Art Therapy Assessments: The Bird's Nest Drawing vs. The Kinetic Family Drawing

Art Therapy Assessments The Bird’s Nest Drawing vs.

The Kinetic Family Drawing

By Madilynn Forgione

Table of Contents

• Theoretical Perspectives………………………………………………1 • Comparing & Contrasting……………………………………….…2-4 • Populations & Settings……………………………………………..…5 • Art Experience Reflections……………………………………..…6-7 • Final Pros & Cons……………………………………………………..…8 • References………………………………………………………….....…9

Theoretical Perspectives The Kinetic Family Drawing

The Bird’s Nest Drawing

(Burns & Kaufman, 1972)

Kaiser (1996)

• Humanistic Theory • Popularized by Rogers, Maslow, and May • The “phenomenon of personhood” • Values the context of someone’s life experiences

• Attachment Theory • Popularized by John Bowlby • The impact of children who had lost their caregivers at an early age • Four attachment styles • Ambivalent attachment • Avoidant attachment • Disorganized attachment • Secure attachment

• Focus on the visual communication about the family experience/dynamic • Visual elements are viewed within real-world contexts • The BND focuses on the two • Values the individual main types of attachment experience and perspective • Secure attachment • Insecure attachment

(Smith, 1978; Brooke, 2004; Mooney, 2010; Kaiser, 2016)

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Comparing & Contrasting The Kinetic Family Drawing

The Bird’s Nest Drawing

• Type of assessment: Projective • Type of assessment: Projective • Purpose: To understand the • Purpose: To assess for an individual’s self-concept and individual’s attachment style their interpersonal relationships • Administration: • Administration: • “Draw a picture of • “Draw a picture of a bird’s everyone in your family, nest” including you, doing • On a separate piece of something” paper, give the drawing a • Follow-up questions relate title other than “Bird’s to what is happening in the Nest” picture and who is in the • Then write a story about picture your drawing using at least two to three sentences

(Brooke, 2004; Kaiser, 2016)

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Comparing & Contrasting The Kinetic Family Drawing

The Bird’s Nest Drawing

• Number of drawings and media: • One 8.5x11 inch piece of drawing paper • No. 2 lead pencil

• Number of drawings and media: • One 9x12 piece of drawing paper • 8-pack of fine-line Crayola markers • A sharpened pencil with an eraser • An 8.5x11 inch piece of printer paper • Extra drawing paper

• Data analysis: • Standardized analysis that focuses on specific image characteristics as well as a grid that measures the distance between figures and figure size

• Data analysis: • Standardized scale that analyzes 14 aspects of the drawing using a Likert scale

(Brooke, 2004; Kaiser, 2016)

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Comparing & Contrasting The Kinetic Family Drawing

The Bird’s Nest Drawing

• Data analyzation: • Data analyzation: Characteristics of the drawing • Items 1-6 are added and are summarized in an analysis averaged, then items 7-14 are sheet covering actions, drawing added and averaged style, and use of symbols • The two numbers are then compared • Treatment planning: Family dynamics relates to how the individual sees themselves and how they interact with the people around them

• Treatment planning: Can predict how the therapeutic relationship will form • Also informs how the individual approaches environmental stimuli and pressures

• Ethical considerations: Assessment results have varying test re-test reliability • Results should inform treatment, but not dictate

• Ethical considerations: Individuals may have history in being placed for adoption, being in foster care, and/or losing a caregiver early in life

(Brooke, 2004; Kaiser, 2016)

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Populations & Settings • Populations • Both assessments can be applied to many different age groups and populations • They are both most widely used with children and can specifically assess for experienced abuse • Settings • Both assessments can be utilized in inpatient, outpatient, and clinic settings • They are most appropriate for individual sessions rather than group sessions

(Brooke, 2004; Kaiser, 2016)

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Art Experience Reflections The Kinetic Family Drawing

Figure 1

Drawing this image gave me some anxiety, mostly because I dislike drawing people. I focused more on the environmental details, especially the lines of the table and the details in the chandelier. I ended up drawing my family members as a type of apparition, taking the spiritual place of each individual. Of note is that the figure that represents my father on the far left is the only figure that has a seat at the table.

Additionally, the figure that represents myself in the middle doesn’t seem to have a plate of their own.

My brother’s figure on the far right seems to be the smallest even though in reality he is my older sibling.

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Art Experience Reflections The Bird’s Nest Drawing Drawing this image immediately felt more fun for me. This could, in part, be due to the fact that I had multiple colors to work with, which may have inspired my creative mind more. I drew the tree very solid with green leaves. The bird’s nest is situated between multiple branches, with the mother looking over her two eggs. In the background are two green mountains with the rising sun behind them. The title that I gave this drawing, along with the short narrative, further indicates the more positive feelings I was experiencing while drawing this image, with themes of protection, hope, and love.

Figure 2

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Final Pros & Cons The Kinetic Family Drawing

The Bird’s Nest Drawing

•

Pros • • Illuminates more directly an individual’s family dynamics and their feelings about that dynamic • Can show what psychological defenses the client employs

Pros • Can circumvent the client’s psychological defenses while still gaining insight • Gaining information on the client’s attachment style can alter the way you approach building therapeutic rapport

•

Cons • • May cause the client to feel anxious, possibly disrupting the quality of the therapeutic rapport • In the original application of the assessment, there is not colorful material provided, potentially limiting the client’s expression

Cons • The narrative approach to the drawing may be a distraction to some clients, causing them to be tangential and not relate to the introduced theme • The verbal/written portion of the assessment may not be accessible to all clients depending on their verbal ability 8

References Brooke, S. L. (2004). Tools of the trade: A therapist’s guide to art therapy assessments: Vol. 2nd ed.

Charles C Thomas Publisher.

Kaiser, D. H. (2016). Assessing attachment with the Bird’s Nest Drawing (BND). In Gussak, D. & Rosal, M. (Eds.), The Wiley handbook for art therapy (pp.

514-523). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Mooney, C. G. (2010). Theories of attachment: An introduction to Bowlby, Ainsworth, Gerber, Brazelton, Kennell, and Klaus: Vol. 1st ed. Redleaf Press.

Smith, B. (1978). Humanism and behaviorism in psychology: Theory and practice. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 18(1), 27. https://doi.org/10.1177/002216787801800104

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