Art Therapy for Gifted & Talented Students

Gifted & 2E students frequently experience profound emotions that can be hard to articulate. It can take very little to trigger very big emotions. They weave between masking and unmasking. Negotiating between internalising or externalising felt-sensing can lead to anxiety and depression. Art Psychotherapy enables them to creatively express these feelings and tune into states their unique presentation of hypo and hyper arousals. Here, they are guided to become aware of their window of tolerance, value conflicts and emotional needs. It uncovers their patterns of emotional experiencing. This expansion towards greater self-awareness provides further ability to overcome challenges and improve groundedness in navigating complex issues.

Gifted & 2E students are kinesthetic beings by design. Art therapy encourages imaginative thinking, allowing them to investigate new concepts across multiple dimensions, and organize their thoughts in a fun, non-critical atmosphere. They are encouraged to think outside the box, and explore new knowing through experiential learning. They analyse and reflect on the differences they experience between varying materials and modalities. Here, transference of relationality between the kinesthetic engagement and lived experience often occur. Paying attention to the present, and what emerges in the doing, activates connections between the right (creative) and left (logical) brain and therefore, creates new neural pathways and strengthens existing ones. 

Gifted & 2E students are perfectionists and often fear failure. The therapist companions them in understanding stereotypes and unpacking perfectionism and fear. Art materials and modalities offer both predictable and unpredicatble outcomes that are worthy of reflection, and how it applies to life. The therapist builds trust and safety in exploring the unknown, the unexpected and apply tools that regulate anxiety build-up. They are also empowered to release their stress in creative ways (externalising; psycho-somatic release). The creative space offers a soothing environment where they can explore their emotions, and ultimately alleviate anxiety.

Regularly engaging in creative activities help gifted and 2E students build self-esteem and self-worth. They learn to embrace their abilities while releasing the pressure of perfectionism. The courage to explore unfamiliar materials gradually expands their window of tolerance and therefore, resilience. The process explores strengths and learning-edges (weakneses) as part of self-acceptance in the current moment. It also exposes potentials they are yet to explore, of themselves and how they relate to this world.  Here, they can explore the SpIns (Special Interests) extensively and without judgement. At Therapy is bank with unlimited supply of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins.

When you represent 2% of a unique population demograpchic, it is challenging to find a tribe of like-minded individuals. Finding and keeping friendships in the mainstream community is not easy and can lead to social burn-outs, avoidance and later,  isolation. Students may also be at different stages of their development in terms of social awareness, which presents its own challenges between neurotypicals and neurodivergents.  Where Theory of Mind is still developing, and the Dual Empathy problem is not embraced, our Gifted & 2E students can be easily misunderstood, or, misunderstand others. Engaging with art materials provides an emotional buffer to be able to open up and talk about relationship issues at home, school or in the community. It opens conversations that reflect on how they relate to the world and vice versa. Artefacts can be created to represent role-playing to understand their communication style. It can provide insight into their current way of being, and invite a preferred way of being. Here, unpacking relationality develops deeper awareness of self and others. This then helps enhance their ability to understand social cues, improve communication and nurture a sense of belonging and empathy.

Gifted & 2E are deep-thinkers and deep-feelers. Balancing their gifts with a disability sometimes challenges their ability to consistently sustain cognitive and executive functioning skills. In Art Therapy, working with materials requires cognitive functions such as planning, prioritising, task initiation, organization and impulse control to be constantly applied in the creative process. Encountering dissonance in the process provides a learning edge, which then activates higher-level cognitive functions i.e. executive functioning skills such as flexible thinking, working memory, self-monitoring and emotional control. Together, we deliberate on how our brain works and impacts our functional capacity. This unpacking provides insight on our subconscious bias, blind spots, identifying knowing what helps, what doesn't, and be empowered to apply that wisdom in all life situations. Again, Art Therapy produces much-needed neuroplasticity for healthy brain development.