O’Connor developed “Color your Life” in which he helps guide children in pairing an emotion with a color, and using that amount of color to express how much of that feeling the child is experiencing. In 1983, the originator of the idea, Kevin O’Connor, discussed the importance of children’s ability to recognize and name emotions in order to express those emotions in an appropriate manner. There are many adaptations to this activity. This activity is also great in non-traditional settings in which space may be limited such as in school or in the home. This activity offers a visual approach to discussing internal feelings, which often conflict or are felt on different levels depending on which event is being discussed. Http: // “Color Your Feelings” activity can be used with children, adolescents, and even adults during any stage of therapy. In the art therapy group I facilitate, I used this “ice breaker” exercise and found it to be exploratory and participants were able to express more clearly their emotions.

Additionally, it helps to put the present emotions into perspective by seeing it in the context of equal parts of the full circle. It helps to gain insight into what is really going on in the current moment.

This exercise helps the client to explore and release feelings by drawing and writing them out. When the clients are finished colouring or painting, they may explain if they feel comfortable enough within the group, what made them choose a particular colour, or explain what the picture means.

Clients are then asked to fill in each pie with a corresponding color or picture that matches his/her idea of what the emotion means to him/her. Additionally the client writes the emotions above each section (on the outside). He created the wheel of emotions, which illustrates the various relationships among the emotions.Īdapted to an art therapy theme, the wheel is divided into 8 sections the client thinks about different emotions that came up for them during the day. Robert Plutchik stated that there are eight basic emotions: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, anticipation, anger, and disgust. Robert Plutchik (1927 –2006) was a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, professor at the University of South Florida and he was also a psychologist.

Emotions color wheel art therapy