The Tale of Character Trees

(scenario of fairy tale therapy training with elements of art therapy)
The fairy tale about trees-Characters should be meditative in nature and be told against the backdrop of relaxing music.
This fairy tale therapy training is conducted in a small group, however, you can conduct it on your own – for yourself.
The tale of Character Trees is told in two stages by the Leaders.
The first stage of fairy tale therapy training: introducing the audience into the appropriate mood and explaining the general scheme for setting the drawing test.
The second stage of the fairy tale therapy training: after the end of the general work and discussion, the Leader tells (again in the intonation of a fairy tale) about what certain details of the drawing created by each in this drawing test can mean.

But the most important fairy-tale work lies between these two stages. It is the salt of fairy tale therapy training.

So, let’s start preparing for the drawing test in order.

Prepare sheets of paper and drawing material – pencils, felt-tip pens, paints.

Ask the audience to draw their Character Tree on a piece of paper. At least 20 minutes are allotted for this work.

To get the draughtsmen up to speed, start a fairy tale. Coloring it with their details and intonation. To create atmosphere and stimulate the imagination, you can arrange a slide show. Collect the best images of trees and forest. Let it be both real photographs of wildlife, and illustrations for fairy tales, for poems. In this regard, Bilibin’s illustrations for magical Russian fairy tales, as well as Celtic patterns and illustrations by English artists for the Arthurian cycle and, more broadly, for British folklore in general, can give a lot in this regard.
Fairytale Beginning In a magical world that lies far from here, a strange forest grows. His trees are the essence of the Characters of all people living in our world. All trees are similar and not similar to each other.

They are similar because they are built the same. Each Tree-Character has only four main branches, from which smaller branches already grow.

These are the four branches that make up the Character Tree:
1. Branch of Relationship to Self,
2. Branch Relationship to People.
3. Branch of Relationship to the Case.
4. Branch of Relationship to Things.
And all these Trees-Characters are different, because although they are arranged in the same way, they develop in different ways and are filled with different content.

These trees, although they grow in one huge forest, are warmed by the sun in different ways, grow on different soils and are open to rain and wind in different ways. And they themselves have the right to grow as they please.

It happens that a magical fierce storm flies into the forest and then it changes the appearance of Character Trees, but even here each tree changes in its own way.

However, draw what you see in front of your inner eye.
***
After the first 20 minutes of the drawing test have passed, allotted for working on the drawing of the Tree, the Host gives the following task to the draftsmen – the most important task in this fairy tale therapy training.
Inhabitants of the forest The host gives the task to draw in his picture a character (or several characters) that live next to your Character Tree. Who or what will it be?

Will he live near the tree, on it or in the tree? Will he visit your Tree only occasionally, or is it his permanent home?

The facilitator asks to draw these characters and give a name to each.

Some participants of the fairy tale therapy training are not limited only to the drawing and the name of the forest inhabitant character, but they attribute to the drawing in the drawing test a short story-characteristic of the fictitious inhabitants of the tree.
***
So, the art-therapeutic part of the work of this drawing test is over, and the group proceeds to active communication, discussion and attentive listening – to the Leader and each other.
Discussion of the drawings It proceeds according to the following scheme. At first, everyone takes turns taking the floor and trying to “decipher” other people’s drawings. To do this, the Host suggests finding a drawing similar to the one created by the speaker himself.

Questions:
1. Which picture of those that you see in front of you is similar to yours?
2. Can you elaborate on the details that speak of this similarity?
When a drawing of a particular seminar participant is discussed, this person has the right to both comment and the right to remain silent. He can refute the guesses of other members of the group, and can confirm the correctness.

The main thing to warn the group about before discussing other people’s drawings is to refrain from “diagnosing” and, in general, from any form of obsessive “interpretation” of someone else’s drawing.

After discussing the drawings in the group, the Facilitator (who has been closely watching the process all the time) takes the floor.
***
Here begins the most difficult for the Leader and the most interesting for the participants.

The host puts in front of him all the collected drawings drawn during this drawing test and begins to improvise a fairy tale on the go.

This fairy tale should involve all fictitious characters that the workshop participants drew on their trees.

As you remember, the characters should have names (the creators of the characters themselves took care of them) and, if possible (but you can not insist), brief descriptions.

The audience at this moment is attentively listening to the voice of the presenter, recognizing in the course of the tales of their heroes living near their trees of characters.

In fact, the Leader identifies the problems of each member of the group and then tells a fairy tale, which is of a psycho-corrective nature.

Usually, evil, worthless and unfortunate characters in the course of a fairy tale plot are involved in useful deeds and come to good, finding friends, beauty, lost artifacts, love, and so on…

Do not try to come up with a super fairy tale of a highly artistic level – the main thing is to cover all the characters (which is why the group should be small) and saturate the fairy tale with light humor and nonsense, exciting surprises and unbanal, positive lessons. In addition, the fairy tale should not drag on.

At the end of fairy tale therapy training…
***
At the end of the drawing test, the Host distributes their creations to the artists and tells the final story about Character Trees.
The end of the fairy tale So, you have learned the country where the magic Trees-Characters grow. As you already know, each such tree has four main branches:
branch of self-relationship,
branch of relationships with people,
branch of relation to the case,
and a branch of relation to things.
Approximate analysis of drawings There are branches of attitude towards people – straight lines, but there are curved ones. Bent their lies or “difficulties in communication” (which lead to lies).

There are branches of attitude towards people – long ones, but there are short ones. On long ones, like on a long bench, you can seat many friends at once, on short ones – it’s good if one fits.

There are any branches – thick and strong, but there are fragile ones. You are afraid to sit on a fragile branch. She can only admire.
***
There are branches of self-relationship that stick out in such a way that, walking through the forest, you can gouge out your eye.

There are those that almost creep along the ground – from low self-esteem and the burden of the “I have to” imposed on themselves …

There are branches of attitude towards oneself that look at the sky and reach for the sun, calm and confident in the correctness of the chosen landmark, the embodiment of personal dignity.
***
To anyone who wants to conduct this lesson of fairy tale therapy training on their own, I recommend refreshing the memory of the drawing test “House. Human. Tree”, especially in the part “tree”.

It is the interpretation of the Tree from this classic drawing test that will help you interpret the Character Trees from your fairy tale in more detail and accurately.

In addition, turn on your ingenuity yourself – let the metaphors that suggest character traits, encrypted in the drawings, become clear to you without a cheat sheet.
Elena Nazarenko