When I think of children who are quieter, I think about clients in the past and how art therapy helped them. While I cannot tell you their confidential stories, or share pictures of their artwork, their images created in art therapy still come to my memory. Powerful images.

For several years, I worked as a Marriage & Family Therapist and a Registered Art Therapist in San Diego with an organization that provides emergency safe housing for people escaping intimate partner violence. Most are women with children. I want to share a few things that I learned from those brave families that may help you as you are dealing with a stay-at-home order or “sheltering in place” with your children.

You may be caught up in worry. Your kids may feel isolated. We all have less contact with the world. Seeing people in a zoom call is flat, and you can’t hug them. Masked people can’t see one another’s smile. With a mask, I can’t smell the lemons or the bakery items at the store. It all makes it more difficult to be grounded and present in this moment.

Right now there is so much our children don’t understand about what is going on, but as parents, we can make a difference in how our children remember this time in history. So, while we are being told to cover our faces for the common good, here are my three tips, offered with an abundance of care.