• The Children’s Village is a residential school for at-risk boys aged 6 to 20 in an enriched and structured program aimed at preparing them to be successful members of their families and communities. It focuses on teaching pro-social behavior and fosters a love of learning, the acquisition of career-oriented job skills, and the development of leisure interests and skills that will foster life-long emotional and physical health and well being.

• The populations they deal with are youth with behavioral issues, family problems, alien children, and children sent there from court order.

TTAP Method with the boys

• I performed the TTAP method with the boys that were all in the same cottage. This cottage consisted of teenage boys with drug and alcohol problems.

• I took the boys every session through a meditation and body relaxation. With all positive results to relax their body and mind.

• Once their minds and bodies were relaxed, I took them into a guided imagery where they were remembering positive memories and images.

• Then we take these images and memories and turn them into art work where they get time to relax and create something that is theirs while enjoying themselves.

Goals from using TTAP

• Social The boys will get to socialize in a calm, relaxing place and talk about what they have created

• EmotionalThe boys will express feelings through memories and their art work.

• PhysicalI will perform a body relaxation for the boys and they will have physical movement through dance.

• Cognitive-The boys will have their minds relaxed and in a calm place through meditation and a guided imagery.

9 Steps of the TTAP Method

1) Meditation/Conversation

2) Music

3) Drawing/Painting

4) Sculpture

5) Dance/Movement

6) Words/Poetry/Stories

7) Food

8) Theme Event

9) Phototherapy

Drawing

• First step was drawing using colored pencils, crayons and markers.

• The children were drawing pictures stimulating positive memories like vacations, family, and even their friends and girlfriends.

Painting

• The second step is painting where the kids would paint images they saw in their guided imagery.

• Since I am dealing with children that have some behavioral problems they painted some inappropriate things for example gang related stuff which there is a zero tolerance of anything gang oriented.

• Most of these children don’t have a lot of positive memories due to the environments they grew up in.

Mask Making

• It was around Halloween

and it was a great idea to

have the children paint

there own mask

symbolizing who they are.

• They really enjoyed this

step we had a lot of fun

talking about past

Halloweens they had.

Sculpture

• This next step I had the

boys make a sculpture of

whatever they wanted but

had to be appropriate.

• This was excellent

because the children got

to create a sculpture then

paint it.

• They made a funny face,

their favorite number, and

a cross.

Collage/Phototherapy

• In the fifth session, I had the boys make a collages.

• I brought in a bunch of magazines which they cut out things they liked and put them all together to make a collage with different colors of paper added to make it look real nice.

• They are teenage boys so they were looking at all the photos of women but I directed them to add some other things they are interested in.

Dance and Movement

• When I first told the boys what this session was, their reaction was, “I don’t dance, I break dance and rap”. So I told them to do that if that’s what you do.

• I brought in some music that they like but the appropriate versions. They just got to dance and move around a little while singing or rapping.

Music to Words on paper

• During this session, the boys listened to music that they like and were allowed to write their own raps or poetry or even just words on paper.

• The boys really liked this they wrote some lyrics they heard in songs that reminded them of themselves.

• They wanted to add art into their work so I let them draw as well, while incorporating words into their art.

Food and Theme Party• Since it was Thanksgiving during

this week and some of the children are not allowed to go home so I decided to combine these two steps with Thanksgiving food and with a party for the boys.

• We had great food brought in by the cottage staff like turkey, corn, mashed potatoes, corn bread and a couple other foods. The boys had a great time while eating a lot.

• Not all these children have really had a family to sit down and eat a nice dinner.

• It was very nice to have the people that basically live with children help prepare meals for them to eat we had a blast.

Accomplishments for the Boys • The boys got to express good memories and

positive thinking.

• The boys got to have fun and most significantly share POSITIVE memories.

• The boys got to try something they have never done before like meditations followed by some form of self expression. The art work they created was like nothing seen before by the staff.

• At the end of every session, the boys thanked me and showed great appreciation to have me running a program where we could talk and create art to occupy their mind.

Accomplishments for Me• Relaxation of the body and mind was performed through

meditations and guided imagery to stimulate positive emotions and memories.

• Getting at least three boys committed to perform the TTAP every week. (I would get a couple of walks-ins to try something new but commitment lacks with a lot of the youths).

• I started a new program at The Children’s Village that the boys have never done before.

• Using Recreational Therapy to connect with children and young adults with behavioral issues and drug and alcohol problems.

• Most of all the TTAP Method really assisted in helping the youths with positive conversations about life and what directions to take while having fun creating art in a relaxed state of mind.