HOME SECRETS

The symbol of home occupies an important and ambiguous place in art therapy. It is not only a concrete building in which a person lives. It can be a symbol of a person's personal experience, of self-discovery, of family relationships, of communication and cooperation with others, of the national and cultural characteristics of a country, a nation or a people... Drawing a house helps to clarify relationships between children. After such creative activities, the causes of relationship problems are also revealed to everyone together. 

Sigita Koroliovė, a teacher at Klaipėda Litorina School, sensing that disagreements were becoming more and more frequent among her pupils, suggested drawing a house. The teacher received many questions about what it should look like, but did not explain anything else to the children. They drew 15 different but telling buildings on which they had to write the names of all the children in the group, including the teacher. The appearance of the house meant nothing, the focus was on the names. Names written in windows, in rooms that shone through them, in doors, on stairs and ladders, or scattered all over the grounds, revealed secret groups, reaffirmed who the real leaders were, who aspired to be a leader and who did not. The drawings showed the attitude of the little ones towards their elders and conveyed the children's silent message that they desperately need the teacher's help. It was interesting to analyse the place of the teacher's name in the children's constructions. Some separated it from the whole group by a small step, others in a small room or a small castle window, others in the neighbourhood. There was also a house where the teacher lived in the attic with the artist. When the teacher asked the pupil who had become a neighbour if he would disturb him, the child laughed and shook his head. This drawing is particularly significant because the artist, who was going through a very difficult period of war in Ukraine, allowed the teacher into his territory, showing great trust and willingness to be together.