Introduction
- Since ancient times, in both the East and West, certain flowers have been considered symbols of the Higher Human Self. In China, such a flower was the French troubadour, so wonderfully sung by Dante, the rose depicted in the middle of the cross and is a symbol of a number of spiritual traditions.
Usually the Supreme is symbolized by a flower already in bloom, and although this image is static in nature, its visualization can serve as a good stimulus and awaken strength. But even more stimulating processes in the higher spheres of our consciousness are the dynamic image of a flower - the development from a bud to an open rose.
Such a dynamic symbol corresponds to the inner reality that underlies the development and unfolding of man and all processes of nature. It brings together the energy inherent in all living things and the tension emanating from within a person, which tells him to participate in the process of constant growth and evolution. This internal life force and is the means that completely frees our consciousness and leads to the opening of our spiritual center, our Highest.
Execution order
1. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and relax.
2. Imagine a rose bush with a lot of flowers and unopened buds... Now turn your attention to one of the buds. It is still completely closed, surrounded by a green cup, but at its very top a pink tip is already noticeable. Focus your attention completely on this image, keeping it at the center of your awareness.
3. Now very slowly the green calyx begins to open. It is already clear that it consists of individual cup-shaped leaves, which gradually move away from each other and bend downward, revealing pink petals that still remain closed. The sepals continue to open, and you can now see the entire bud.
4. Now the petals also begin to open, slowly unfolding until they turn into a fully blossomed flower... Try to feel how this rose smells, feel its characteristic, unique aroma.
5. Now imagine that a ray of sun fell on a rose. He gives her his warmth and light... For some time, continue to keep the rose illuminated by the sun in the center of your attention.
6. Look into the very core of the flower. You will see the face of a wise creature appear there. It is full of understanding and love for you.
7. Talk to him about what is important to you in this moment life. Feel free to ask about what worries you most right now. It could be some life problems, questions of choice and direction of movement. Try to use this time to find out everything you need to know. (You can even pause here and write down what you learn. Try to develop and deepen the revelations that have been given to you.)
8. Now identify yourself with the rose. Imagine. that you have become this rose or have absorbed this entire flower... Realize that the rose and the wise being are always with you and that you can turn to them at any time and take advantage of some of their qualities. Symbolically, you are this rose, this flower. The same force that breathes life into the Universe and created the rose gives you the opportunity to develop your most cherished essence and all that comes from it.
It turns out that many flowers have been symbols of the Higher Spiritual Self since ancient times.
IN different cultures these are the most beautiful flowers: lotus (India), golden flower (China), rose (European countries, Persia).
Often the image of the Higher Self is associated with a blooming flower and is used in spiritual practices.
The progressive process itself from a bud to a blossoming flower symbolically means development, transformation, access to more high level, evolution.
Visualization, a step-by-step representation of this metamorphosis - the transformation of a bud into a beautiful rose, helps to launch the process of change and progress through stimulation of the higher spheres of our consciousness.
This opens our spiritual center and channels which release the inner life force.
Execution technique meditation " rose bush» .
1. Take a comfortable position. It's better to sit. Close your eyes, achieve complete relaxation, inhale deeply and exhale several times.
2. Create in your imagination a rose bush, strewn with a large number of roses and unopened buds. Fix your attention on one of the buds. It is still covered with green petals, but a light pink tip has already appeared on its top. Focus on this image, the center of your attention is in it.
3. Observe how the green petals of the calyx slowly and smoothly begin to open. They gradually move away from each other and curl downward, revealing to our gaze delicate pink petals that have not yet opened, but the bud is already trembling with the strength and energy contained in it. We see all its beauty and fragility. 
4. The pink petals of the bud gradually begin to open. They smoothly and slowly unfold and turn into a blooming rose. Feel the aroma of a blooming flower, inhale and fill all the cells of your body with it.
5. Now imagine that a ray fell on this delicate pink flower rising sun. He warms him with his warmth and light. Focus your imagination on this image - on a rose illuminated by the sun.
6. Look into the middle of the rose and you will notice how the face of a wise being appears there, which radiates understanding and love for you.
7. Trust him, tell him what worries you now, what problems you are solving, what difficulties you need to overcome, what choice to make. Take advantage of this moment to understand something important and new for yourself. (Here you can take a break in order to write down this wisdom, feel it, let it pass through yourself, delve into it and reveal it even more.)
8. Now reunite with the rose. You are a pink flower. Realize this. Realize that this rose and spiritual being is always within you. You have access to them at any moment in your life; you can take advantage of their universal wisdom, knowledge, and energy. This life-creating power that created this beautiful flower will allow you to develop your true essence and everything that comes with it.
This helps you understand and follow your true values. Good luck!
For you, the video “How a Rose Blooms.”
P.S. Friends, visit the site, read the latest publications and find out who is in the TOP of the best commentators of the current month.
Methodology
The study consisted of three stages: relaxation using mental imagery, drawing and post-drawing survey, and was carried out by one researcher (a university graduate). One-hour meetings were held with each child.
Relaxation using mental images. Based on mental images of a rosebush, a ten-minute tape on relaxation through visualization was prepared (Oaklander, 1978; Stevens, 1971). Students were expected to project different facets of their personality onto the image of the rose bush. The children were told that the tape was intended to develop their imagination. After relaxation, the children were asked to imagine themselves in the image of a rose bush and pay attention to the flowers, leaves, stems and branches.
Drawing. After relaxation using mental imagery, children were given a piece of blank paper (8 1/2 x 11 inches) a simple pencil and a set of twelve colored pencils. Children were asked to draw what they imagined during the guided visualization process.
Poll after drawing. After drawing, the researcher asked the children 11 questions about how they felt when they imagined themselves as a rose bush. These questions included: “What are you like? Tell me about your Flowers, leaves and roots. Who is looking after you?
All answers were recorded on tape for further recording and evaluation. At the same time, the researcher paid attention to the children’s behavior during the entire procedure, taking into account such points as the place on the paper from which they began to draw. Each child was assigned a code number, and therefore the researcher did not know whether the children were classified as advantaged or disadvantaged.
Data analysis
The data for each child was assessed based on the classification and analysis of drawings and statements.
Analysis of drawings. The analysis of the drawings was carried out on the basis of the method developed by Elkish (1960) of contrasting pairs of positive and negative characteristics. These characteristics include the interdependencies between rhythm and rule, integration and disintegration.
"Rhythm" involves the use of flexible dashed lines to depict a tree and indicates free movement of the hand and a pleasant distribution of proportions of the subject of the image. The “rule” indicates a constrained, uneven movement of the hand, which is often purely mechanical. “Integration” conveys a sense of a whole in which all objects have their place. It demonstrates the ability to establish relationships, combine and organize. “Disintegration” indicates carelessness and the use of disparate, unrelated objects. Carelessness and disunity cannot create a sense of unity. Disadvantaged children showed more signs of the categories of rule (rigidity) and disintegration (carelessness) than prosperous children.
Prosperous children tended to reflect very positive images in their drawings: a rose bush in bloom, the sun in the sky, and positive aspects of nature. For example, one prosperous child I drew a bush covered with roses and a bird that was carrying a worm in its beak to its chicks, located on this bush. At the bottom of the picture there are tiny trees and a rabbit (Fig. 4.1).
On the other hand, the drawings and statements of children with sexual trauma indicated the dominance of the following three themes: a) sexual images - “there are a lot of caterpillar larvae on the leaves”; b) violence against the self - “the dog is going to lick the flower, the hand is going to grab the flower, the flower does not want to be touched”; c) protection - many rose bushes are surrounded by a palisade, about which the children said: “a woodcutter came and tried to cut me down, but I didn’t let him.” Such drawings often reflected a threat to the central symbol and its protection with the help of strong fences (Fig. 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4). For example, a rose bush behind a secure fence was drawn by a girl who had been anally raped (Figure 4.5).
In contrast to children with sexually traumatized children, the battered child drew a picture that reflected severe physical violence. In particular, one such child drew a picture of a broken road that led to a house with broken windows and bolted doors. Even when a rose bush (with large thorns) was placed in the foreground of the painting, it looked tiny compared to other objects in it (Fig. 4.6).
Of all the disadvantaged children, only the neglected child drew a cut rose bush, placing it in the center of the picture in a glass vase with a small amount of water. There was no image of other objects in the drawing, and therefore the picture gave the impression of scarcity and emptiness (Fig. 4.7).
Analysis of statements. After receiving all the answers to the questions asked after drawing and mentally imagining the image of a rosebush, the researcher made a series of descriptive comparisons between the statements of the advantaged and disadvantaged children. These statements were distributed into three groups: positive, neutral and negative.
Table 1 shows that advantaged children projected a confident self-image, a relationship between positive associations and touching experiences, the ability to stand up for oneself, and a tendency to view their environment as pleasant and friendly. In contrast, dysfunctional children used words to describe negative self-images, the relationship between painful associations and touching experiences, and a highly aggressive, hostile environment that included Destructive Caregivers (gardeners).
In the hands of counselors, the rosebush strategy serves as a reliable analytical tool for identifying children who have been or are being sexually abused. The rose bush symbolizes the emotional essence of the child. In such cases, abused children draw pictures of the rose bush as being completely protected by a fence and use language that indicates sexual or physical abuse. The projective technique often allows you to get useful information however, it must be used with the greatest caution. Counselors interested in using this technique should receive specific training under the guidance of an experienced supervisor.
Rose bush visualization and drawing techniques can be used in group work with students. In such cases, students discuss their drawings, and the consultant can spend a few minutes with each child.
Rosebush: Guided Fantasy
Close your eyes. Just feel your body. Forget about what is happening around you... think only about what is happening inside you. Think about breathing... you feel the air flowing through your mouth into your chest. Imagine that your breath is like soft waves rolling onto the shore... Each wave brings you peace.
Focus on right hand. You feel your hand getting heavier... The heaviness spreads down your arm and reaches your fingertips... Focus on your right leg... You feel your leg getting heavier... the heaviness goes down and reaches your foot... Focus on your left leg... You feel how it fills with heaviness... The heaviness falls down and reaches the foot... Your body relaxes and fills with heaviness...
Focus on your thoughts and images... (pause)... place them in a glass container and observe them... (pause) examine them. New thoughts and images appear in your mind and you also place them in a glass vessel... Think about what you can learn about them... Now you need to take the vessel and pour thoughts and images out of it; watch how they spread and disappear (pause)... the vessel becomes empty...
Now imagine that each of you has turned into a rose bush. Try to find out what it means to be a rosebush... What kind of bush are you?.. Big?... Small?.. Wide?.. Tall?.. Do you have flowers?.. If so, which ones?.. What kind Do you have stems and branches?.. What are your roots like? (pause)... or do you have no roots?.. If you have roots, what are they like?.. Long and straight?.. Twisted?.. Do they go deep into the ground?.. Look around (pause). .. where are you?.. In the yard?.. In the park?.. In the desert?.. In the city?.. Outside the city?.. In the middle of the ocean?.. Are you in a vessel or growing in the ground?.. To be maybe you are breaking through concrete?.. Growing inside something?.. Look around (pause)... What do you see?.. Other flowers?.. Are you alone?.. Are there trees nearby?.. Animals? .. People?.. Birds?.. Do you look like a rose bush or something else?.. Isn’t there a fence enclosing you?.. Who is looking after you?.. What is the weather now?
How do you perceive life?.. How do you feel?.. What happens to you when the seasons change?.. Don't forget that you are a rosebush. Determine your attitude towards your life and what is happening to you.
In a few minutes, I will ask you to open your eyes and draw a picture of yourself as a rose bush. Then I will ask you some questions. You will tell me about the drawing as if you were a rosebush (long pause)... Are you ready? Open your eyes and draw a rose bush.
Survey of children after finishing drawing a rosebush
Question 1: What kind of rose bush are you and what do you look like?
Question 2: Tell me about your flowers.
Question 3: Tell me about your leaves.
Question 4: Tell me about your stems and branches.
Question 5: Do you have thorns? If yes, then tell me about them. If not, then tell me how you defend yourself. Are you a good or evil bush?
Question 6: Tell me about your roots.
Question 7: Tell me where you live. What objects surround you? Do you like living where you are?
Question 8: Do you think you look like a rosebush or something else? If yes, what are you like?
Question 9: Who is caring for you? Do you like it? How do they look after you?
Question 10: How do you feel about the current weather? What happens to you when the seasons change?
Question 11: How do you feel as a rosebush? How do you live as a bush?
I wonder how to start this story. I already wrote about interpretation once projective techniques. At this point we can look at some very live material. It presents not only the technique itself, but also a certain story from the client about what he did. That is, the verbal projection of the client himself.
In my opinion, this is especially interesting, since everything is very clear. “Rose bush” technique. Here is the drawing.
And a fairy tale that was born from the client as an addition and story about this bush.
A fairy tale about a rose bush.
One day, on a high mountain plain, a shoot of rose sprang up; he was very happy that it was growing in such a beautiful place-if he looked in one direction, then as far as his eyes could see, he saw blue sky and the green of grass and mosses merging with it.
If he looked in the opposite direction, he saw mountain peaks rising to the very horizon. There was one thing that was not very convenient in this place - the blowing strong winds, therefore, no matter what it was broken, the bush began to grow along the ground - it spread its branches and flowers along the plain, it covered itself with moss and grass.
Since it grew almost on the very edge of the high-mountain plain, its branches gradually began to hang down and adorned the gray, silent rocks. And the rose bush was happy that it was so appropriate here that it could add its own colors to this picture.
He rejoiced at the sun that warmed him, he rejoiced at the rain that watered him, he even rejoiced at the wind that swayed his branches along the rocks, like a swing. He really enjoyed living and growing up there. True, sometimes he got bored, he would like to share this peace and tranquility with someone.
Far from the cliff stood a large stone castle, it was as gray as the rocks, just as hard and impregnable. He protected his owners well from bad weather. Three people lived there: two boys and a man.
Gradually the branches of the bush began to reach their castle and they were very happy about the new colors on their plain. They enjoyed admiring the beauty of roses and inhaling their scent, mixed with the smell of mountains and mosses.
The boys never plucked his flowers, as if they understood that he would be in pain, they simply lay down next to him and, inhaling the scent of roses, looked at the sky as the clouds changed their bizarre shapes. The man came to the cliff and admired how the bush decorated and diversified the landscape of the plain and how the branches of the bush descended lower and lower from the rocks.
"Wow!" - he thought, “Who would have thought that such a whimsical plant could live in the mountains, where there is no other vegetation except mosses and grass! Who would have thought that a wild bush would grow, crawling along the ground so that the winds and heavy rains would not break it!”
The man was grateful to both nature and the bush for appearing in their lives. The bush, feeling the love and support of these men, became bolder in its growth. And soon their entire wonderful stone house, right up to the roof, was entwined with branches of blooming branches of roses."
An interesting tale and the drawing itself. Such a drawing spoke of some emerging well-being, of some expansion of the sphere of influence and boundaries. But, there were some reservations with which the client agreed. The world that the “rose” strives for.
There is a certain message to it (this World): “Be careful with me. Admire me, don't hurt me." The fairy tale says that they only looked at the rose, no one did it harm, as if they knew that the rose would be hurt.
Also, with all the riot of colors and spread throughout the territory, the rose has no roots. Although they are present in the client’s imagination, they are definitely not depicted - it’s like a message about replenishing energy.The area is large, the bush is rich, and this requires energy.
The conclusion is to think about where to get it from. real life? A source that will help replenish energy costs to achieve the goal. It should be noted that the fairy tale stipulates that the area is not at all suitable for a rose; the plant’s survival conditions are difficult.
Moreover, it is amazing how the rose itself grows. She doesn't grow up, doesn't have the opportunity, then found new way creative adaptation, it grows in breadth, fills space in a different way, and seeks attention.
So in life, a person managed to find ways to realize himself, to creatively adapt to life’s ups and downs.
Here's a little about art therapy and how it works.
Systematized description of well-known technology
Maria Lekareva-Bozenenkova
The technique is used to study the method of contact; during the work, two people are involved - a psychologist and a client, family members or group members, divided into pairs. The operating instructions are as follows:
“You are two people, and you have one sheet of paper - this is a space for communication. Everyone can do what they see fit on it. There is no standard that you have to achieve, it is not at all necessary that you get a common or joint drawing. Drawings can be both concrete and completely abstract - even dots, even circles. You should not agree on anything at the beginning or negotiate during the drawing process. You can reflect everything that happens on paper. It is advisable that you be as attentive as possible to yourself and to what is happening - what in your partner’s actions on paper evokes your feelings - joy, surprise, resentment, bewilderment, anger? How do you respond? What comes up in the next step?”
3-5 minutes are allotted for the drawing. Partners can then discuss with each other what they felt, what they were trying to convey to each other - and how successful they were. The facilitator can translate these conversations into individual work, asking questions about how much what happened in contact with a partner on paper is similar to the method of contact this person in his real life.
However, in addition to the participants' responses, there is another, statistical possibility of analysis. All drawings can be divided into 4 groups, in accordance with the methods of organizing or breaking contact.
1. Maintaining a neutral zone (avoiding contact).
Both participants drew something of their own in their corner or on their half of the sheet of paper. Usually the sheet is not specifically delimited - however, between the two drawings there is a strip of white paper that has not been disturbed by any of the participants. Most often, the authors’ explanations for this method of contact are related to the fear of making contact or the reluctance to let anyone into their territory. A very common case is when both participants have the idea that the other partner does not want violations in his pattern or penetration into his territory (the surprise of both participants that each partner was waiting for an initiative or invitation from the other may turn out to be mutual) .
2. Completing the elements of someone else’s drawing (checking contact).
Both participants draw mainly on their own territory, but there are more or less timid attempts to complete an element or color a small fragment of someone else’s drawing. The initial stage of contact, with a gradual decrease in anxiety about an unexpected reaction or dissatisfaction of the partner.
3. Joint drawing (mutual contact), receiving pleasure from the possibility of interaction or mutual understanding. On paper, either a joint thematic drawing or many separate but interconnected partner drawings can appear.
4. Seizing territory (breaking contact). A less common type of organization of contact is when one of the partners (even more rarely, both) begins to draw on the entire sheet of paper, on top of the partner’s drawings, crossing them out or using them as details of his drawing and completely ignoring the partner’s reaction. Dominant, turning into an aggressive style of communication, usually accompanied by many conflicts in real life.
The use of this technique is very effective both in a group, where it illustrates the way of establishing or breaking contact with strangers or unfamiliar people, and in established relationships - marital, child-parent, business. However, for psychotherapeutic use it is necessary to ask very detailed questions about the thoughts and feelings of each of the participants, especially in the case where the result on paper looks like a “joint drawing”, since in fact for one of the participants the drawing may reflect some form of disturbance contact, but this will become clear only with verbal comments.
“Rose Bush”
(From the experience of a child psychologist working with imagesusing the example of directional visualization)
Elena Klimova
I take a child’s fantasies seriously, considering them an expression of his feelings.
V. Oklander “Windows into the world of a child”
It is imperative to weed out baobabs every day, as soon as they can be distinguished from rose bushes. Their young shoots are almost identical.
Antoine Saint Exupéry “The Little Prince”
The article turned out to be the same - without a clear division into subtopics, with slips and frequent returns to what has already been said, interspersed with quoting classics and not always justified examples - which is natural. Moreover, the main content of the article - in an unabridged form for publication - consists of children's drawings and stories - this is the main thing, and here and now I am putting on display only my thoughts and feelings about this main thing.
About ten years ago, when I started working as a child psychologist-practitioner, I with great pleasure, although blindly, without any special training, “expanded the channel” of working with fantasy, the development of imagination, movement to music, and various “magical transformations.” " On this path, I often came across images of the Growing One spontaneously “produced” by children: either a tree growing from an acorn, or a flower or blade of grass growing from a seed, or a bud exposing its cheeks to the sun, or a blossoming, stretching rose...
Children, be they three-year-olds or six-year-olds, responded with pleasure and readiness to both my proposals to “transform” or “be a leaf, a flower, a tree in the forest or in a clearing, etc.”, and joyfully and tirelessly offered their images : “Let’s play as if we…” In the way the children “lived and worked” in the images of something growing - growing from a small grain or seed, blossoming, bending in the wind or basking in the sun, unfolding its buds and branches , or, conversely, shedding its leaves - I have always witnessed with my own eyes the realization of a living childhood need to express oneself, the desire to “grow into the world” and at the same time “grow within oneself” - to communicate with oneself, with one’s feelings and experiences. .
Already with the youngest, three-year-old children, we were engaged in a kind of psychophysical gymnastics - compression and straightening, stretching and relaxation of both the whole body and its individual parts - a kind of massage of the “body sense”.
For example, by tensing their fists or pressing their hands tightly to their chest and leaning forward, children depicted the state of an immature kidney, which, although hard to the touch, was, as one little girl said, having felt and realized her body through this image, “still warm.” inside". Then, slowly or quickly - everyone has their own way of growing - but still gradually straightening the petal-leaves drawn with the hands, the head or the whole body, the miracle of growth made itself felt through children's bodies.
Growing up in a clearing with mushrooms, flowers, magical plants, each child was different, special, listened to himself and could then, if he wanted, tell what he was like: by color, size, what his name was. We stopped in the clearing at each “plant”, peered into the details, the characteristics of each: what gestures it has, what its smell is, what its voice is. Of course, our “plants” could talk, because children are close and understand this fabulousness, the ability to see the invisible, to communicate with trees and animals.
Then I learned from L. Krol about the technique of “detailed perception” - mental movement from general to detail, from abstract to concrete, from figure to background - used by hypnotherapists to induce trance, and from V. Oklander that children (especially with low self-esteem) “need many forms of activity, including gaining experience in analyzing the similarities between themselves and other objects... By realizing the significance of differences, they can begin to evaluate themselves differently, as well as see others in a new light, and become better connected to it.”
“Feel what kind of roots you have, how water and food for your leaves move through them, what kind of stem (trunk) you have, leaves. How are you growing? How do you feel about sunlight and warmth? Perhaps you are turning towards the sunlight? Maybe you're turning away from him? What does the wind do to you? Are you bending in the wind? Do you expose your leaves to the warm wind? Do you swing like on a swing? etc.,” I slightly directed, supporting the “flow” coming from the children, always leaving the right to choose “where and how to grow” to the child.
Themes of a flowering meadow, forest, river, rain and sun, as well as a trip to a mountain or a cave, constantly sounded in our work. I “swimmed” in them with the children with great pleasure, swimming further and further away from the diagnostic work and preparation for school “descended from above” that I disliked. For me, the real “preparation for school” was the development in children of the ability to play with imagination, which improves both their adaptive capabilities and the learning process...
Then, increasingly mastering and thereby strengthening (deepening or expanding?) the banks of my working channel, I discovered a new, therapeutic facet in my work. After all, the process of fantasy - the way a child thinks and acts in his fantasy, made-up world, reflects his behavior and thinking in the real, “real” world. And we can penetrate into the inner world of a child through his fantasies, through them the child reveals to us what he will not tell in plain text: what he avoids, what is hidden in him, what he expects from the environment. And in this regard, it is possible to create conditions conducive to fantasy, and use fantasy as a therapeutic tool.
After some time, I wanted to “feed” on someone else’s experience gained in this direction, especially since I became more and more interested in studying Gestalt therapy and psychodrama. I didn’t manage to read much, since I read well - alas! - only in Russian. But what I managed to find supported and made me happy. How delighted I was with the “bicycles and other means of transportation” I invented in collaboration with “my” children, having discovered their perfect initial versions in the books of famous psychologists and psychotherapists that had finally begun to be published.
First of all, of course, V. Oklander. If you become interested, it turns out that it exists! – the “Rose Bush” technique, I began to find its description from other authors. I found various modifications from V. Steward, D. Allan, H. Leiner.
William Steward in the book “Working with Images and Symbols in psychological counseling” says wonderfully that “imaginative work... helps turn the negative into the positive”, that “what clients say using images and symbols is often closer to the emotional truth than what is said through the Ego... One of the fascinating characteristics of travel according to the images is that the client is everyone actors in the internal theater - the author of the play, the director, the producer and the performers... It is important to remember that the client creates in his imagination what is meaningful to him in some way.”
Steward identifies three levels of guided imagery work, each with six “core” themes, which he calls “guides that adapt to the situation and the client.” In the first level I also found the topic of “Rose Bush” that interested me.
Here is what W. Steward writes about this theme: “The rose, like the lotus, is often used to personify the core of human existence, and the opening rose often symbolizes the unfolding psyche... If the rosebush is taken as a personification of personality, it is easier to see how the theme can be used... Pink a bush in full bloom says one thing, a rose in winter says something else, and a bush on which all the flowers have withered and drooped says something else.”
But V. Steward describes his work only with adult clients, without mentioning anything about children.
But the “most childlike” of all psychotherapists, Violet Oaklander, in “Windows on the Child’s World” devoted an entire section in the chapter “Drawing and Fantasy” to the “Rosebush” technique. I had little interest in projective tests as diagnostic techniques; I was much more interested in their use for therapeutic purposes. I have always, first of all, seen in them material that releases and stimulates the expression of what is inside a person. And I “at first sight” fell in love with Violet Oaklander, who works with test materials in the same way as with “stories, drawings, sandbox or dreams.”
“I often use the fantasy with the rose bush,” writes V. Oaklander (and I use the words of her “instructions” in my work; I like it the most, although Allan offers his own, in my opinion, less vivid), “I ask children close their eyes, enter their space and imagine themselves as a rose bush. When I work with these types of fantasies, I give lots of hints and suggestions. possible options. Children with pronounced psychological defenses, often in a state of tension, need such proposals in order to reveal themselves in creative associations. They choose the offers that suit them best, or realize that they can consider other options. So I say:
“What kind of rose bush are you?
Are you very small? You are big? Are you curvy? You are tall?
Are you wearing flowers? If so, which ones? (They don't have to be roses.)
What color are your flowers? Do you have a lot of them or just a few?
Are your flowers fully bloomed or are you just in buds?
Do you have leaves? What are they? What do your stem and branches look like?
What do your roots look like?.. Or maybe you don’t have them?
If so, are they long and straight or curvy? Are they deep?
Do you have thorns?
Where are you? In the courtyard? In the park? In a desert? In the city? In the country? In the middle of the ocean?
Are you in some kind of vessel, or growing in the ground, or making your way through the asphalt?
Are you outside or inside something? What surrounds you?
Are there other flowers there or are you alone?
Are there trees there? Animals? Birds?
Is there anything like a hedge around you?
If so, what does it look like? Or are you in the open?
What is it like to be a rosebush?
How do you support your existence? Is anyone looking after you?
What is the weather now: favorable or not?”
Then I ask the children to open their eyes and, when they are ready, draw their rose bushes. As a rule, I add: “Don’t worry about whether you draw well; the main thing is that you can explain to me what you drew.” Then, when the child describes his drawing to me, I write down the description. I ask him to describe the rose bush in the present tense, as if he is the bush now. Sometimes during the description I ask additional questions. After finishing the description, I read each statement and ask the child how much his statements on behalf of the rose bush correspond to his own life ... "
Then, in John Allan’s book “Landscape of a Child’s Soul,” I found Additional materials to using “Rose Bush” and more detailed description techniques. In his description, everything sounded more severe and academic, compared to the “flying gait” of V. Oklander, but I am grateful to him for his purely practical approach and the clarity and detail of his presentation.
Allan, in connection with specific work on the use of the “rosebush visualization strategy to identify possible child maltreatment,” notes that successful children project a confident self-image, the relationship between positive associations and touching experiences, the ability to stand up for themselves, and a tendency to consider your surroundings as pleasant and friendly. In contrast, disadvantaged children used words to describe negative self-images, the relationship between painful associations and touching experiences, and highest degree aggressive, hostile environment.
I was pleased and supported by the fact that I, like Allan, “gave” the children “Rosebush” after preliminary relaxation. And sometimes it turned out that the very process of imagining oneself in the role of a rosebush in our classes was a relaxation exercise, preparing children for further work, often directly and not related to the “Bush.”
I found characteristics - marks that help me when observing not only a child’s drawing, but also the child’s movement as a whole, in the same work by Allan. Here they are:
Freedom, flexibility of movements and lines, pleasant proportionality or their mechanicalness, stiffness, unevenness.
The completeness and detail of the drawing or its scarcity.
A feeling of space, openness in the drawing or a feeling of “scrupulous pettiness and crampedness.”
The feeling of a whole in which all objects take their place, giving confidence that the child is able to establish relationships, combine and organize, or the carelessness and disunity of the details of the drawing, “knocking the ground” from under the feeling of unity.
In such a direction of psychotherapeutic influence as symboldrama, or “emotionally conditioned experience of images,” characteristic feature is to offer the patient a certain theme for the crystallization of his figurative fantasy - the so-called motive for presenting an image. From the many possible motives that most often spontaneously arise in patients, those that, from a diagnostic point of view, most relevantly reflect the internal psychodynamic state and at the same time have the strongest psychotherapeutic effect were selected. The founder of symboldrama, German psychotherapist H. Leiner, offers the “flower” motif among the main motifs of symboldrama for children and adolescents. “A flower,” he writes, “should be outlined in all details, describe its color, size, shape, describe what is visible if you look into the calyx of the flower. It is also important to describe the emotional tone that comes directly from the flower. You should ask the child to try to imagine touching the cup of a flower with the tip of his finger and describe his tactile sensations. The most commonly represented flowers include a red or yellow tulip, a red rose, a sunflower, and a chamomile. It is important to invite the child to trace, moving down the stem, where the flower is: whether it grows in the ground, stands in a vase, or appears in a cut form, hanging on some indeterminate background. Next, you should ask what is around, what the sky is like, what the weather is like, what time of year, how the child feels in the image and at what age he feels.”
Both W. Oaklander and D. Allan describe the use of the Rosebush technique with school-age and high school-age children.
I used this technique, “arranging” it with Gestalt therapeutic and psychodramatic elements, in group and individual work with preschoolers from three to six to seven years old. Very important point in working with such young children who are sincerely and completely involved (in the full sense of the word) in the work-game offered to them by a psychologist, is, in my opinion, reliance on a holistic approach, by which I mean the connection between visualizations and movement, imagination and bodily sensations, as well as reliance on the so-called synaesthetic sensations: the relationship and mutual support of auditory, visual, kinesthetic, tactile, and taste sensations.
Often, when I asked the children to imagine themselves in the form of rose bushes, they did not sit, were not motionless, but, on the contrary, moved - each in their “own space” and their own rhythm - to music that was either imaginary and “own” for each child, or “given” by me. They covered their eyes or left them open at will.
By the time “The Bush” was offered to them, the children were already familiar with the concept of “their own space.” So, three-year-olds, when I suggested that everyone find “their own space,” with pleasure and concentration they dispersed, scattered, crawled in different directions, wherever they liked: in the corner or in the middle of the room, still keeping in sight those who were next to them who is most pleasant to them. Then they began to spin around with their arms outstretched to the sides, as if marking “their” place in space, where you feel good, and you don’t bother or push anyone. Only when they were in “their own space” did small children more easily and freely accept the play offered by adults, relax, and “transform.” Most often, they drew in the same place, convenient and chosen by themselves.
If the work was carried out with a group of children, along the way, I sat down (or “leaned up”) to a child who was ready to talk about his drawing, and talked with him. Often after this, other, already “listened to” children, interested in the stories or images of their neighbors, sat down with me next to the next child. At the end of the lesson, which could include not only work with the “bush,” the children expressed a desire to draw on or correct something in their drawing.
Sometimes it happened that what was expressed and drawn was directly embodied by psychodramatic means and resulted in a psychodramatic vignette. That is, the very visualization and drawing of one’s fantasy on the theme of a “rose bush” was a kind of warm-up in psychodramatic terminology. Then, during the development stage, the child, who became the protagonist for some time, “revitalized” his drawing with the help of other children and the use of the surrounding space and available means: pieces of fabric, cardboard, etc.
The child protagonists inhaled the scent of their rose, felt “to the touch and from the inside” their flowers and stems, talked and changed roles with the characters caring for them or threatening them, grew thorns, and if necessary, eliminated them, strengthened their roots, tied up their stem, erected or destroyed protective walls around themselves as a bush, felt the support of the stems of plants growing nearby, felt for themselves what it was like to fall asleep and fall asleep in the fall, and wake up again in the spring... At the end, during the sharing, the children shared their experiences and feelings, affected and manifested during “ main stage”dramas.
In this way, children learned to be interested and have a positive attitude towards their own inner world and the inner world of others, since through the expression of their feelings and the reflection of their feelings in others, they began to recognize and accept these feelings.
“In the process of therapy, the therapist has the opportunity to return the child’s sense of self, to rid him of everyday performance about oneself, which arises as a result of the loss of this feeling... there is a chance to give the child a sense of his own potential, to feel at home in the world around him.”
I can rightfully call these words of V. Oklander my own, too; I felt their correctness and completeness, in particular, growing my own “Rose Bush” and communicating with “Rose Bushes” at the age of three to six years.
I’ll withdraw into myself and that’s it. I don't care about the world. - And the Snail crawled into its shell and closed itself in it.
How sad! - said the Rosebush. “And I would like to, but I can’t withdraw into myself.” Everything is breaking out for me, bursting out like roses...
G. H. Andersen “Snail and Roses”
Due to the scope of the article, which limits my ability to show real works of children, with great difficulty (all interesting!) I chose only a few example illustrations, accompanying them with comments... Unfortunately, the specifics of the work within the framework educational institution did not always give me the opportunity to continue the actual therapeutic part of the process. In italics, I highlighted important, in my opinion, key words or expressions in the children’s statements about their drawings, which were used in some way or could be used in further work.
It's interesting in itself and necessary work a thoughtful and “scientific” analysis of the content and execution of children’s drawings would require “written work” of a completely different order, I do not set myself such a task now and show only “raw material” from which each practicing psychologist could build on in his own way.
Sharing the views of Gestalt therapists, I took (or would have done, if the opportunity or need to continue the work had presented itself) steps that were conducive to the child’s self-expression and the manifestation of his feelings. I asked (or could have asked) the child to be this or that part of the drawing, a certain line or color, helping him solve the problem of restoring contacts with his sensations, body, feelings, thoughts. She proposed (or could have proposed) to speak on behalf of the parts of the picture - touching or distant from each other - to conduct a dialogue between them. The figure for us was (would be) important things brought to the fore by the child himself or “in my opinion.” I asked older children careful questions to help them “attribute to themselves” what he was saying on behalf of the depicted rose bush. The process of drawing itself is always important and inseparable from the “result” for me: in what pose, with what facial expression, silently or with comments, quickly or slowly, etc.
Often projection is the only way in which a child expresses himself...
V.Oklander
Olya - a real Thumbelina, very small and thin even for her little over three years old - was brought to classes by her parents - middle-aged and “strange” not only in their manner of dressing, but also in their manner of communicating, or rather, not communicating. Little by little, from meeting to meeting, from individual words that Olya’s mother honored me with, I learned that she still feeds her daughter only kefir and white bread, and occasionally gives her fruit: “After all, she’s grown up!” Otherwise you’ll cook, you’ll waste time and food, but she won’t eat”; walks with her very little: “It’s more useful to read books, but at the sandbox they only offend.” The girl, except for her parents and sometimes her grandmother, does not communicate with anyone. Mom, still realizing the “wrongness” of the current situation, gathered all her strength and brought her daughter to “work with others”: “Otherwise she will be the same as my husband and I, it’s better not to.”
For several classes, Olechka sat huddled on a chair in the corner, never got up from it and looked with live horror in her eyes at the children approaching her. Often I had to pick her up and conduct classes like that, fortunately, she had the weight of a feather. She slowly started talking, but only with me, began to get up and step around the chair, then take toys from the hands of other children. Olya’s speech turned out to be very rich and emotional, albeit with a bookish vocabulary.
After classes with “Rose Bush” and others like it, the girl noticeably relaxed, began to smile, answer children’s questions, and move more. Here's her story.
“I am a red rose bush. And this is the rag below.
These are the letters that are my name.
And this is such a sun. These are the dots to make me look beautiful.
This is how I dressed myself up.
This is a toy meant to be played with.
And these below are insects, as if it were summer.
These are swallows, as if they arrive in the summer. They are friends with the bush.
This is what I tell them: “Hello!”
And next to me is such a child, I also say to him: “Hello!”
Everyone wants to be told “hello!”
(Do you have thorns?) Yes. (Show me where they are!) No. (Would you like to have thorns?) Yes! - draws. –
I need spikes to behave better!”
Violet , four years old - “the capricious daughter of rich parents” - “new Russians” from the provinces, who had recently settled in Moscow, and who bought her whatever she wanted - despite her young age, she seemed to be satiated with life, sluggish and She perceived everything we did in class without interest; it was difficult to captivate her with anything or stir her up. And this girl, transforming into a “rose bush,” suddenly gives out such a gestaltist phrase: “I am everything together, and not something separate,” and opens up a new facet of “understanding the role of thorns”:
“I need thorns to make me beautiful.” Hooray!
“This is a rose and a tulip. I am everything together, not something separate.
I need thorns to make me beautiful. There are clouds above me! I feel good under them.
I tell them: “Clouds! Block out the sun!” The clouds protect me from the sun.
No one is looking after me.”
Rita - one of those children whose faces make it difficult to guess their age. It seems to me that she was the same two years ago: with a serious, lisping, confused speech and stern facial features, which, however, did not prevent her from smiling and laughing sometimes in our classes. Mom is not young Strong woman, very worried if suddenly her Rita stands out from the group of children in some way. Rita, despite her outwardly active and even patronizing position towards other children, often feels very lonely and defenseless. From her drawing and description we can make an assumption about how she perceives the world. I hope that after our classes, when the girl had the opportunity to openly express her feelings, when her feelings were listened to and accepted not only by me, but also by the children, her perception of the world changed - it became more friendly towards her, and winter will end, and its flowers will finally bloom.
I am a rose bush, I was attacked - worms crawled in. And all my brothers - they are around me.
All my brothers have flowers on them, but I have thorns on them.
My stem is so good, but worms have also crawled onto it.
I feel like they are somehow biting me all over my body. And this is their Master.
Underground, here, when I first started drawing, at first there was the Mother of the rose bush.
Then they closed the gates on her, they wanted her... They blew out so much smoke so that she wouldn’t run away.
She wanted to run away into the forest to other people, but she didn’t succeed!
Mom says: “I feel evil, as if they are cooking evil soup!”
Because I don't like evil things and evil soups!
I am angry with this owner, I tell him: “Stop it!” The Master has worms coming out of his hair.
I, a rosebush, say: “Don’t!” Now the sun will come out,
and all your worms will come back to you!”
There are no flowers on me, because they will grow later when it’s summer.
And now it’s winter...”
Drawing of a four year old Yuli executed with thin pencil lines, without any pressure at all. If I set the task of serious interpretation and deep psychological analysis children's drawings, one could say: “This is how a child contacts the world!” I bet. I look at the drawing and see that only the “ground” is highlighted bolder.
"I live in the forest. And around me - nothing! Dark forest…
My branches are blue. There are no thorns - they are not needed, and leaves are not needed either.
I grow in the ground, there are roots. The top of my head is so colorful because I like it that way!
I have a strong stem. My mother is taking care of me.”
“If a child trusts me, he allows himself to open up a little, to become a little more vulnerable. And I must approach him tenderly, easily, softly. Whenever we reach a situation with a child where he says: “stop, I have to stop here, this is too much for me...”, we are progressing. Every time resistance appears, we realize that we are not facing a hard boundary, but a situation beyond which new growth begins.”
V.Oklander
Introverted, taciturn, wary five-year-old Dima , always “filtering through ourselves” with distrust and apprehension everything that we did, this time with his willingness to “work” deeply touched me. When he came up with his piece of paper and began to speak, I felt his trust, fragility and my responsibility to him so acutely that I always remember “with my body” this moment when it comes to the therapist’s responsibility.
“(Quiet, quiet whisper). This is what I have inside... (The picture is a black circle with a small “green” one in the middle).
I don’t know what, but what’s inside me. There is blackness and darkness everywhere around.
The green thing is some kind of living thing. It somehow moves.
(Be it) I am Living... (How do you live among the blackness?) Good.
I move slowly, very... I can't move fast, I have no legs.
Around me it’s dark, black – Lifeless...
(What are you saying to this darkness?)…That it is difficult for me to move there.
The darkness doesn’t answer anything... That’s all...”
Multi-colored stars (around a black ball) Dima po at will drew at the next lesson, he drew with enthusiasm, with calm, even breathing: “If I have time, I will fill everything around with stars!”
Have you ever tried to ask yourself: why do you bloom? And how does this happen? Why is this and not otherwise?
No! - said the Rosebush. “I simply blossomed with joy and could not do otherwise. The sun is so warm, the air is so refreshing, I drank pure dew and abundant rain. I breathed, I lived! Strength rose into me from the ground, poured in from the air. I was always happy with new, greater happiness and therefore always had to bloom. This is my life, I couldn’t do it any other way.
G. H. Andersen “Snail and Roses”
It is interesting that three- and four-year-old children, when describing themselves as a rosebush, rarely mention “growing nearby.” “The Other” is mentioned by them only in the role of the Caregiver (Mom, Butterfly, Gnome, Uncle, Aunt, Duck) or the Threat (Master of the worms eating the Rose). Along with this, looking at the drawings of these young children, you can often see and feel a “merger” with the environment.
Almost all children of this age feel undeveloped mature flower, and in a state of growth and maturation - a bud or with leaves that have not yet blossomed: “I have no leaves, only twigs,” “I don’t have flowers yet, only buds.”
The descriptions of the condition of the bush often given by children are very tangible, “physical”, vivid: “so that they don’t tear off the bark from me!”, “I feel that it smells interesting and delicious!”, “my trunk may break,” “they bite me, I feel bad,” “they might bite my orange stem,” “I feel like they somehow bite me all over my body,” “if the thorns prick my buds, the buds will scatter,” “I feel warm.”
Being in the role of a rose bush, almost all children, regardless of age, mention the sun, sky, water. Often their expressions are very poetic...Children are happy to use images of their resource states: one smells freshness or greenery, another literally sees all his leaves, a third feels his strength or flexibility with his whole body, another hears the rustling of leaves, the bursting of a bud or the chirping of birds in the sky above you.
“Staying in the image of a rosebush” is an additional exercise in the flexible use of resource states, keeping resources nearby in order to be able to pull them out, turn to them when “you feel uneasy.”
Descriptions of five-year-old children provide vivid confirmation of the “social orientation” emerging in them and gaining strength, the desire and need to be with others, the same age as them: “I am the third one from the left sitting here,” “here is my brother and all the other friends.” they’re growing up nearby,” “it’s me in the middle, and next to me are my girlfriends... I feel very good with my girlfriends!”, “I’m just letting myself go. This is my greeting (to other flowers growing nearby)”, “The boy brings new flowers and plants them next to me. This makes me more fun,” “My brother is growing up next to me,” “I feel good because my brothers and sisters are with me.”
Three-year-olds do not mention roots at all in their stories, four-year-olds do more: “I grow in the ground, there are roots,” “These are my big roots below.” And five-year-old children already pay enough attention to their roots. From drawing to drawing, from description to description, one can notice a growing “assimilation”, a gradual appropriation and digestion of the metaphor “my roots”: “My roots are pure, strong, beautiful”, “I have roots. Sometimes they are soft, sometimes they are hard, because I am big.”
“Strong roots in the ground” means stability, confidence, and maturity. A connection with something deep, the past. “Roots in the ground,” as L. Krol puts it, are like roots in time, personifying reliance on episodes of one’s past. Five-year-old children have a lot to remember... And a lot that they want to never remember...
Summer passed, autumn passed, the rose bush sprouted buds and bloomed with roses until the snow fell. It became damp and cold; the rose bush bent down to the ground... Spring has come again, roses have appeared!..
G. H. Andersen “Snail and Roses”
Present in almost every drawing-story of five-year-old and older children, the mention and “feeling” of the theme of the change of seasons, the possibility of changing one’s condition, physical appearance and mood is for me an indicator of expanding the scope of a growing child’s own sensations, using the opportunity to feel different, “increasing the number of life facets” (according to L. Krol).
Based on numerous descriptions of the feeling - “what it’s like to change yourself when the seasons change” - one can judge the growing “existentiality” of the perception of oneself in the world around us at this age. Spring is a beginning, an awakening. Summer – bright flowering and ripening. Autumn – withering, preparation for winter. Winter is sleep, freezing, accumulation of strength for the next spring... The annual cycle, the change of four seasons is one of the most understandable, basic metaphors for the development process for a child. Even such young children are able to “impose” a “seasonal metaphor” on a person’s life as a whole: infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood. Often after such “imaginative” classes we talked about such serious things as age and death.
The bush put out buds and blossomed with roses, each time fresh, each time new.
G. H. Andersen “Snail and Roses”
The child should not be afraid of his diversity, the fact that dozens of different states and roles can change in him, but, on the contrary, as in the “Rose Bush” exercise and similar ones, the child needs to be helped to describe himself, to find words and images for his diversity. A child who often walks back and forth through the door separating the real world from the world of fantasy can be helped to understand himself, moving from one state to another, and the ability to remain alone with himself.
Children, as can be seen in the examples, have this sense of themselves as complex and diverse. They only need help: to fill and nourish this sense of self, which is drying up under the influence of the harsh adult world, forcing children to turn to their various states, to travel through their states.
“I am everything together, and not something separate”, “I am a rose bush in a fireworks display”, “I am all five multi-colored daisy suns”, “I am all different flowers: chamomile, rose, this too rose.. And this is a strawberry growing on me...”, “the top of my head is so colorful, because I like it that way!”, “the flowers bloom green in the summer, but inside - different-different colors: red, blue, yellow - all bright, bright!”, “In the spring I bloom - I will be greenish. Then, in the summer I will be very beautiful flower, and in the fall I will be pale green”, “I change color, I change. When it's winter, I just go underground. In spring I become a little brighter. In the summer I’m covered in bright feathers, but in the fall I become so pale.”
Isn’t this an illustration from children’s voices to the words of L. Krol about adults: “The feeling of experiences in different parts of your being, the ability to understand that you are both this, and that, and the third, and the fourth, constitute a productive polyphony, human integrity.”
Years passed... The snail became dust from dust,
and the rosebush became dust from dust, decayed
there is a rose of memories in the book...
But new rose bushes were blooming in the garden,
new snails were growing. They crawled into their houses
and spat - they didn’t care about the world...
Should we start this story from the beginning?..
G. H. Andersen “Snail and Roses”
Literature
Allan D. Landscape of a child's soul. – SPb-Mn., 1997.
Andersen G.H. Fairy tales and stories. – L.: Hood. literature, 1969.
Krol L. Images and metaphors in integrative hypnotherapy. – M.: Independent company “Class”, 1999.
Obukhov Ya. Symbolodrama. – M.: Eidos, 1997.
Oklander V. Windows into the world of a child. – M.: Independent company “Class”, 1997.
Steward V. Working with images and symbols in psychological counseling. – M.: Independent company “Class”, 1998.