Vision Board: Art-Based Therapy Activity

• Poster board, cardstock or a large sheet of paper
• Magazines, catalogs or pre-cut images showing people of many ages, races, body types and abilities
• Scissors (safety scissors for young children), glue sticks and markers
• Sticky notes or index cards for the weekly action
• Optional: a printed list of values words, or a blank slide for a digital collage

Plan for 40 to 60 minutes, or use two sessions: one to gather, one to arrange and choose an action.

1. 1
   Start with values before anyone picks up scissors. Ask which life areas feel most important right now (family, friends, work or school, health, play, community, faith) and how the client wants to show up in two or three of them. Jot down their words.
2. 2
   Give the gathering instruction: "Pull any picture or word that shows how you want to live or something you care about. You don't need to know why yet." Allow about 15 minutes.
3. 3
   Sort the pile together. Some images point to a way of acting (patient, adventurous, generous) and some to an outcome (a car, a trophy, a beach house). Keep both, and ask what quality each outcome stands for. A beach house might mean rest, or time with family.
4. 4
   Arrange and glue, grouping images by life area or value. Ask the client to label each group in their own words, such as "showing up for my brother" or "staying curious."
5. 5
   Choose one small action for this week. Pick one group and ask what the client could do in the next seven days, even for five minutes, that moves in that direction.

   • Make it specific: what, when and where.
   • Write it on a sticky note or index card the client takes home.
6. 6
   Plan for snags. Ask what thoughts or feelings might get in the way, and how the client could still take the step with those feelings present.
7. 7
   Decide where the board will live and check on the action next session. The free Values Check-In tracks it week to week, and Values-Based Goals: Turning Values into Action helps plan what comes next.

• During: What drew you to this picture? What does it say about how you want to live?
• During: If this image is a goal, what quality sits underneath it?
• After: Which part of the board feels most alive? Which feels furthest away?
• After: Whose voice picked this image, yours or someone else's?
• After: If you lived one of these values this week, what would someone see you doing?

• Kids: Use pre-cut pictures and kid-sized value words (kind, brave, helpful, curious). Ask for one picture of "something I care about" and one of "something I can do this week."
• Teens: Let them build it on a phone and save it as a lock screen. Expect images from music, sports and social media, and ask what each one stands for to them.
• Adults: For clients facing grief, illness or a big life change, build the board around how they want to live within current limits, with an action small enough for a hard day.
• Groups: Each member makes a board, then shares one image and one action. Check on actions at the next meeting.

• Trauma: A wedding, a family dinner, a body, food or alcohol can stir grief or trauma memories. Preview the stack, remove graphic material, and let clients skip any image without explaining.
• Manifesting language: Keep the board tied to actions, and avoid suggesting that looking at pictures makes things happen. The fantasy experiments described in the introduction are one reason the board ends with a step the client can take.
• Flooding and grounding: Naming what matters can expose the distance between that and daily life. If sadness or shame rises, set the scissors down and ground with feet on the floor and a few slow breaths, or use 5-4-3-2-1 grounding.
• When to stop: Pause if the client becomes overwhelmed, compares themselves harshly to the images, or the board turns into a list of "shoulds." Return to one small, kind action, or set the board aside. Hopelessness about the future, or any mention of self-harm, calls for a risk check before going on.
• No diagnostic interpretation: Magazine collage has been used as a projective assessment technique (Landgarten, 1993), and reading artwork that way takes specialist training. Here the client explains what each image means, and that explanation stands.

A 17-year-old client near the end of high school arrived saying nothing felt worth planning for. The counselor began with life areas, and he named friends, music and his younger sister. From the magazines he pulled a guitar, a crowded kitchen table and a hiking trail, and set aside a sports car he said he "should" want. He labeled his groups "making things," "being there for my sister" and "getting outside." For his action, he chose to teach his sister three guitar chords on Saturday afternoon. The next week he said they had played for twenty minutes, and he added a second small step to the board.