in the field to lead the workshop. She has been an avid supporter and contributor to Art With Heart since first discovering “Oodles of Doodles” many years ago.

Dr. Ana led all 55 students in Chill & Spill’s “Powerful/Powerless” activity, focusing on their strengths. She then asked them to use these strengths as a starting point for an “Exquisite Corpse” poem.

Babylonia told us that she was amazed at how much the students shared when they were done. “I’ve never seen them want to share so much! It was amazing.”

Ana recalls, “Our Young Heroes learned strategies to access their deep, knowing selves and express their precious pearls of experience and wisdom. As they learn to connect with their communities in active, compassionate ways, Chill & Spill activities prepare them for this important work by helping them to know themselves better, act confidently, and react peacefully.”

You can contact Dr. Ana Maria Sierra at 253-686-5184.

Last week we did “My Place.” Every time I’ve done this activity with a group, I have to sort of feel around for the frame of reference. But with this group I felt like I was just going along for the ride.

All of them knew right away what their special place was, some were real, some imaginary, some an amalgam. And most of them already had a lot of practice of going to their special place when things were tough.

I was mesmerized by their descriptions of their places and how they brought in so many of the senses. Listening to them, I could smell and, in some case, even taste what they were describing. When we talked about the activity afterward, the main focus was on ways we can solidify the place in our minds so we can go there any time. So we decided that next week (today) we would do collages of our special spaces to really help us see them.

I also started recruitment for a second group, to start next week. That one will be all boys, since this one turned out to be all girls.

Christine Valdez is a Prevention and Intervention Specialist at Anacortes Middle School who has been using Chill & Spill for over two years now. We’ve asked her to send us her updates and will post them here as she has time to share:

I started a new Chill & Spill series with a group of four 7th and 8th grade girls. Two of them have past experience with C&S, one individually and one in a group.

We did the first activity, “Writing and Drawing Can Help You Figure Stuff Out.” Because our time is very short, I’m trying to keep my talking to a minimum. So I just gave them the basic instructions about confidentiality and stressed that I have two things that are big with me:

1. Whatever comes out, comes out. Just let it.
2. Keep the pen (crayon, pencil, marker, whatever..) on the paper.

Some great stuff can come out at the point where you think you’re done. And that’s what they did as they sprawled all over the room. Afterward, we shared just a little and they were off to their next class.
I haven’t done a group since last June and it was great to be back. Looking forward to the next session! More to come!