Art Psychotherapy

Many descriptions are used to describe the therapeutic relationship between art therapist and client. "The term creative arts therapy refers to an arts-based therapy performed by a creative arts therapist who is credentialed under the auspices of the national organization representing that treatment modality. A creative arts therapist demonstrates aesthetic competencies in his or her respective arts modality and has received education and training in that art form before entering into the study and clinical training in one of the creative arts therapies." These can include arts therapies, expressive arts therapies, therapeutic arts, creative arts therapy (or in therapy), expressive therapies, and art psychotherapy (Micozzi 2011: 177-178). Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses art media as its primary mode of communication. Clients who are referred to an art therapist need not have experience or skill in art. The art therapist is not primarily concerned with making an aesthetic or diagnostic assessment of the client's image. The overall aim of its practitioners is to enable a client to change and grow on a personal level through the use of art materials in a safe and facilitating environment (The British Association of Art therapists 2017).

The art-therapy is a form of psychoterapy in which people can explain their inconscious with the mediation of the therapist and of the art. With every kind of art (paint, sculpture etc.) we can connect the explicit and the implicit meaning of deeper part of the individual. Creativity can also improve our sensibility about external world.

CHILD ART PSYCHOTHERAPY (CAP) is a form of psychotherapy that uses the medium of art, which can be helpful to children and young people in communicating difficult issues verbally. It is an effective short-term, early intervention, treating young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health issues. Little has been published on the role and value of Child Art Psychotherapy in primary care in Ireland. Many GPs are unaware of the profession and its success as a treatment. GPs have identified a greater need for short-term, focused counselling services to meet the needs of young people in their communities. This Authors propose implementing the CAP method with young people presenting with mental health issues to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and in private practice, suggesting that some cases could be treated earlier within primary care, if access to child art psychotherapy supports is available.

Aim: To identify therapists’ views on sexual boundaries and the strategies they employ to manage them in therapeutic practice. Method: In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of 13 accredited, experienced practitioners of psychotherapy or counselling. A grounded theory approach, informed by principles from Free Association Narrative methodology, was employed, in which team members used debriefing sessions for extending depth of understanding of the interviews. Findings: There is consensus about boundaries at the extremes, but variability about fantasy, flirtation and touch. A core process was generated from accounts of successful management of sexual attraction. We identified four problematic ways of reacting to boundary pressure, each with potential to harm clients and therapy. Discussion: A participant-observer stance was conceptualised as essential for managing threats to boundaries, consistent with the empathic stance. Minor boundary crossings were viewed by interviewees as both potential precursors of more serious transgressions, and as opportunities for understanding the client's difficulties. Implications for practice: These span training, accrediting organisations, supervision and therapy practice.

This article interrogates the place of feminism within art therapy. It provides a lively, polemical argument
that art therapy must maintain a critical relationship to the discipline of psychology in order to avoid
oppressing women with misogynistic discourses which are embedded in theories and practices. The
article also explores the visual culture which surrounds us, and how images affect our sensibility, our
self-esteem, and our ability to act in the world.

This is not a paper but a dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

This qualitative study explored the experience of psychodynamic clinicians in private practice who have used art-making as a complementary modality of treatment within the context of verbal treatment of adult patients.
The study aimed to understand why traditionally trained clinicians made an intervention of art-making in their verbal treatment with their patient, when in the treatment process clinicians decided to make use of an art-making intervention in their treatment, and how the use of art-making within the context of verbal treatment impacted the clinicians’ understanding of their adult patients.
The findings of this study indicate that these clinicians turn to art-making, in conjunction with their verbal treatment, because they have felt that the spoken word limited the scope of expression and self-disclosure of their patients’ inner reality. Clinicians decided to make use of art-making, (a) when seeking to provide their adult patients with a way to disclose traumatic events, feelings, emotions, and the recovery of memories in relation to the trauma experienced, (b) when observing their patients struggling to bring out their inner experience via words, (c) when the treatment seemed to be stagnant, and (d) when they were in need of further information obtained via the intake process.
Clinicians’ observations of their patients’ creative process and its challenge increased their empathic understanding of their patients’ inner struggles.

Buku Handbook of Art Therapy merupakan kumpulan tulisan dari beberapa penulis tentang penerapan terapi seni untuk usia anak sampai dewasa dan disertai beberapa contoh kasus. Bab kesembilan belas berisi penjelasan mengenai manfaat, medium seni beserta tahapannya dan keterbatasan penerapan seni pada terapi orang dewasa. Buku tersebut disajikan dalam kerangka yang sistematis dan bahasa yang sederhana sehingga mempermudah pemahaman pembaca.

ABSTRACT Accurate diagnosis and assessment are integral in developing a treatment plan for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and comorbid pediatric trichotillomania (TTM). The behavioral and creative psychotherapeutic interventions that were adopted reflected the child’s needs, which were identified during assessment and ongoing treatment. Partnership with the child, as well as involvement with institutions and people significant and influential in the child’s life, positively impacted the child’s ability to engage with the treatment plan. This case study revealed that it can be possible for a child with ASD to cease TTM. In this case, to date the successful treatment outcome has endured for four years; the child has not reengaged in TTM on any part of his body.

This chapter is from the first international book on the subject, called: Art Therapy in Museums and Galleries: Reframing Practice, edited by Ali Coles and Helen Jury. The chapter looks at how the two Rembrandt self portraits in the National Gallery in London give insight into, and further inform the review of artwork that takes place at the end of a series of clinical sessions in Art Psychotherapy. The chapter explores the contexts of space, place and time, and how as Art Psychotherapists we hold in mind the artwork of the client or patient throughout the clinical work, to help make meaning and to strengthen subsequent understanding of psychological presentation. It presents the case for artists' artwork informing clinical practice and how, in this case, the impossibility of viewing the two Rembrandt self-portraits together in the same room allowed for thinking to develop about the elements and connections being made by keeping in mind one image, when in the presence of another. The importance of journalling as a method for informing ideas and revealing connections that can be made through internal discourse, is explored. The role of time is considered too, in the context of how it appears to alter when pieces of artwork are viewed together in the Art Psychotherapy review of artwork, each representing a different aspect of the client or patient's presentation. The capacity to recall the visual significance of a piece of artwork is one aspect of the Art Psychotherapist's work, alongside the significance of the non verbal process of artmaking, and these factors inform the chapter and its relevance to contemporary Art Psychotherapy practice.

This paper explores the implementation, course of treatment, achievements and limitations of an art therapy domestic violence prevention group in Mexico. The group was part of a Mexican pi- lot program utilizing a solution-focused model developed by Stith, McCollum, and Rosen (2007) in the United States. The art therapy group served Otomí clients, who are members of a unique indig- enous sub-culture within Mexican society. A brief literature review discusses domestic violence, solution-focused treatment, couples groups, and the particular complexities of working inter-cultural- ly. The course of treatment is presented and the achievements and limitations of the program are brie y evaluated within the context of cultural and societal factors. Art making as a culturally sensitive facilitator of treatment is discussed. Challenges associated with language, poverty, and health are considered in terms of clients’ ability to complete the program and maximize its effectiveness.

The most important principles of short-term, problem-oriented psychotherapy, especially a defined target, flexibility, activity of the therapist and emphasis on time, may be applicable to art psychotherapy. The utilization of these principles is represented in a case report. In this technique the therapist uses selected drawings in a defined tailored-to-measure way which, by directing the patient's associations, is aimed at solving a current problem that has implications to wider aspects-of the patient's being.

Submitted text for Chapter 2 of publication, pp 44-62. Please refer to published chapter when quoting. Copyright: Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2020. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PLSclear.

Summary of chapter from book Introduction: Chapter 2 considers how commonly-held perceptions about museums (including galleries with collections) might affect engagement in, and experiences of, museum-based art therapy. Ali Coles draws on research undertaken in the UK with the general public about the roles and purposes of museums (including galleries with collections) and considers how the key findings relate to art therapy in these settings. She concludes that many of these public perceptions resonate with key therapeutic principles within art therapy, such as those of holding and containing, trust, exploration and learning, play and acceptance, which suggests that museums have great potential as partners for art therapy practice. Coles also explores how museums might be conducive to addressing issues related to knowing and not-knowing, care and neglect, fear, abuse of power, and difference and diversity, relating this to current debates in the museum world, and anticipating a time when the therapeutic value of museums is commonly recognised.

Natural disasters are sadly inevitable, and they can also have a far-reaching effect on human life and activity. Indeed, every human being will face at least one natural hazard during his or her lifetime, even indirectly. This paper briefly explores the history of natural disasters and outlines how such disasters can affect people, giving rise to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Emphasis is placed on the effect of PTSD on young children. The important contribution of group psychotherapy — particularly when this involves art psychotherapy — to the treatment of PTSD is also analysed through the examination of case studies. Finally, a proposal is made for the realization of an art psychotherapy group for children who might have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, induced by the large-scale destruction of parts of the natural environment and the dangers faced during the 2007 Peloponnese forest fires, in Greece.

Art therapy seems to be a highly preferred and satisfactory form of preventive and rehabilitative work for participants in different contexts from education to psychiatry. It consists of multiple theoretical and practical approaches that vary depending of clients’ needs and therapists training, but they are all based on the influences of art-making within a therapeutic relationship and joint interaction between therapist and client. This doctoral dissertation focuses on analysing clients’ descriptions of art therapy processes and on defining which ingredients are influencing on the qualities of these experiences. In addition, it aims to clarify, which impacts clients experience as personally significant after participating in art therapy.

Previous research has not focused on the systematic observation of those experiences that clients describe as challenging during the art therapy process or on developing theoretical models for contextualising those ingredients that are crucial in aiding or hindering therapeutic change. In current research, these aspects are approached from multiple directions including the observation of both individual and group art therapy practices in the context of either adult education or psychotherapy.

This research comprises four articles, enabling different methods and data sets to be triangulated. Thus, both the participants’ rich descriptions of art therapy process and its impacts can be analysed from multiple theoretical perspectives. These include different experiential aspects such as embodied sensations and perceptions, emotional and mental experiences as well as intersubjective and dialogical aspects. Of the four articles, the two case studies allow deeper analysis of the unique qualities in individual narratives, while the two systematic content analyses enable shared themes to be found from numerous participants’ descriptions.

In this research, the facing-up to, working through and conscious reflection on unpleasant experiences, such as difficulties in art-making, challenging emotions and interaction, turned into important helping processes which aided change. Additionally, based on the findings of a single case study, qualitative change in art making from cognitive control into spontaneous playful processing can be significant in aiding the transformation of previously painful experience into ones that are emotionally manageable and in increasing resources for selfregulation.
However, hidden or un-expressed experiences of vulnerability or incapability in relation to verbal expression, art-making or therapeutic tasks and goals turned into hindering ingredients that stagnated the therapeutic process and change. Unpleasant emotions that remain unsolved could arise during sensory interaction in art-making or in social interaction, and a fear for others’ interpretations could prevent or restrict expressing personally important issues.

The results of the research create a clearer and better structured understanding of how crucial it is for the experienced outcome of art therapy to encounter and reflect those intrapersonal, intermediate and interpersonal experiences, which awake unpleasant emotions during the process. In addition, as a result of the current study, six themes were recognised in clients’ experiences of significant outcomes: (a) Art therapy increased insights and skills of self-reflection, (b) enabled experiences of self-expression and flow that gave resources for everyday life, (c) increased awareness and handling of emotions, (d) gave experiences of social support and acceptance, (e) increased understanding of self and others, and (f) enabled handling of the past and reflecting on the future.

The findings of the current study reveal, how the distinct ingredients that influence the art therapy process are described by different clients and which impacts multiple participants experience as significant after their participation in art therapy. As a result of the study, these findings are contextualised by applying the notion of a triangular working alliance to the individual cases and by developing a new kind of triangular pyramid model to picture the working alliance and aiding or hindering processes in group art therapy. Furthermore, a transtheoretical model for art therapy practice which integrates both essential art based premises and psychotherapeutic core processes is constructed and described in the theoretical part of the research summary. Thus, this research creates both new kinds of theoretical models for exploring the influencing processes in art therapy as well as offers tools for therapeutic practices. It constructs increased understanding of clients’ perspectives on art therapeutic change and its failings both within the context of experiential groups in adult education and in individual art psychotherapy.

We describe the use of child art psychotherapy (CAP) following the Vasarhelyi method in an 11-year-old female with a history of anxiety and depression which limited her capacity to attend school and in a 15-year-old male who had a history of depressive symptoms with suicidal thinking. In each case, the use of other therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy was not possible or unsuccessful. Through the creation of images, each young person revealed concerns which had not been previously verbalised, and recovery was linked in time to the revelation of these worries. We propose the use of the Vasarhelyi method of CAP as an adjunctive treatment of depression in young people.

This paper examines two group art psychotherapy programs held in 2017 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST). It focusses on three contemporary artworks by Kimsooja, Ilya Kabakov and Sophia Kosmaoglou belonging to the EMST collection and how working with these groups was explored through objects relations theory. The paper looks at how these artworks became evocative as transformational objects to bring about change. The conclusion is that contemporary art is beneficial when working psychotherapeutically in the museum environment through relating it to existing object relations theory. We conclude that professionals who run museum and gallery-based psychotherapy groups will find the contributions of object relations theory and contemporary art beneficial in this way.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2021.101759

Η παρούσα εργασία αποσκοπεί στην ευρύτερη κατονόηση του ψυχικού τραύματος και στην ανάδειξη της δυναμικής σχέσης μεταξύ της επίδρασης του ψυχικού τραύματος και της επίδρασης της εικαστικής δραστηριότητας στον παιδικό ψυχισμό. Στην συνέχεια γίνεται προσπάθεια να διασαφηνιστεί γιατί η εικαστική θεραπεία που στοχεύει στην εξωτερίκευση στοιχείων της προσωπικής εμπειρίας του τραύματος μέσω μιας οπτικής αναπαράστασής τους και της περιγραφής της, καθώς και στην επαναδιαπραγμάτευση της τραυματικής εμπειρίας μέσω της ασφάλειας και της διαχειρισιμότητας που μπορεί να προσφέρει η εικαστική εμπειρία, είναι μια θεραπεία κατάλληλη για την αντιμετώπιση των παιδικών τραυμάτων, Στο τελευταίο μέρος της εργασίας γίνεται προσπάθεια να προσεγγιστούν έργα πρόσφατα δημιουργημένα από παιδιά Σύριων μεταναστών, μέσω των θεωρητικών κι εμπειρικών εργαλείων της εικαστικής θεραπείας.



Λέξεις κλειδιά:
Ψυχικό τραύμα, εικαστική θεραπεία, Cathy Malchiodi, Sigmund Freud, εγκεφαλικά ημισφαίρια, αισθητηριακή μνήμη, εικαστική δραστηριότητα, μετανάστευση, παιδιά προσφύγων.

Overnight, Covid-19 disrupted what until now had been thought of as, familiar, self-evident, taken for granted. The restrictive measures of protection brought about an interruption to the flow of life, affecting each person individually. Everyone reacts differently in an effort to process, comprehend and deal with the stimuli emerging from this encounter with something so unfamiliar and unexpected.

ΕΜST suggests ways on how to deal with stress in the post-lockdown period as well as ways in which the act of creation can prove to be a personal pathway of discovery as to how each person responds to change.

https://www.emst.gr/en/art-psychotherapy/covid-19-dealing-with-change