Emotion worksheet for kids
Summary
Therapists can use the inside outside self-portrait worksheet to help youth map internal emotions against external social expectations.
This versatile art therapy intervention extends to variations like the inside outside home or tree to uncover hidden client insights.
Practitioners can introduce these inside outside therapy activities during sessions or assign them as therapeutic homework to track progress.
The inside outside self-portrait exercise can be a useful art therapy intervention to help children and teens develop their sense of self.
This article provides an overview of inside outside therapy activities, art therapy prompts, and suggestions for using our therapy self-portrait worksheet with clients.
What is the inside outside self-portrait exercise?
The inside outside self-portrait exercise helps clients explore their identity, emotions, and how they present themselves through art therapy.
In the activity, clients create two masks to illustrate how they feel or see themselves (their internal or inside self) and how others perceive them (external or outside self).
The instructions for the inside outside self-portrait exercise are as follows:
Give the client a piece of paper with a pre-printed blank mask outline.
Ask the client to illustrate their internal self through writing, drawing, painting, or collaging. This mask may represent thoughts, feelings, memories, desires, symbols, phrases, or things hidden from others. Prompts might include:
What do you wish others knew about you?
If you were to show your whole self, what would others learn about you?
Using the second page of the worksheet packet, ask the client to repeat the exercise, focusing on their external self. They can use phrases, symbols, feelings, thoughts, or memories to illustrate how others see them, their roles (e.g., student or friend), and feelings or emotions they allow others to see. Prompts might include:
How would your friends, parents, or teachers describe you?
What expectations limit how you are supposed to be?
Describe the social norms that impact how you present yourself.
Reflecting on the activity, ask the client:
Which portrait was easier to create? Why?
What differences can you identify between your inside and outside self?
After this exercise, which parts of yourself do you want to show more of?
What would you change about your outside self?
Examples of other inside outside therapy activities
The inside outside self-portrait is adaptable to other representations of the client’s life, such as:
Inside outside home: This activity uses a house outline to illustrate how the client’s home life or family appears to others and how things feel living inside the house.
Inside outside tree: This exercise is similar to the inside out self-portrait, but uses the outline of a tree instead. The trunk and roots reflect the client’s internal experiences—such as their desires, feelings, identity, and things others don’t see—while the branches and leaves represent their outside expression.
Inside outside journal: Using a piece of paper, clients might reflect on one side how they feel about themselves, or thoughts they have about themselves. On the other side of the paper, they can illustrate the thoughts and feelings they don’t share with others.
Additional art therapy prompts
These activities are inspired by art therapy techniques and can be facilitated by any licensed clinician as expressive or creative interventions.
Beyond inside outside therapy activities, some additional creative exercises to incorporate into your practice include:
Color your mood: This activity involves assigning an emotion and color to sections of a pie chart based on how you feel. The client can repeat the exercise to track their mood changes on different days.
Drawing a safe place: This exercise helps clients build an inner sense of safety by creating a place where they feel safe. This place can be real or imagined. You might ask the client to illustrate what they see, hear, smell, or feel there. The image can be used as a coping strategy during stressful moments.
Feelings collage: This activity offers a way to externalize overwhelming feelings and anxiety-related emotions. Clients can collage their feelings with old magazines, pictures, tape, stickers, and other media. They may reflect on what their art represents and any insights they gained.
How to use the inside outside self-portrait worksheet
You can download and use the inside outside self-portrait worksheet in several ways:
Use the worksheet during the session as a psychoeducational prompt.
Work on inside outside therapy activities during the therapy session so the client can take it home to reflect on.
Ask the client to work on their inside outside self-portrait activity worksheet between sessions and report their progress at their next therapy appointment.
Save the portrait intervention to your electronic health record (EHR) for future sessions.
Share the worksheet with coworkers.
Sources
Art Therapy Association. (n.d.). What is Art Therapy?
Carr, S. M. D. (2020). Portrait Therapy: Supporting Client Voices of Self-Identity. Art Therapy.
Catalano, A. (2016). Art Therapy Directive: Inside Out/Outside In. Expressive Social Worker.
How SimplePractice streamlines running your practice
SimplePractice is HIPAA-compliant practice management software with everything you need to run your practice built into the platform—from booking and scheduling to insurance and client billing.
If you’ve been considering switching to an EHR system, SimplePractice empowers you to run a fully paperless practice—so you get more time for the things that matter most to you.
Try SimplePractice free for 30 days. No credit card required.
