By Jason Sweeney
 Arnold |
A young child has been abused. To start the healing process, communication is essential. But with troubled young people, communication can be a tricky and daunting task.
Bruce Arnold of the Community Health Awareness Council (CHAC) uses art as a tool to communicate with young at-risk children. For Arnold, those drawings of animals and trees stuck to the refrigerator door are chock-full of meaning and a gateway into a child’s psyche.
Arnold is an art therapist who uses children’s drawings and artwork to identify trauma and initiate the healing process. He has been with CHAC for 19 years.
Arnold spoke of his work and experiences to the Kiwanis Club of Los Altos during the club’s April 27 meeting in downtown Los Altos.
During his time as a monk with the Catholic Christian Brothers order, an all-male monastery, Arnold chaired the fine art department and taught art and religious studies to boys. Art and helping children were the two things he realized he was good at.
“I thought I could blend art and psychology together,” Arnold said. “There was a field already in place that I could adopt and effectively use in the field of counseling.”
He left the religious order in 1984 to pursue a clinical psychology degree with an emphasis on art therapy. With a slew of degrees in art and psychiatry under his belt, he dedicated himself to a career helping children.
Arnold explained to the Kiwanians how a child’s development could be traced through drawings.
At 1, drawings are random scribbles. As a child develops, the scribbles increase in complexity becoming simple shapes. At 4 1/2, drawings of one-dimensional scenes with houses, trees, people and animals start to take shape. By 9, a normal child is able to draw three-dimensional scenes involving people and figures in action.
By analyzing a child’s drawings and artwork, trauma and developmental problems can be identified.
Arnold has used art therapy to help children who have been neglected, abused or molested at very young ages. He has worked with transgender children and with children whose parents are drug users, in prison or deceased. Children are usually referred to him by teachers, administrators and the courts, he explained.
“You have to provide the right materials to the right child,” he said.
One boy he worked with was born dwarfed with no arms. “He was an angry, distant child,” Arnold said. He had the boy hold a paintbrush in his mouth and started him painting. The boy then began using his toes to make elaborate drawings. Through art, Arnold said, the boy began to open up.
Arnold’s philosophy at CHAC is to be open and receptive with children and provide the validation they need. “If we all take this philosophy,” he said, “we can all be healed.”
The Kiwanis Club presented Arnold with a check for $2,000 to support CHAC’s efforts with at-risk children.
