Personal Project: Cri.

A - PLANNING

MY LEARNING GOAL
Personal Project has given me the opportunity to explore my passions beyond the horizons of the
school curriculum. With this opportunity I will not only learn more about my interests but also, I will
gain perspective on how to investigate and perceive information about a topic of my own choosing on
my own terms.
For Personal Project, my Main Learning Goal is:
To gain a broader understanding of the role Art plays Psychology
by exploring Art Therapy, it’s method of application & benefits.
Art is a large part of who I am. It isn’t something you have to
necessarily be good at to enjoy it. You are presented with a blank
canvas on which you can express yourself, your thoughts and
emotions freely. While as part of the school curriculum we are
taught different forms of art and how to create them using a variety
of mediums, I want to understand the psychological impact art can
have on us. In recent years I have developed a newfound interest
in Psychology. Learning about things like how certain events
impact different people or how we make choices and decisions
based on not only experiences but also our observations gives me
a window to how complicated the human brain is. Art is known to
stimulate brain activity, and therefore can play an important role in
how people express themselves. Art Therapy is an excellent
example of this. Art therapy or rather, expressive therapy allows
people to use art as a means of communication, and lets them explore and express their emotions as
well as physical, mental and cognitive states via creative outlets.
While I was always one for creating art based on imagination instead of emotion, with the arrival of
Covid, I was presented with many different feelings at the same time
which was mentally exhausting and also starting to take a personal toll on
how I went about in my day to day life. My relationship with my friends
and family was deteriorating, and I was overtaken with anxiety, and stress
due to declining academics. I tried hard to find new hobbies or activities
that would divert my attention or help me let out what I’ve been feeling
and I found myself turning to Art. At the time, everytime I finished drawing
I felt as though I had released a deep breath I had been holding for
weeks. While the artwords themselves weren’t grandeur, they did give me
an outlet to share what I was feeling. 12
The first time I learned about Psychology in detail was in 7th grade as
a part of my Genius Hour Project, ‘Overlooked Minds’. While the
project was not the most successful, I did gain more knowledge and
interest about Psychology through it. For research on the project, I
found myself flipping through the DSM-5 to gain more knowledge on
specific disorders. I thought it would be boring going through a thick
book full of medical terminology, but the DSM-5 wasn’t just that, it

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IMAGE 1 - Artwork created by me during lockdown 2020
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IMAGE 2 - The logo for my Genius Hour Project, ‘Overlooked Minds’.
explored in detail what each disorder was, its branches, signs, diagnosis and more.
While I don’t plan on reading the DSM for my personal project, I will be going in detail about the
importance of Art Therapy, its advantages and differences from typical therapy. I will be looking into
how Art Therapy exactly interacts with the human mind, how it is conducted, how it aids with different
mental disorders and mental health in general, how it compares to speech therapy and also I will be
exploring some popular Art Therapists and examples of Art Therapy patients.

MY PRODUCT GOAL
My Product goal for Personal Project is conveying the concept of Art Therapy to my audience in a
coherent and intelligible manner. I want my information to be compact and not contain too many terms
which could cause confusion, and this can be best done in the form of a booklet which is, as said in
the dictionary, “a small, thin book with paper covers, typically giving information on a particular
subject.”. A booklet's short nature will prevent an overflow of information, and make it seem more
approachable as many people are not keen readers, and small books would show more appeal. So,
my Main Product Goal is to make a booklet containing information about different aspects of Art
Therapy.

Product Features

Target Audience 
My target audience will be Teenagers. At 13, when most children start puberty,
they become more aware of their Mental Health. They start developing issues
like body dysmorphia or anxiety. At this age they need someone or something to
act as an aid, and with my booklet, I want to inform them about a way they can
process their emotions. Moreover, this booklet will also be helpful to audiences of
older ages since they are equipped to get professional help through therapy, and
it will be a way of informing them that there is more than the traditional form of
therapy for them to consult.

No. of Pages My booklet will have 50-60 pages. Since booklets are small and I will need to
add a lot of information in them, I will need at least 50-60 pages to make a
booklet which does not look like it is overfilled, but has a balance of art-related
elements and writing.

Contents The contents of my booklet will include a mix of art which expresses emotion or
was made for therapeutic relief and text which contains details about art therapy.

Aesthetics Since I will be designing the booklet for mainly teenagers, it can not be very
subtle, or too dramatic in design. A very subtle design will cause it to go
unnoticed and something which is too dramatic will be ignored. However, since it
is a booklet containing art, I will use a black and white monochrome color palette
with pops of bright colors so that it isn’t plain but also isn’t overwhelming for the
eyes.

PRODUCT SUCCESS CRITERIA

A success criteria is incredibly helpful and necessary when designing a product. It helps evaluate the
product based on what was the expectation that you had for yourself before starting work on the
product. It sets a bar for you to work in accordance with as compared to starting with no success
criteria which would mean there is no prior clarity as to what the project is supposed to be. With the
help of a success criteria you can achieve a product of the best quality. Simply, a successful product
requires a success criteria. For my success criteria, I have done basic research about what art therapy
is because it is the basis of my product and to make a success criteria I will need to be completely
clear about what the basis of my product is. Without the basic research I will be creating a success
criteria for a product I do not know anything about.

Success Criteria

Criteria Specification Justification Evaluation

No. of My page As mentioned before, Having 50-60 pages This can be simply evaluated by
Pages count will be allows me to have a booklet which does not counting the number of pages
50-60 pages. seem too text heavy. It will allow the booklet found in the end product.
to have a balance of text and art.

Aesthetics Monochrome As mentioned before, having a color palette This can be evaluated by the
palette with which is too subtle will cause it to not seem colors in the final design of the
elements of significant enough to be picked up, and if booklet. I will create a digital
brighter the colors are too bright and bold, it won’t palette and analyze the colors.
colors. be correlated to therapy as easily and
would overstimulate the eyes.

Contents A balance of This is a booklet about Art as much as it is
text and about Therapy, therefore it cannot just be
pictures. all text. Instead, I will look towards making
a booklet with a good balance of pictures to
text so that the text isn’t all-consuming or
that the pictures take away from the text.
This can be evaluated through a
ratio. I would like a ratio of 4:6 for
pictures to text in my booklet. I will
calculate the ratio of pictures to
text of the final booklet to assess
this criteria.

Credibility Is the When it comes to a topic like Mental
information I Health, research needs to be thorough
am providing since it is a delicate thing. Making
valid or not? assumptions or using sources that have no
credibility is not only detrimental to the
reader but it is also unjust to them. A
reader puts their trust in you, and for that
you need to give them information which is
backed with proof.
I need to review sources which do
not only ‘seem’ reliable but
actually fit that criteria. I will need
to double check each article's
writer, and the writer's own
sources. A product which is meant
to be informative cannot include
the wrong information.

Originality Did I come As a MYP student, I value originality above To evaluate this, I will need to
up with the all else. It is extremely important to me that document the thought process (in
text on my the work I do is mine, and not someone the form of notes) behind every
own or is it else’s or something which can be read off topic I write about so that I have
taken from of any other website or piece of literature. substantial evidence that the work
another's is in fact, original.
writing?

While this is the written Success Criteria, I also need a one which is able to grade my product to make
it easier for me to assess my work.
Success Levels
Criteria
0 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8

No. of None of No. of pages No. of pages No. of pages is just No. of pages is
Pages the falls below 30. falls below 40. below 50 or just between 50-60.
following above 60.
Criteria
are met.

Aesthetics None of The The booklet's The booklet has a The booklet has
the Aesthetics are colors are bright few colors or patterns the right balance
following dull and and but it is not engaging. of monochrome
Criteria bland, making standoff-ish. Or, the booklet has elements and
are met. the book some notes of colorful elements
unnoticeable. subtlety but is still too so that the
extreme. booklet stands
out but does not
disturb the
viewer.

Contents None of The content is The content is The content is The content is
the unrelated to relevant and relevant, informative easily
following the topic or informative but and comprehensively comprehensible,
Criteria provides there is an conveyed, the ratio of informative and
are met. insufficient imbalance in pictures to text is 3:6, relevant. The
detail, And the ratio of however there is not picture to text
there are no pictures to text enough content ratio is 4:6. The
or close to no which is provided for the content is limited
pictures / supposed to be reader to develop a yet it is enough
there are too 1:6. clear understanding to convey the
many of the topic, or there meaning of the
pictures. is too much topic.
information, making
the booklet extensive
and confusing.

Credibility None of None of the Majority of the Some of the work All of the work
the work done work done has done has not been done has been
following has been not been picked picked up from picked up from
Criteria picked up up from unidentified sources. identified
are met. from identified unidentified sources.
sources. sources.

Originality None of Majority of the Some of the None of the work has The work is not
the work done work done has been vaguely copied plagiarized or
following has been been vaguely or plagiarized but vaguely copied,
Criteria plagiarized or copied. there are little to no the citations are
are met. vaguely citations or the all present and
copied. citations aren’t in all of them are in
MLA. MLA.
PLANNING TO ACHIEVE THE PRODUCT / TIMELINE
For all the projects I have done so far, a timeline of the project was an integral part of the process. All
those projects had the elements predetermined and we had some framework provided to us, which
will help me immensely in making a Timeline for my Personal Project. My method for working consists
of Research, Designing, Drafting, Promoting, Finalizing and finally, Producing. All of these steps are
crucial to me achieving a successful product. I will need to give time and attention to each step since
they all play incredibly large roles for me to achieve my product.
Managing time is the bread and butter of any project, and as far as I can remember it has been
something which made me struggle. However with this project I aim to change that by creating a plan
that gives me enough time to not only perfect each step but also provides me with extra time incase of
delays. Firstly I need to create a plan discussing all the steps in detail.
My product needs to be ready by 31st
October. This gives me approx. 2 months
to complete my product.
I chose a Gantt chart to present my divided
time since a Gantt Chart is not only efficient
but also easy to understand.
This Gantt chart represents all 6 of my
steps and their subtopics all divided under a
54 day time period. While I was working on

the ‘Promotion’ portion of this Chart, I realized

that it will not be viable for me to actually sell
my booklet. It is meant to be a helpful guide
which is made to have a positive impact and
moreover, production costs are high and trying
to cover them in the product cost would make
the booklet overpriced, therefore, I eliminated
this part of my project. This was crucial to do in order to create a feasible goal.

To make relevant connections from my timeline to my Success Criteria, I chose to make a table since
that allowed the addition of more details, and also it allowed me to create a timeline in which I have
not included my production and promotion points.

Steps Date Task Details Success Criteria

Step 1: 7th Sept Making Research Questions Contents, Credibility

Research
7th-17th Sept Research Contents, Credibility

17th-18th Sept Compile source links in MLA Credibility, Originality

 18th-19th Make Research questions about Aesthetics, No. of Pages
Sept Booklets

18th-19th Research Booklets and compile Originality, Credibility

Sept source links in MLA

Step 2: 20th Sept Decide on Software Aesthetics

Designing
20th Sept Decide on Color Scheme Aesthetics

21st-25th Sept Make 4 cover layouts Aesthetics, Originality

26th Sept Make and send out a feedback form Aesthetics, Promotion

29th Sept - Choose a design in reference to the Aesthetics

16th Oct feedback and design the booklet.

16th-18th Oct Supervisor Feedback Not a specific Success

Criteria, however it is
important to take feedback
while doing a project from
someone who can guide you.

18th-21st Oct Make changes in accordance to Feedback is valued and

Supervisor Feedback important for a reason and it
should be acted upon.

Step 3: 21st-22nd Oct Form Chapters for Booklet Contents

Drafting
23rd Oct - 20th Write Content Contents
Nov

20th-22nd Nov Supervisor Feedback Not a specific Success

Criteria, however it is
important to take feedback
while doing a project from
someone who can guide you.

23rd-25th Nov Make changes in accordance to Feedback is valued and

Supervisor Feedback important for a reason and it
should be acted upon.

Step 4: 26th-27th Nov Find Artworks which were created Contents, Aesthetics
Finalizing as expressions of emotions.

27th Nov Compile Artwork and Text into the No. of pages, Aesthetics,
Booklet. Contents

28th Nov- 10th Edit the Text and Design as needed. Contents
Dec

11th-14th Dec Supervisor Feedback Not a specific Success

Criteria, however it is
important to take feedback
 while doing a project from
someone who can guide you.

15th-17th Dec Make changes in accordance to Feedback is valued and

Supervisor Feedback important for a reason and it
should be acted upon.

PERSONAL PROJECT: RESEARCH DOCUMENT

Personal Project: Cri.B - Applying Skills

ACHIEVING THE LEARNING GOAL

● Learning Goal - ATL Skill - Thinking Skills

To achieve my learning goal of understanding the involvement of art in psychology via art therapy, the
application of thinking skills was critical. I utilized Critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills and
transfer skills to develop an understanding of the role art plays in psychology.
Critical Thinking skills:
- Analyzing and evaluating ideas
Critical thinking skills were required in my learning goal to identify the details of the product that I was
creating. I had to understand what exactly I was trying to create, and how I was going to go about
creating it. This is where I used critical thinking. I planned out my…
➔ Product Features - Making a chart regarding the details of my products.
➔ Success Criteria - Making a grading system for the details previously listed.
➔ Product Timeline - A timeline in which I listed down the tasks which I had to accomplish and the
success criteria and dates I had to accomplish them under.
- Practice observing carefully in order to recognize problems
While going through my success criteria, I realized that printing and producing copies of my booklet on
a large scale would be financially taxing, and overall unnecessary. It would increase the time I would
spend on my product and it would turn into an extremely complicated process of finding a publisher
and other such activities. Moreover, it was impractical to charge my audience so much, if anything, for
a booklet.
- Propose and evaluate a variety of solutions
For the problem stated above, I found that the best revolution would be to print out 3 copies of the
booklet maximum, one which I could place in the school’s library, one which could be displayed as my
final product and one which I could keep with myself. Since my audience consists of teenagers and
adults, they already have easy access to the internet, therefore I realized it would be more practical in
the long term to publish the booklet online which would make it more widely accessible and free of
cost.
- Recognize unstated assumptions and bias
As I was looking through social media posts and blogs which were regarding art therapy, a common
occurance I found in them all was the presence of the statement, “Well I’m not good at art, I can’t do
art therapy.”, or “Art Therapy isn’t any good, I’ve tried those mandala books.” and other messages
under the same pretenses. These were all concepts I also had believed however as I learned more
about what art therapy is, I recognized that these were all baseless assumptions that formed due to a
lack of knowledge. Art therapy does not require the participant to be an expert artist, in fact someone
with zero experience in art could participate in art therapy just as well as a professional artist.
Moreover, the coloring mandala books are not art therapy, they do not have the same effects as art
therapy, and are simply just coloring books. In some cases art therapy may even utilize mandala
books however, the therapy session would not end there since the actual process of art therapy is
much more intricate.
 Creative Thinking skills:
- Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products or
processes
As I was coming up with my initial idea, I was confused about what kind of
product I needed to produce. The product had to be interesting, but also
informative. It had to be engaging for all ages, young and old. To make the
process simpler, I made a chart through which I was able to decide on a
product. I had to use pre-existing knowledge to list down what would interest
teenagers and what would interest adults and what kind of source they would
be open to learning from.

● Learning Goal - ATL Skills - Research Skills

My learning goal is heavily research based. It required me to gain a much more wide-spread
understanding of the role that art plays in therapy than what I had previously. I used research skills for
accomplishing this goal.
- Collect, record and verify data
After I had formed my research questions, I needed to conduct the research. For this I had to be
careful to inspect the source of my information before consuming any of it since an unestablished
source would give me invalid information, and consuming that information could have potentially
rendered my view of the subject to something incorrect or false. Therefore I made sure before reading
from the source I was consuming, I had enough information about the source itself and its credibility.
This is why the sources I utilized were mainly “AATA”, or, the American Art Therapy Association, which
is a large established organization or sources like the “Thirsty for Art” Youtube channel, made by an
ATR (Registered Art Therapist).
- Access information to be informed and inform others
The information I obtained from the research was all relevant to my topic. I covered all my research
questions, which was able to help me gain enough information to introduce not only the concept of art
therapy to my readers but also explain how art therapy helped, how it was different from the more well
known forms of therapy like behavioral therapy/talk therapy and also clear up misconceptions about
art therapy.
- Understand and implement intellectual property rights
With all my research I made sure to state that the
research did not root from my prior knowledge, but
was taken from pre-existing sources in order to not
claim any of the work as my own. I did this with the
research regarding the topic, research regarding a
booklet's design as well as the images I used
throughout the booklet.
- Create references and citations, use
footnotes/endnotes and construct a bibliography
according to recognized conventions
All of the sources which were used for my research
were cited using MLA format.
- Make connections between various sources of
information
Another way I was able to verify my sources for
information was picking up 2-3 credible sources for
each research question I had. By picking up multiple
sources, I was able to go through all of them and
develop a better understanding of the main topic. All
2-3 sources conveyed similar things in different ways. With this I not only gained a clearer
understanding, but also my sources became more credible. With all the information from all sources
put together I became more aware of the topic, and all gaps in my knowledge were filled.
● Product Goal - ATL Skill - Communication Skills + Social Skills
Throughout my project, I needed to put my communication and social skills to use to approach many
different people about their opinions.

- Receive meaningful feedback + Use a variety of media to

communicate with a range of audiences
In order to make my project successful, I needed to consider the
likes and dislikes of a wide audience, and there is no better way
to do this than to approach the audience themselves. While
designing my booklet, I needed to consider what kind of cover
my audience would like the most. I did this by making a feedback
form and sending it out to audiences of all ages on online media
like Whatsapp and Instagram.
- Interpret and use effectively modes of non-verbal
communication
After I had sent out the forms, the responses were slow to come,
however, after some time I got 35 responses. These responses
were able to help me understand the likes and dislikes of my
audience, which aided me to make a booklet more inclined
towards their preferences.

- Preview and skim texts to build understanding

To build my understanding of the topic quickly while also making sure the information itself was valid, I
decided I would spend more time on finding out the credentials of the author/creator of the source
rather than all the sources themselves. I skimmed through all the resources to confirm if they were
based on the same premises or not. This helped me gain understanding faster and more efficiently.
- Organize and depict information logically
After I was done with verifying and skimming the sources I found, I
needed to compile them all in a manner which made them easy and
straight-forward to access. To do this, I used google docs to list down my
research questions, and one by one added the relevant text from each of
the sources for every question. While this process took time, it was worth
it since now I can find all relevant sources whenever needed without
hassle.
- Listen actively to other perspectives and ideas
I realized that if I wanted a booklet which is able to convey the concept of
art therapy even more strongly, it would be incredibly beneficial to
approach a professional on the matter. This would increase not only the
validity of my work and research but also it would give me an inside
 perspective into how art therapy is conducted. The professional I decided to consult was Dr. Shivani
Khetan. She is a UNESCO-certified Expressive Art Therapist and a published author. I have had
interactions with her in the past regarding prior projects, however, this interaction was the one which
was most fruitful. I reached out to her through Whatsapp.
Transcript of one portion of Interview:
Dr. Shivani: So my first point is let's use it as expressive arts therapy so that it gives you a wider range to do with art. Movement,
percussion movement, Instruments, Music, Storytelling, theater, Props.
Basically anything which people can be creative with, and can come out with. And theater gives you a very good medium to come out.
Even guided meditations help you, sound healing comes in percussion but singing bowls are again something people can use. Even
games can be added. Like gym games, brain gym games. Not only carrom board and all but also lots of fun elements of games like using
balloons. Nowadays people also use laughing therapy. So, expressive arts therapy opens a lot of gates. What more are you going to
mention in your booklet?
Me: Basically, I was planning on writing what is not art therapy because as far as I’ve read, a lot of people take Mandala books as art
therapy, or say it's only for people who are good at art and all of that. So Myths and Misconceptions.
Dr. Shivani: So another thing you can add is, a lot of people are writing that, “We are doing art therapy” but if a therapist is not involved,
because after you’ve done your work on the art, the therapist guides you. Have you ever experienced it?
Me: No.
Dr. Shivani: Then I will say experience it with me once, so that you understand what exactly you are getting into.
Me: I did some research about the process. There are essentially 3 steps, you plan out the session, you make the art and you talk about
it.
Dr. Shivani: So, that is my work, I’m talking about your experiential work. How are you going to know what the person feels when they
are going into an expressive art therapy session? So if i'm having anger issues, if i'm having a self confidence issue, low self confidence.
So, a therapist will create a session for you when you’re not able to tell them also what I am going through. So, coming back to your
question, what is not art therapy? Wherever the therapist is not involved, and further work on your art is not happening, where the talk and
the dialogue is not happening, there the art therapy is only confined to just a fun thing that we do. Like you said about Mandalas.
Mandalas do come in expressive therapy work but they are just venting out. That's it. Like I have created a journal for myself. That’s
something I have created which is on the lines of expressive art work, so you will absolutely understand what it is.

● Product Goal - ATL Skill - Thinking Skills

Since my product is a booklet, it required me to use Creative Thinking Skills in order to design it and
create a layout.
- Use brainstorming and visual diagrams to generate new ideas and
inquiries
In order for me to come up with the initial design for the cover, I had to firstly
pick my color scheme, title and subtitle. For this I created a Bubble diagram
to help arrange my thoughts and ideas.
This helped me pick out my final choices through the process of elimination.
- Consider multiple alternatives, including those that might be unlikely
or impossible
After deciding on the following;
Colour Scheme - Multicolour
Title - Understanding
Art Therapy
Subtitle - It’s not just art.
I made 3 designs. The first two are eye catchy
designs as compared to the 3rd one which

takes a more minimalist approach. However, since it

is important to have variety, I decided to send out a
form regarding all three.
 - Create original works and ideas; use existing works and ideas in new ways
Using the chosen cover from the polls, I was able to work on the booklet's layout since I took the
overall color scheme of the selected cover.

- Applying Self Management Skills

I used Self Management skills in both goals very often. I used Organization
Skills, Affective Skills and Reflection Skills.

● ATL Skill - Self Management; Organization Skills

- Plan short- and long-term assignments
At the starting of my project I made sure to create a detailed timeline which I
needed to follow in order to complete my project. This Timeline included
Short term goals and Long term goals since it was made in the form of a
Gantt Chart. In the Gantt chart, I divided my project into various steps and
then dissected those steps to form short term goals.
- Set goals that are challenging and realistic
I made sure to understand my potential in terms of how much work I could complete for personal
projects while balancing my school work. I set at least 5 days for each project with 2-3 days left just in
case of delays.
- Understand and use sensory learning preferences (learning styles)
While researching, I made sure to keep in mind my preferred way of learning so that I could pick up on
what my source was all about as efficiently and quickly as possible. For me, my most preferred
learning style is audio-visual learning. I would definitely prefer Youtube videos which have a visual and
audio aspect to them as compared to lengthy articles which I tend to get lost in or podcasts which can
sometimes be confusing for me. Therefore, a lot of the sources I was referring to were videos.
- Select and use technology effectively and productively
To make the booklet, I had to decide between 2 softwares, Photoshop and Canva. I selected Canva
since it is a much more time efficient software which I have been using for the past 5 years, as
compared to Photoshop which I have only used 5-10 times in the same timespan. Canva also has
many features which give it an advantage over Photoshop, like ready to use stickers and pictures.
Moreover, since I do not have practice with Photoshop, I wouldn’t be able to make an aesthetically
pleasing booklet which is necessary for such a large audience.

● ATL Skill - Self Management; Affective Skills

Managing State of Mind

- Emotional management – Practice strategies to overcome impulsiveness and anger, Practice

strategies to reduce stress and anxiety
I tend to get extremely nervous and anxious when I have a large amount of workload which causes
me to not only ruin my quality of work, but most times, I am not able to finish the work I needed to
complete. This can be a real struggle especially when there is so much happening, and all of it is
extremely important. Moreover, I sometimes tend to get frustrated at my work and completely shut off
from it, which once again, leads to incompletion. To overcome these issues this time around, I have
realized that taking small breaks every one hour helps me reorient myself with my surroundings, and
helps me ground myself. Moreover, eating healthy and cooking during free time helps me balance out
my day.
- Resilience – Practice “bouncing back” after adversity, mistakes and failures – Practice
“failing well” – Practice dealing with disappointment and unmet expectations
Over the years, I have, like any other person, had many failures and made a lot of mistakes. While
there was a time when I let these failures and mistakes put me down and make me angry and
frustrated with the task at hand, I have learned how to manage this. I have learned to take failing well
by re-affirming myself that I tried my hardest. Moreover, I have learnt that instead of being sad about
mistakes, I need to take them as experiences and learn from them, so that I don’t make them again.
● ATL Skill - Self Management; Reflection Skills

- Identify strengths and weaknesses of personal learning strategies (self-assessment)

While working on this project I noticed myself slowly falling behind the deadlines I had set for myself,
until I was completely behind where I had aimed to be by that time. I realized that I had failed to
accurately portion out my time. I did not factor in upcoming summative assessments and Exams as
well as festivals and other deadlines. Moreover, I procrastinated some days, I opened my laptop to do
the work, however I couldn’t form the right sentences, or I got distracted. I struggled a lot with this
since I believed that my timeline was efficient and well balanced; however, I was extremely wrong.
Nevertheless, I managed to catch up to a good amount of my work in a timely manner. I have noticed
that when I am in the right head-space, I can finish work that would take me 2 hours to finish otherwise
in half the time. This is what happened in this case as well.3

Personal Project: Cri.C - Reflecting

Final Product
As said by Jeff Gofins, “If you’re a procrastinator, you will find every excuse not to do what you need to
do. Here’s a thought: do it first. I call it reverse procrastination.”. As someone who has struggled with
procrastination in past projects I entered this project with this exact ideology. If I wished to create
something meaningful, I needed to start working before I started procrastinating.
Nevertheless, I did stumble along the way which caused a misdirect from the timeline I established for
myself at the beginning of the project. I wasn’t able to balance my schoolwork with
my personal project at the beginning, this caused a lot of my work to get delayed
beyond when I had hoped to complete it. However, I took it upon myself to complete
my work in the time I had left. After my winter break started I got back on track with
my project. While I was done with the research component, all that was left was to
design the booklet, of which I had the first page already created. I worked on my
booklet from the 26th December until 12th January. In this time I was able to create
a booklet which was not only informative but interactive. My booklet uses a wide
array of neutral tone colors, meaning it uses nothing too bright or
nothing too dull. Every 2 pages, there is a new color scheme which compliments the
last. Moreover, In order to achieve a booklet which was not only text, I added some
engaging activities which were related. In terms of my success criteria, I largely kept
it exactly the same, however, when back, with the entire product
complete, one of the prominent differences is how much text I
planned on producing. I wanted to have at least 40 pages in the
booklet before, and at the same time I didn’t realize that I didn’t
have enough content to fill up your birthday request card. This is
because my learning goal was to understand more about art therapy about which I
started learning through a series of questions, which shortened my overall scope of
research. I was able to attain my learning goal during the sooner stages of my
project. While I made a few minor changes to my project along the way, the biggest change has been
choosing to publish it freely online instead of producing print copies and selling them. I was able to
realize in time that the task of getting a booklet published is not only time consuming but also, it is
incredibly expensive and therefore counterproductive. If I had made the booklet buyable, it would have
cost up to thrice what it would have been normally to make up for production costs! It was rashly
expensive and unreasonable. Due to this new development, I had to find a site on which I could
publish my work. After a little research, I found 3 sites, Ingramspark, Draft2Digital and Issuu. However,
Ingramspark was paid and Draft2Digital did not allow me to add my own pdf file. Issuu was free and let
me upload my pdf to turn into a digitized booklet with ease.

Evaluation made on Success Criteria

Criteria Level Comment

No. of 1-2 The number of pages I chose for the 7-8 level was 50-60 pages. Realistically
Pages speaking I could not have satisfied this goal. I was overambitious with the
amount of content I wanted to produce. At the end of the day I wanted a
booklet which was not just educational but also something easy to read and
understand, which I believe I was able to accomplish with 20 pages.

Aesthetics 7-8 I believe I was able to create a booklet which is minimalistic yet not lacking in
color. My booklet uses neutral tones of colors while keeping a cream color
constantly present in the booklet in the form of text, a design element or
background color which ties it together.

Contents 5-6 In this criteria I had written I wanted to achieve a picture to text ratio of 3:6.
This was not something I was able to achieve however I do believe that I
reached at least a 2:6 ratio.

Credibility 7-8 One of the few things I unquestionably did not want to do in my booklet was
use unverified sources and provide wrong information to people who are
picking up my booklet to learn, so I made sure to double check all my
information by picking up at least 3 websites for each question I was
researching.

Originality 7-8 Another thing I would not have done in my booklet regardless of the situation
was plagiarizing or vaguely copying my text. I have done the research and
then from the knowledge I gained about these topics, I wrote my booklet.
Moreover, for all the resources I used, images, websites and videos, I made
sure to cite them in MLA format.

I believe that my product overall was a success. I created a product which is engaging, colorful and
informative, however I believe I could have done more in approaching my audience. I feel as\ll though
reading the booklet itself will definitely help my audience understand art therapy, I want to engage with
them one on one more in a manner that I can answer their questions. However, I thought that this
wouldn’t be the most feasible since even though I have
conducted hours worth of research on this topic, I still do
not have any form of actual first-hand experience with
art therapy, which would have made me unfit to lead
something like a seminar. My booklet is filled with
information about art therapy however I do find myself
wondering if the reader has doubts, how would I be able
to clear them? Nevertheless, something I do believe I
did well was designing and formatting the booklet.
Throughout the process, a good chunk of my project
was to create a visually appealing booklet, one that isn’t
too flashy but also something that doesn’t lack color.
Furthermore, I approached Dr. Shivani Khetan once
again, this time regarding my end project, the booklet.
She gave me a lot of helpful tips regarding where I could
improve. Points she gave me:
- Adding real-life examples of Art Therapy.
- Adding more mediums used in Art Therapy.
- Adding and elaborating activities.
She was also incredibly pleased with my
usage of color throughout the booklet along
with my designing skills.
Contacting Dr. Shivani
Reflection: The impact of my project on my learning
Through this project, I gained many things, but most importantly, I learned a greater appreciation for
art and art therapy. Before this project I had the bare minimum understanding of what art therapy was
really all about, however through the research I did for this project I learned so much more about not
just the benefits of art therapy but also the benefits of art itself. Art is a form of healing in itself, it helps
us with overall self improvement, both physically and mentally. I only understood art therapy at a
surface level before but now I can confidently say that I recognize the importance and value of art
therapy in a modern world where speaking of our experiences and emotions is often stigmatized. This
project really did make a long term impact on me in the sense that I now look at art with much more
significance than I ever have before. Art was always a part of my life however, after learning about all
that it can do for a person, I intend to keep creating art as a lifelong hobby. Another learning I achieved
from this process was that I can work past my procrastination inclined work habits if I put my mind to it.
This not only lifts up my work quality since I get more time to reflect and recognize mistakes but also
helps me maintain a sense of calm in my everyday life. Additionally I learned to take leaps, albeit small
ones, while working with projects instead of safely sticking to the original plan. When I chose to
change the part of my project where I sold booklets into just releasing it online, I had to change up a
sizable amount of work I had done which cut down on my progress substantially, however, it was for
the betterment of my project.
While working on my Criteria B, I looked deeper into one of the core aspects of IB, that being ATL
skills. Looking into these and reading about a lot of them helped me achieve a stronger grasp on an
incredibly important IB concept. I also saw myself develop as an IB learner by developing my learner
profile. Throughout my project I inquired about art therapy by thinking of different questions that
have intrigued me myself, or questions I believe are important for the viewers to know. I
communicated in the sense that I approached and interviewed Dr. Shivani Khetan regarding her
years of experience as an art therapist and her own personal views. By doing this I became more
knowledgeable about art therapy and its benefits. Moreover, I balanced my personal life, school work
and personal project. I made time for my hobbies and physical activities, completed my schoolwork,
studied for the upcoming semester and worked on my personal project. This was all possible because
I reflected on past experiences and shortcomings and worked on a way to improve my work style. I
feel that in the process of completing my project, I was definitely able to finish my work on time and
produce the best quality work I personally could’ve, however, I have noticed that my overall working
speed is a little slower. I have the concept in my head and an understanding of the content I want to
produce however the process itself becomes very slow. This isn’t due to outside distractions, but
rather a shortcoming I have noticed over time this is something that I need to work on for the benefit of
my own future. I feel that this project is going to act as an immensely helpful guide into DP, since there
we have to take up many projects and essays. Getting an idea of my work speed over a months-long
project helped me assess how much I need to work on it. To conclude, this project has been truly a
unique experience that I am extremely elated to have had. Through this, I was able to learn about a
topic which is going to act beneficially for me life long and develop a greater understanding about my
work patterns and how I can improve to work faster with more finesse.

“Never put off till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well.”
-Mark Twain
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