How to Help Your Elderly Loved One Build an Image of Her Happy Place

Art therapy can be a powerful tool for your elderly loved one. One project, in particular, that of building a collage of her happy place, can enable your loved one to have a fixed image of a place or grouping of items that can help her to feel calm and happy quickly.

Senior Care in Bridgehampton NY: Senior Art Therapy

Gather Some Materials

Before you get started with the art portion of the project, you have to have supplies. You’ll want a sturdy background, so heavy card stock or even poster board work well. Next, you’ll need scissors, old magazines, glue, and anything else your loved one wants to use. Glitter, markers, crayons, and even colored pencils can all come in handy. Your loved one might also want to use copies of old photos in addition to magazine pictures.

Help Her Find Images that Call to Her

Magazines can give your loved one some excellent background images as well as focal points for her collage. It can take some digging, though, so don’t be discouraged if it takes a while for your loved one to find just the right images. This is her happy place she’s building, so it needs to be as close to what she’s visualizing as she can get it.

Talk While You’re Building the Collage

Building a collage together is an excellent time for you and your loved one to spend some time talking. You can talk about why her happy place is so effective for her or you might use the time to help discover if anything is bothering her. Try not to apply pressure, but let her know you’re there for her.

Put the Finished Image in a Spot Your Loved One Can See it Easily

Once your loved one is happy with her final collage, make sure that you put it in a place where she can see it readily. The power of a happy place collage is similar to that of a vision board. The more your loved one can see it during her day, the more it can do for her. If your loved one makes more than one, you can put them in multiple locations to spread the joy around.

This is one of those activities that you can come back to as often as you and your loved one wish.

If you or an aging loved one is considering hiring senior care in Bridgehampton, NY, call the caring staff at Artful Home Care today at 631-685-5001.