When a child does not talk about his obvious preferences at the very first lesson (“I like to sculpt”, “I like to draw with pencils”, “I no matter what drawing"), we will first offer all possible options for working with the materials that we have. I don’t use collage very often, although I have everything for this in my office. In some cases, I see that a child/teenager is not particularly inspired by this technique - they prefer to draw; and then we mix pictures or one picture with the addition of our drawn details and parts. So I launch test balloons and propose making a collage. Therefore, almost everyone has first experience, and then we can forget about this technique for a while or return to it periodically. We usually manage it in one session. But it also happens that in the next lessons the child asks to continue working on the collage: he wants to add either another sheet - as a continuation or part of the overall big picture, or other elements. At the same time, I’m putting together my own collage; I return to some of them – I can add something, or they give impetus to creating something new. How does this technique work? What problems does it solve? Everything that is written in this article applies to both children and adults. For convenience, we will call them the general word “client”. Firstly, it suits very well those from whom you can hear that “they don’t know how to draw”, “they draw poorly”. This also includes situations when the client experiences anxiety, embarrassment, awkwardness, when he has low self-esteem. (And when you really want to completely control the process.) In these cases, this technique allows you to overcome the barrier and start creating. I have observed this more than once: when a client who is usually silent at work suddenly begins to speak. Either he comments to himself, or he tells me, and it can be about anything. And usually this happens precisely at the stage of cutting and assembling the collage. At the very beginning, there is complete concentration on choosing pictures. Secondly, there is an element of build-up that some people need, a “delay” from the work itself - while you leaf through magazines, look closely and choose images. And there are always options - you lay out what you cut out and you don’t have to stick something on, you can remove it; laid it out and, on the contrary, wanted to add. And such “opportunities” are very relaxing. Thirdly, the use of pictures, that is, ready-made images, gives a feeling of security and control; allows you to distance yourself from too strong feelings and experiences. Fourthly, the selected pictures can highlight the remaining undisclosed topics and problems during verbal communication with the client. Thus, we emphasize several important points: creating a collage increases self-esteem, gives a feeling of satisfaction that arises both in the process , and upon completion of the work; the collage expresses our thoughts, views, dreams, goals, attitude towards ourselves; often non-verbal means are the only possible ones for expressing and clarifying strong feelings; this way we can work through thoughts and feelings that the client is used to suppressing; this technique (along with others) provides an acceptable way to release aggression and other negative emotions; this is a good and, most importantly, safe way to relieve stress; in the process of work, development and expansion of creative possibilities occur; a positive attitude towards further creative activity is formed - “I can, I can do it, I want more.” The collage reflects not only the psychological needs of the client, but also his current psychological state. What do we pay attention to? How active the client was and how much time he spent on the work (one child made a collage over three sessions and at the end said that he would probably add a few more things), we look at the accuracy and thoroughness of the execution. Emotional attitude (positive or negative) about your work. If you don’t like the collage, what prevented you from making it the way you want; what do you want to fix? Please pay attention to the title of the work: it is usually...