House-Tree-Person Projective Drawing Technique

Projective drawing technique designed to elicit information about how an individual experiences the self in relation to others and to the home environment. Fosters projection of personality elements and areas of conflict into the therapeutic setting to be identified for the purpose of assessment. The first step in testing is nonverbal and creative, inviting the individual to make a freehand pencil drawing of a house, a tree, and a person. In a second step, a post-drawing inquiry, the individual is asked a series of questions about his/her associations to aspects of each drawing. For the third step, the individual draws house, tree and person(s) using colored crayons. As a fourth step, the interviewer asks follow-up questions about these colored drawings. Testing time 30-90 min. Most commonly used with children.