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Turning destructive energy into constructive artwork therapy

Potomac Ridge gives teenagers positive expression

Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Susan Whitney-Wilkerson⁄The Gazette Potomac Ridge Residential Treatment Center art therapist Laura Schneider and program director Christopher Cofone show one of the murals created by girls at the facility.

The Potomac Ridge Residential Treatment Center provides care for adolescents ages 12 to 18 with mental illness and serious behavioral problems.

Nurses and staff in the girls’ unit had been dealing with graffiti and other forms of property destruction by simply painting over it, fixing holes and applying the appropriate penalties.

But that temporary fix kept staff members searching for a long-term solution.

Program director Christopher Cofone collaborated with art therapist Laura Schneider to organize a beautification project that included painting murals throughout the center. That type of expressive therapy uses the creative process to help patients communicate their thoughts and feelings in an artistic and therapeutic manner.

The staff thought that if the girls could take ownership of the space, they would be less likely to destroy it, Cofone explained.

Of the 24 girls in the unit, 10 volunteers joined together last spring and transformed seven blank walls into inspirational visions by the end of summer. Some jumped right into the project, while there was initial resistance from others, but ‘‘positive peer influence” eventually drew them in, Schneider said.

The project has tension-reducing benefits, helps increase the girls’ self-esteem, and fosters a sense of respect for the community they live in, Schneider said.

Since the murals have gone up, graffiti has declined dramatically and, as a show of respect for the murals and the work the girls have put into the project, no one has destroyed the artwork, Cofone said.

‘‘In their young lives, many of them have had very little control of their space and who they’re around,” he said. ‘‘This is one way that we can give them the ability to make decisions for themselves when they haven’t had the chance to do that in the more difficult situations in their life.”

Not many of the girls have a strong art background, but that isn’t necessary in art therapy, Schneider said. She provided structure and taught techniques to the novice artists, helping them create masterpieces they could be proud of.

Often the teenagers can lose interest in activities, but the project kept them excited, Schneider said. It also had a spillover effect as they became motivated to take ownership of their lives and treatment, which is what staff was hoping for, she added.

The girls are now making pillows to add more comforting elements to the unit. The next step will be to paint a wall with chalkboard paint, which would allow them a huge canvass of expression that can be used many times over.

If the chalk-wall project works well and the girls respond positively, it may expand into their bedrooms, giving them an individual space for expression, Cofone said.

‘‘Our idea is to completely transform the unit, and we’re taking it one step at a time,” he said.