Angels in the colors of the rainbow.

Nothing too deep and mysterious today.

Some days need to be light.

Where the heck can I buy gumdrops?
Did they fall off the face of the earth or something?

I tried having my clients build sculptures out of marshmallows and toothpicks and it failed.
However, using old gumdrops- they were able to do it.
So where do I buy more? And the ones without the sugar coating?
Do I use gummy bears instead?
They'd be stabbing them in the stomach? Head?
Is that the kind of message I want to send?

However, I'm taking a wild guess, but I think kids in general... really really like taking frustration out of things.
And just because it's not something that I might not find cathardic ($10 psychology word for "feels good") doesn't mean they won't.

Eh... I still don't really like the idea of them dismembering and torturing gummy bears... Is that just my own problem though? That shouldn't keep me from facilitating a task that the kids could find beneficial...


Meanwhile... the question that I often find myself wondering is whether or not it is helpful to act out our aggressive impulses onto objects? (Wait... that's kind of an art therapist's job, isn't it?)
Does it just seem negative to the person who is witnessing it and feeling uncomfortable?
In my head, I believe so.

For anyone, especially teenagers, the ability to control their surroundings is something they struggle with intensely.
It's a natural part of development. We begin the process around the age of two with potty training (or so says the psychoanalysts who trained me).
Exercising that control- or control over others may be what these kids need more of.
Especially considering they are in a treatment facility that controls them much more so than many other places they've lived.
And when you consider that children a) need structure to feel safe and develop appropriately and b) these adolescents have grown up without that structure and therefore have stagnated developmentally (and emotionally)... They might need more structure, even if it means holding them down so they don't leave so they can get it- which many parents won't or can't do. (It's kind of an ugly job, but once the kids test those boundaries a few times, they usually get the picture.)

However,
Giving them things to appropriately project onto, exercise control over and manipulate can help channel the impulses into something other than people. Because projecting onto, controlling or manipulating people can harm relationships.

(WHAT? I KNOW! Contrary to the popular belief, if someone THINKS you are trying to control them, they generally won't like you. Now... if they don't think, or don't think you are trying to control them, it gets a lot easier and they will still like you. Hence politics.)

But anyway, these kids need as many positive and healthy relationships they can get.

So basically this whole thing was a pep talk in the therapeutic application of gummy bears. 

Another important question is whether or not the gummy bears knew this the entire time, and if they are happy because they can be of some happy assistance in this sick sad world?
I like to think so.
Like kamikaze pilots for the sake of happiness.

God bless them... every one.