Collage Therapy Revival!!

[jesla]

Welcome back to the collage therapy post!!
Couldn't let that :stars gem :stars die.

Collage Therapy....

... this is another one from my awesome therapist....
What you do is go through magazines and cut out pictures and words that just "speak" to you or mean something to you. Happy, sad, angry, whatever reflects what you are feeling or struggling with or happy about.
Then you glue it onto construction paper (or if you are Katie:bug, you obsessively arrange the pictures neatly FIRST, to make sure that everything is STRAIGHT and NEAT and PERFECT :sarcasm)
If you're jesla, you just throw things on the page however you want. :supergrin
There aren't many rules to collage therapy, just like EPT therapy.
Just think about how you are feeling and what's on your mind...
cut out pictures and words...
glue them on....
sit back and reflect (or don't, if you don't feel like it!! :cheesy)

Here are some of the hundreds of collages I have done for my therapist (I hand them all over to her, and we talk about them.)
:mad My inner angry teenager.
:cry my inner child who sits curled up in a black box and cries.
:sad Father's Day.
:rainbow Recovery
:ugh Frustration
:flower Why I love my life. :love
:mad Why I hate my life
:sad Life in Eating disorder world.

Anway, that's just a few...
Anyone else who has done Collage Therapy please post your observations and thoughts on this wonderful process!!
:bounce Who else is going to join us? :bounce

Collage Bandwagon---> :bandwagon

[nla-one]

I have never tried collage therapy, (well actually ive never been in therapy) but it sounds like tonz of fun. :happy

[JennaJen]

i make collages ALL the time. i have so many random ones. it's funny, because i'll start with one feeling at the begining of the collage and move to a different feeling by the end and it's very .... shall we say ... interesting! i love my collages. i have a few hanging on my wall.

i also made a collage of music one time. this is how you do that ....

you take your cd player/computer/whatever, and you take snip-its of songs. and you put them together on a cd/tape, all running in to each other. it could be a verse, a line, even just a word! it's so much fun!!! you can make it all sad songs (though not suggeseted), love songs, happy songs, girl power songs, whatever! it's so FUN! then you put it away and randomly listen to it!! woo!!

well, have fun w/ collages! i think i'm gonna start a new one tonight!!!!!

[jesla]

JennaJen, The :notes music collage :notes idea is awesome!! I think I will do that!!

I am addicted to collage making. You know you are addicted to collage therapy when....
Every situation or upset that comes along I automatically think... I gotta make a collage!!
I look at magazines on the shelves at the store and automatically look for good collage material.
When I get a new magazine in the mail the first thing I think is: "Yay! New collage tonight!"

:sarcasm

[alacer]

Good revival here!

In my partial program, one of the things that I did throughout the program was work on this huge ass collage. It had three parts, the first section being the Past, the second being the Present, and the third being the Future. It lets you really think about what is in the past and what you have available to you in the future. It really helped me assess where I was in recovery and where I needed to go from there.

Lexie:)<><

[Shuffleboard Queen]

Since I am completely devoid of artistic talent, but I'm more of a writer, I've started to do "verbal collages". Sort of free assocation exercises where I just write down whatever comes to mind when I think of "food" or "weight" or "recovery" or "eating", etc, etc, etc. I think it serves the same purpose- helping me explore without over thinking things. :cute

:rainbow Carrie

[HopAlong]

:happy"Hi. My name is Katie:bug, and I'm a collage-therapy addict."

You know you're addicted to collage therapy when:

:muhahaYou subscribe to a Psychology Today magazine for the sole purpose of cutting it up for some GREAT phrases and pictures to put on collages :supergrin!!!

:muhahaYou have an under-bed storage container FULL of magazines, and then a huge stack on top that you keep at Jesla's house in her extra room because there's just too many to keep in your own house!

:muhahaEvery time you see a magazine you wonder what topic you could do a collage on using the front page pictures and article subjects

:muhahaYou go through more glue and paper in a month than a kid in kindergarton

Just for the record, I :love collages!!!

:love
Katie:bug

[jesla]

:cheesy :cheesy :cheesy Katie:bug you crack me up!! :cheesy :cheesy : cheesy
Its okay for people to keep collage supplies at my house cuz you know what? More for me to use!!! Yay!!! :boink--->my lemur leaps at the thought of collages

[amysanangel]

Oh, I am suuuch a collage addict! I’ve got boxes of clippings and magazines, and more tubes of glue stick than I can count! I finally got a big sketchbook, so all of my collages are in there all together... cuts down on paper volume!
Amy :ufo

[seniorpride]

:sun yay :sun for collages! i :love making them! LOL they are very useful plus they are something i can easily stay focused on! :muhaha :love y'all :supergrin

[Rarebloom]

I :love doing this :grin! i've been cutting out pictures,words, phrades,letters,symbols etc from magazines and mounting them on poster board for several years now. Sometimes I make them for my friends. it's a great way to express yourself and can make a very special gift :smile

:flower Rarebloom

[jesla]

:fishy

[pippen]

I'd like to jump on the coolage bandwagon :bandwagon

[FlyAway]

Ok all you collage :fishy experts, I have a question for you....

So I made my collage last night because I was feeling a lot of mixed up things, and it turned out really cool, and nice and neat, just as I wanted it to. The question is now what....should it tell me something?? I mean I liked doing it as sort of a release, but should I have gotten something more from it?

Oh wait....I did learn something from it, I have a very hard time b/c there is a constant balance between my perfectionist neat and tidy side and my artistic side....which one will win??? I guess that it depends on the day, but is there more I can learn from it???

Just Curious!!

:love and :sun,
Amber

[majorettechica]

I need to do that one day!!

:love always love
:eye :ufo :bounce Emily :bounce :ufo :eye

[jesla]

Hey, no rules in Collage Therapy. If you don't learn anything from it, thats okay! If you DO learn something from it..... :cool AWESOME!! :cool Do you feel like just getting the feelings out? Then thats all you gotta do. Feel like you should learn something from your collage? Stare at it a while or talk it over with your therapist like Katie:bug and I do.

[jesla]

:hairy :hairy Bump! :hairy :hairy

[jesla]

I am so addicted to collage therapy that I just have gotta bump this baby up again...
:hairy

[jesla]

Bump :hairy for BrownEMT

[rainbowswirl]

:hugon Jesla :hugoff

Cool idea. I will start this tonight if I have time. Please keep the ideas coming.

Loads of love, hugs and support, rainbowswirl xxx

P.S. I think I would be like Katie, (so go Katie)!
E-mail me at rainbowswirl@talk two one (the numbers) .com

"You can turn your dreams into reality."

[jesla]

:bounce for new :fishyies :bounce

[sweetstrawberries]

Ashamed to say this Jesla, I have NEVER made a collage. :sad Its kind of sad, but true.
I think I ought to. :happy
Carebeargirl (Jenn) met me once at the mall here in St. Louis and brought with her a gift... for ME! And guess what it was?????? My very own collage. :happy
I think I ought to make one now... but where can you get old magazines if you don't own any magazines???
Take care,
:bug Sweetstrawberries

[JennaJen]

:hugon jesla :hugoff

listen to how sad i am!

when we moved me up to school two weeks ago, i didn't have enough room to bring all my magazines ...

SO I CANNOT DO COLLAGES RIGHT NOW.

:sad:cry:ugh

good thing i have my triplet :boinks to keep me company!

[jesla]

Jen that is TRAGIC!!!!! Go buy more magazines, ASAP!!! :cheesy Did you bring your collage from me to college with you, so you at least have ONE collage with yo u? :stars

SweetStrawberries,
You can go to bookstores like Barnes and Noble or Half Price Books to get magazines, or steal from doctor's offices!! :winky

[KateyKat]

I :love :love :love making collages!!!! I will go to the library and read all the magazines and if I find something I totally need I will make a color copy of it. Saves me a little money and a little space than buying the whole magazine...unless of course there are several things in one magazine.

I made a collage poem on my old journal. I cut out a bunch of phrases and assembled them in poem form. Totally free verse but it is cool. If you guys want to hear the poem tell me and I will copy it here....but it does not have the same affect as looking at it.

When I was in the hospital we did not have art therapy except once a week so I would make my own collages every night. After a few days it caught on and I was running a collage group.

More about the poetry thing...I have taken phrases from my already made collages (like over thirty of them) and put them in poem form.

The art therapist at the last hosp I was at said if you use pictures in your collage more that is more expressed from your heart. If you use words more it is expressed from your mind. Not sure if I agree with that or not (cause I use like all words) but just want to see what y'all think about that

Katey

[LoveDanceBallet]

wowo i just made one of those last thursday!!! :cheshire!

[randomgirl]

I don't have a lot of time but I wanted to respond to SweetStrawberries -->

my library has a crate of magazines where people put their old ones they don't want anymore....you can take them for free! :sarcasm I usually check back every other week or so and there are always new ones...that's where I get most of my collage pictures from!
Check around at your local libraries and stores, often times they have crates of magazines for free....so keep your eyes open :eye


:peep randomgirl :peep

[jesla]

:hairy For new :fishyies.... bump

[fish out of water]

:bounce

bumping this old post back to the top so i can get some mmore ideas for collages. i love this post! :yay for collage therapy


:love maria

please check out my website

http://communities.msn.com/Alightattheendofthetunnel/home.htm

[Mishababy]

I've done a number of therapeutic collages too! There is something so meaningful in finding just the right pictures and phrases to express what you are feeling. Plus the whole process is somehow soothingly reminiscent of good times in childhood.

I have one of my projects collages on my website under the :drawblue cool projects and assignments page :drawblue. I will be uploading another one tonight. Please come take a look. :eye

My website address is www.(three)d-edu.com.
Or to avoid having to type the address in, just click on my homepage icon above on the fishy tool bar.

Thanks Maria for bumpin'!

Misha

[jesla]

:hairy Bump :hairy

[hearts]

I LOVE that idea!!! I did that once a while ago, except I never even finished the collages, I just kept cutting out words and that alone helped me to just look at the words I would cut out on different days based on how I was feeling that day. I should start one again, and finish it this time!!! :-) Thanks for reminding me!!!!!! I :love you!!

[CC]

Bumped again! Thanks Jesla!

I'm stuck here in North Carolina where the weather is stuck between winter & summer. I mean, I'm sunburned and wearing fleece at the same time!!! :grin

ANYHOW . . . I'm also stuck with a house full of annoying relatives at the moment so I think I'm going to go upstairs, attempt to find some floor space, and make a collage dedicated to a healthy summer.

FYI - Oprah magazine is jam-packed with awesome inspirational stuff every month including two tear-out pages which are great for journaling stuff too!

Anybody else have any magazine suggestions for us collage-addicted fishies? Any ideas for themes???

Love to all!
Charli

[jesla]

I bumped this up because i decided that i'm going to make a music collage to turn in to my T on Thursday.... and its going to take a lot of courage because of the songs i need to put on the tape.... *gulp*

[SilentTears]

Awesome post Jesla thanks for bringing it back up.

[sunbliss]

:hugon Jelsa :hugoff

Thank you for this awesome idea!!!!! This is so relevant to me right now, just the thing i need to do!! I haven't done collages for awhile, actually forgot about them, but remember how enlightening they are!! I'm digging out my magazines today and am going to do one!! :cheesy :supergrin :cheesy :supergrin

Thanks again for the idea!!

:love Sunbliss

[Anonymous_Member005]

:hugon Jesla :hugoff

:bounce

Thank u for the idea...I can't wait to try it....:happy :fishy has a new idea to distract myself....

:love amanda :stars

[brwnEMT]

:boink:bounce:hairy BUMP :boink:bounce:hairy

:love:flower:sun
Nikki

[Anonymous_Member005]

:bunce

[JennaLynne]

[COLOR=purple]
Hi!
I used to collage a lot, and I forgot how helpful it was! Thanks for this post Jesla! I am going to get back into it...

Jenn

[jesla]

:zing :lookin :groovy le bump. :lookin :zing :groovy

[shacki]

yay this post is back! :yay :yay:kick :kick :supergrin :supergrin

i haven't done a collage since ip and it's about time!

[seekinghelp]

Collage therapy is my sort of thing. :supergrin.
I spent most of today working on a little notebook filled with words, telling the story of my ED and trying to make it inspirational for recovery. It's a lot of fun.

[Speed Racer]

:bounce