MUSCATINE, Iowa — In a quiet room at Muscatine’s Family Resources office, Anna Cavazos finds peace in the melding colors of her own creations.

Cavazos, who deals with the effects of post- traumatic stress syndrome, said said Cynthia Prodzinski, a certified art therapist at the agency, has a unique way of helping her gain perspective.

Prodzinski encourages people of all ages who come to her for counseling to focus on creating art in various mediums as they discuss the things they find troubling.

 “Cynthia tries to keep me focussed on the here and now,” said Cavazos, 34, who suffered an emotional break down in 1995 when she was a sophomore in college.

 She began attending sessions with Prodzinski in December 2008.

“Cynthia has been very inspirational to me,” said Cavazos. “She is a strong and confident woman, and I hope to be like that someday.”

Prodzinski said creating various types of art, such as paint-by-number, or filling in the defined sections of a design, provides people with the safe feeling of structure. Once people become engrossed in the project, other parts of their minds are freed up and they can began to experience their feelings.

“It awakened a lot of feelings I didn’t know I had,” said Cavazos. “The art gives me something to focus on, so I can talk more freely to Cynthia.”

Cavazos takes her coping skills home, too.

Prodzinski gave Cavazos  designs, called mondalas, to take home with her and fill in with colors of her choice.

Prodzinski said the mondalas provide a safety zone inside the lines where the colors are applied with crayons, paint or some other medium.

“When I feel stressed or angry, I can reach for those and color them,” said Cavazos.

Prodzinski said the right side of the brain, which is involved in creating art, is also the area where traumatic memories are stored.

Prodzinski assists her clients in exposing those memories through the imagery in their art so they talk about them, and process them to the left side of the brain, which can reduce traumatic stress.

The therapy has produced tangible results, said Cavazos, who once used to cut herself to relieve her anxiety. She hasn’t cut herself in eight months, she said, as shechannels her emotions into more positive activities.

Cavazos said there was a time when her doctors didn’t think she would recover beyond the marked regressed state she entered into after suffering the emotional break down.

Today, she works at Snacker’s II, a downtown Muscatine restaurant that employs area residents who have various types of developmental disabilities.

Earlier this year, a piece of Cavazos’ artwork became an auction item for the annual Muscatine Humane Society fundraiser, Whine, Whiskers and Paws.

“One day, you have a simple line on a page,” said Cavazos. “Three or four visits later, you have an entire canvas. Once you create something, you know anything is possible.”

Play therapy

Cynthia Prodzinski, a therapist at Muscatine Family Resources Inc. , conducts play-therapy sessions which can be beneficial for children who have suffered trauma and abuse.

A special room at the Family Resources offices houses a variety of options for play, including a sandbox, playhouse furnishings, puppets and puzzles.

Children can play out their family and personal dynamics as the trained therapist helps them put a voice to their concerns and dilemmas, said Prodzinski. They can also channel their feelings of anger or rage into safe and appropriate expressions through play.