Get Creative – Make a start- Make your mark
Here’s a game you can play to help get you creative.
It’s a brilliant way to take away the anxiety of making your first marks; it’s a game that helps to activate your imagination and tap into your creativity. Play it alone, or with others. Children love it, and it’s a perfect way to begin a meaningful connection with someone. As an art psychotherapist working in schools, it’s my go-to activity to reduce the power imbalance that lies between teacher and student, child and adult.
All you need is paper and a pencil or pen, relax and enjoy…
1. Make a squiggle, a doodle or a shape.
2. Hand it to someone else (or begin to transform it yourself).
3. Ask them to turn it into something- they can turn the paper and add lines or shapes, it must be meaningful and recognisable to them. Pay attention and enjoy the game. Notice how a shape or a line triggers a thought, a memory, an idea.
Donald Winnicott 1896-1925 was an English Psychoanalyst and was influential in the field of developmental psychology.
He wrote several books, including ‘Playing and Reality’ and more than 200 academic papers. Winnicott developed this game to help children express thoughts and ideas about themselves and the world around them.
Find out more about the Winnicott squiggle game
