There may or may not be an identifiable product at the end of this process, such as a ‘potion’ 3 or a ‘messy package’ 4 that the child or young person may wish to either keep or discard. ![]() Solid materials and artefacts (like glitter and small-world figures) may be introduced into the mixtures as required by their makers. Messy use of art materials is often described in terms of fluids like water, paint and glue being used as a substrate for processes of swamping, smearing, spilling, pouring, dripping and mixing. In my experience, this kind of literal mess-making can involve art materials, toys and any other objects that are present in the space. In the counselling room, mess is perhaps easiest to identify when children and young people explicitly create some kind of physical chaos, untidiness or disorder. For example, the Merriam-Webster entry includes, ‘…a disordered, untidy, offensive, or unpleasant state or condition’ and ‘…one that is disordered, untidy, offensive, or unpleasant usually because of blundering, laxity, or misconduct’. Nonetheless, dictionary definitions of mess all seem to touch on things that are usually considered to be negative: dirt, confusion, problems, trouble, difficulty and so on. Mess is a nebulous concept your mental image of ‘mess’ will likely look and feel different from the mess conjured up in my imagination, or anyone else’s. So, if this article prompts you to go away and do some further thinking about mess (and your relationship with it), so much the better! I anticipate that this article might leave you with more questions than answers, and this is no bad thing, since mess can be such a significant part of a therapeutic intervention, for both service users and professionals. Finally, I introduce my own model for thinking about orientations towards (or away from) mess, and consider how this simple framework might help us to make sense of the messes that are created in therapy. I start by exploring what ‘mess’ actually means, both inside and outside the therapy space, and share what other writers have had to say about it, drawing on art psychotherapy theory and literature. Experience suggests that mess of one kind or another is a ubiquitous feature of therapy, where messes, both literal and metaphorical, can usefully help to express, communicate and process a wide range of experiences. Although this is not confirmed by the author of the book the character could have been inspired by the character Smudge created by Maurício de Souza, since they are both dirty and hate bathing and have a friend who speaks incorrectly.The title of this article may sound like the start of a joke, but I want to make the claim that mess, mess-making and messiness are serious matters when we work therapeutically with children, young people and families.His name What-a-Mess is a pun on the word "what a mess".What-a-Mess can see some strange little creatures (probably goblins) and he can interact with them even though he knows they are not real, his hair is so messy that bird's nest on his head and in case he has a blue bird on his head. In some moments of the story What-a-Mess likes to interact with his next-door neighbor a snobby cat named Felicia he is always trying to invite her to play with him but being a sophisticated character, she always says she doesn't want to get her paws dirty. His best friend is Norton, a blue dog who always has his tongue hanging out and the two always like to have fun together however in the episode "Felicia's Forever" when Norton is paying more attention to the cat Felicia What-a-Mess gets upset and lonely without his presence. What-a-Mess is a dog that doesn't like to bathe and many times when he runs away from the bath that his owners try to give him, he accidentally ends up causing chaos throughout the city. He loves to play with his friends and try new things even though sometimes it gets him and the other characters into a lot of trouble. What-a-Mess has a habit of not bathing and has a great passion for dirt and playing in the mud, even though he didn't want to, his owners always forced him to take a shower and that always makes What-a-Mess very upset. He wears a red collar with a silver tag hanging from it. What-a-Mess is a shaggy dog with greenish fur and smudges of dirt and mud, a long nose and hair so messy and leafy that it has a few birds nesting on its head.
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