Scribble technique

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Florence Cane · 1951 · New York, USA

What it is

The scribble technique is not a full therapy. It is a single warm-up-and-drawing method devised by Florence Cane (1882–1952), a New York artist and art teacher and older sister of art therapy pioneer Margaret Naumburg. She taught at Naumburg's Children's School (later the Walden School), founded…

Format

• No published phase structure, session count or progression criteria exist for the method. It happens within one sitting and has an internal sequence. The sequence below combines Cane's elements with McNamee's clinical steps. Timings and decision points are.
• Typical use. A single exercise inside an ordinary session, often the client's first art experience in therapy. McNamee introduced it in session 3 of a cognitive therapy course for anxiety, panic and depression. It can be repeated across sessions as a ritual opening or when talk stalls. Materials…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• How change happens (Cane's theory). Cane held that movement, feeling and thought are the main ways we meet the world, linking movement to rhythm, feeling to energy and thought to balance. Blocks stop people expressing themselves, and finding and removing them frees expression. Work began by releasing the body's rhythms through breathing, movement and sound: rhythmic movement helps order confusion, and large-scale…
• Professional frame. No credential exists for the scribble itself. It is a simple drawing directive used in art education, art therapy and talk therapy (McNamee used it alongside cognitive therapy). A psychotherapist can use it as a non-interpretive, client-led exercise within their own competence. Do not describe your work as "art therapy" unless you hold that qualification: UK HCPC registration as an art…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Hesitation at the moment of contact. Keep the movement going as the pen lands.
• Clients looking at examples and saying "I can't do that". Remove art-quality comparisons from the room.
• Over-arousal, falls and fatigue. Some clients can be flooded by intense, cathartic movement: slow down or return to a small sheet (Section 5).
• Feeling infantilised or not taken seriously. One of McNamee's clients felt this, and engaged fully once the rationale was explained. Give the reason before the instruction.
• Self-criticism coming back once the drawing is 'real'. Return to the 4.2 framing and comment on process, not skill (Cane). Signs it's working: absorption. Following Cane, don't interrupt then.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.