Book Review: Working With Anger Creatively
Ninat Friedland, MA, RP, OAT-R
Toronto, ON
Ninat is an art therapist with over ten years of experience in community and clinical mental health. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Fine Arts from York University, and a Master’s degree in Art Therapy from Concordia University. Ninat runs a private practice in Toronto through the Healing Collective, where she sees adults, couples and families; persons with cancer at Wellspring; and supervises thesis students at the Toronto Art Therapy Institute. Ninat is passionate about supporting wellness through creativity and community inclusion.
The following is a review written by Ninat for the book Working with Anger Creatively: 70 Art Therapy-Inspired Activities to Safely Soothe, Harness, and Redirect Anger for Meaningful Change, by Erica Curtis, LMFT, ATR-BC, and published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Erica Curtis is a licensed marriage and family therapist and art therapist with over twenty years of clinical experience, with topical and diverse specialties such as emotional resilience, loneliness, and eco-anxiety. She is also the award-winning author of The Innovative Parent and Art Therapy Activities for Kids. Curtis brings us yet another accessible and much-needed manual of art therapy activities, this time for working with anger. This guide helps to demystify the oft-misunderstood and sometimes feared emotion of anger, which, Curtis notes, is on the rise now more than ever, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate and geopolitical crises.
Anger requires a “delicate balance of expression and restraint” (p. 9) in therapy, and when harnessed can promote positive change (Curtis, 2024). Art-making provides just this balance, with its capacity to permit expression and provide containment. Curtis describes different types of anger, including “explosive anger that needs soothing, repressed anger than needs releasing, and justice-induced anger that craves direction” (p.10). Anger is a protective response to threat, though may have the potential to overwhelm or cause harm, meanwhile art-making’s regulating function helps to temper this flood of emotion.
The book is laid out in two parts. Intended for mental health professionals, who may have little experience in art therapy, Part 1 describes the theory of the change process in art therapy, and its unique position to explore anger. Curtis has penned the useful acronym, ARTS, to help explain the principles of art therapy: Access (to thoughts and feelings), Reflection, Transformation and Social (i.e. the therapeutic relationship).
“Anger is a protective response to threat, though may have the potential to overwhelm or cause harm, meanwhile art-making’s regulating function helps to temper this flood of emotion.”
Part 2 offers step-by-step instructions for 70 therapeutic art activities that require minimal supplies and time, and are generally designed for containment to minimize overwhelm, frustration and over-stimulation. These interventions are organized according to the therapeutic goals of: self-care, including emotional regulation; getting to know anger; recruiting other emotions; soothing anger; awakening anger; harnessing anger; and navigating anger in relationship. Helpful tips in this section include adaptations for diverse needs and common challenges that may arise. Part 2 is where Curtis really shines, while the section on art therapy theory and the science of anger is scant.
Curtis calls on practitioners to “commit to creativity” (p.11) by trying out activities themselves before using them with clients, and in this spirit I have attempted a couple of her art activities (see below, Seismic Triggers, p. 70, to help identify and evaluate reactivity to triggers; and Emotion Untangle, p. 76, to help uncover and name some other emotions masked by anger). Curtis offers playful titles for her interventions (e.g. Pleasing Patterns, Self-Sabotage Diffuser, Hope Heightener), the goals and theory behind each prompt, along with discussion questions for therapists to effectively follow-up the art-making process through verbal integration. While there are limited hand-drawn illustrations, additional images or photographs of artwork would make these instructions more accessible to visual learners. Overall, this is a concise and compelling compendium of art activities to add to your therapeutic toolbox.
References
Curis, E. (2024). Working with anger creatively: 70 art therapy-inspired activities to safely soothe, harness, and redirect anger for meaningful change. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.