Irene Maxwell-Curnock | My 30 Year Journey with Interactive Drawing Therapy (IDT)
An SGM Interview with Irene
My 30 Year Journey with Interactive Drawing Therapy (IDT)
Irene Maxwell-Curnock is a retired spiritual director, counsellor and marriage celebrant, based in Tauranga, New Zealand. She discovered Interactive Drawing Therapy in the 1980’s and trained with its creator, Russell Withers. In this blog post, Katrina Tulip has a conversation with Irene about IDT and how it has shaped her practice as a contemplative, counsellor and spiritual director over many decades.
Irene, how did you first encounter Interactive Drawing Therapy (IDT)?
Before I share my experiences with IDT, I would like to make a disclaimer that what follows are personal reflections on my memories and experiences of using IDT personally and in my practice as a counsellor and spiritual director. The IDT therapeutic process is complex, and I have only given a small representation of that, and with my particular emphasis.
I would also like to acknowledge and honour its inventor, Russell Withers. Russell was an architect who left his architectural profession in order to put together an Interactive Drawing Therapy (IDT). You can read more about his journey here.
I must have met Russell in the 1980’s, when he first put out to the community an invitation to engage with the IDT process that he had developed.
What sparked my interest in IDT, was the notion of using drawing. I’m a visual person and drawing helps me to remember much better than writing notes about something. So, feeling excited, I turned up, along with several others. I can still picture Russell standing before us at the front of the room, armed with large sheets of brown architectural paper, and then he began to draw.
I remember thinking, “I don’t know what to write down. I don’t know where I’m supposed to start. I don’t know what his process is.” This was because Russell himself was in the early stages of attempting to put his ideas out to other people. 20-30 years later, Russell was still making changes to his therapy. That it was an evolving therapy, interested me, perhaps because it gave me permission to evolve it in the way that suited me.
When you learn a modality, it is really important, for me anyway, to make it your own. You may have a different emphasis on part of the process, and so it may not be the same as that of the person who developed the modality. Just as Russell continued to evolve IDT itself, so my own relationship with IDT continued to evolve over time.
What was the context in which you used IDT initially?
I learned IDT in the context of my work as a counsellor and it was only later that I used IDT as a spiritual director. I began my counselling with an organisation called Marriage Guidance. We were trained to work with couples and with individuals. Couple counselling is quite different to being in a one-to-one situation. One of the requirements for being a counsellor is to engage in ongoing learning with various modalities, and the thing that excited me the most, was that IDT was the first modality that I had seen which used drawing a part of the counselling session.
How would you describe what IDT is? How did you use it in a one-on-one counselling session?
Working with IDT, requires the counsellor practitioner to introduce the use of drawing to the client. If needed, we would reassure our clients that they do not have to be skilled at drawing to enter into this process. Rather, it’s about putting something down on the page that he or she can relate to.
It could be an image, words, or a combination of both. The theory behind this, is that both side of the brain are being used: words and conversation activating the analytical left side of the brain and the use of images engaging the visual creative right side of the brain.
The working relationship looks like this:
In the session the roles can be visually portrayed like this. The arrows show who is looking where. The counsellor is paying attention to the client and the page. The client is paying attention to the page they are drawing on and interacting with.
The counsellor is looking for three things as the client communicates: words, behaviour and images.
And as the client talks, the counsellor is listening for a metaphor. For example: ‘It’s like icing sliding off a cake.’
The counsellor would respond, “Put that down on the page in whatever way that you would like to.” From here, the counsellor would hold up the page and say, “Tell me about what you have drawn (or written).” The counsellor is looking and listening for words that will tell the client’s story. I would repeat the potent words and encourage the client by asking them to draw or write something that would give more meaning to the image already on the page.
By the end of the session, the client would have a much fuller idea and expression of what they came to counselling for.
What stands out to you as you look back on your training experiences with Russell?
IDT is a therapeutic process, and when we were training with Russell, he took time to describe each of the different stages of IDT. The drawings produced by new clients, would indicate where they are at in this process. For example, if a new client arrived, and they were in a difficult situation which had suddenly come upon them, and were feeling anxious and overwhelmed, this would indicate that they are at the beginning of the therapeutic process.
They may say something like, “I feel like I’m in a deep dark place, and I don’t know how to get out of it.” So, you could pick up on that metaphor, and say to the client, “That deep dark place – could you put it somehow onto the page?”
And from there, you develop that image. As Russell would say, alongside the images that go on the page, are the words used by the client, and the behaviour exhibited by the client. It is important to be attuned to each of these aspects.
In my counselling practice, the majority of my clients benefited from IDT. Perhaps it is important to mention here, that IDT really appealed to me. Some wise advice was once given me in regard to being a marriage celebrant, and it is relevant here as well. If you like a modality, you are far more able to present it in a way that engages the client.
How have you engaged with IDT as a spiritual director?
First, as a directee, I was invited by my spiritual director to participate in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, part-time over a thirty-week period, as I worked through the break up of my marriage. I used IDT for myself throughout this process.
Then I went through the Spiritual Exercises a second time, as part of my training to become a spiritual director. I was trained to offer the Spiritual Exercises to others, but I didn’t do this, because my preference was for IDT.
I used IDT with those who came to me for spiritual direction, and I did so in a very similar manner to how I used it with counselling clients. I suppose one of the main differences would be that there were images that were put on the page pertaining to God, or to voices that they have heard that they thought came from God, and reflecting on how their spirituality was connected with their everyday life.
IDT is very able to be utilised in these situations as well. I would follow a similar process as with my counselling clients: holding up the page to show them what they had drawn, looking at the images and words, and observing how he or she was behaving. I might ask them to look more deeply at a potent word or at a meaningful image that they had put on the page.
Is IDT a problem-based therapy or can it be used in other ways?
I think IDT can be used in a number of ways. For example, in spiritual direction we are looking to grow, to deepening our understanding of our spirituality, and to better see how this part of ourselves is connected to other aspects of our lives. In IDT we can separate out these parts of our lives, or bring them together.
Is there anything to be aware of when doing IDT with others?
There are two things that I think are really important.
IDT can move very quickly. It’s a modality that people often enjoy, and there is a danger in the client going so quickly and then almost collapsing, because they haven’t thought about how it is affecting them internally.
That brings me to the next important thing, and that is to do with the questions you ask the client. If you go back to Russell’s use of the page and working with the client in regard to their words, images and behaviour, it is really important if you can, to be observing your client carefully, and if needed, to be asking them to slow down by saying for example, ‘Let’s have another long look at what you have drawn.’ Russell would have said, ‘Loiter with intent’ which I think is a helpful phrase.
So it’s helpful to have strategies to slow down the process?
Yes. As spiritual directors, by focusing on those three things: the words, the images and the behaviour of the client, you are better prepared to consider what kind of questions will I ask of this client as I look at them? For example, I might say, ‘I’m wondering how you are feeling right now?’ And having listened to their response, I might say, ‘Let’s just sit quietly for a moment,’ and lean back in my chair.
In regard to crayons, it is important to use big thick crayons in IDT, mainly because little crayons produce little images. Sometimes clients or directees might say, “I can’t get enough detail with these big crayons.’ I might respond with: ‘Perhaps you could draw the image a little bit bigger and you can tell me about the details.’
I am aware that at this time of your life you have moved into a retirement phase - letting go of your counsellor and spiritual director roles. I’m wondering if IDT has a place in your life now?
Yes, it still does. I use IDT for myself. I continue to receive spiritual direction and I am fortunate to have a spiritual director who has done a lot of IDT training as I have. So we use it in most sessions and it still excites me to do so.
Is there anything you might want to say to a spiritual director who is considering training in IDT?
It is something that I would encourage people to do, to have a go at. IDT is a unique visual modality that can enrich and enhance spiritual direction. Having used it for about 25 to 30 years with many clients I can tell you how helpful it can be. For example, one person who had been coming to see me for about 6 months to a year, told me that her bedroom wall was covered with her drawings, and she was able to look at them and see the process and realise how much she has grown and developed into a new person.
