SC NAMI Art Therapy Represents

This past weekend SC Mid-lands NAMI organization participated in the NAMI walk to spread awareness about mental health and where to seek help.  I volunteered along with a few other art therapist I've recently met in the Columbia area to create a giant chalk mandala to celebrate at the end of the NAMI walk.

I've never made a giant mandala so it was pretty neat helping with that process.  The design was created by one of the art therapist and it was beautiful.  It took us about 2 hours to create the basic outline and mark the outline with color.   Then we slowly filled in a couple of areas to give participants an idea of what the activity was all about.  As people came to the finish they started joining us in coloring the mandala.  Many children participated and spent a long time coloring while quite a few adults of all ages also participated. Adults were more reserved at first and often colored a small portion. They seemed afraid to "mess up" while the children had no such fear and went to town.   The difference as we get older and our reservations was a neat process to see. We were right in front of the stage so we got to see all of the awards and dancing going on as part of the celebration.  I also got to see some coworkers which was cool.

The end result was awesome. If you want to know how to make a giant chalk mandala send me message and I'll try to write step by step instructions.