Art Therapy

Art therapy is the therapeutic use of art making, within a professional relationship, by people who
experience illness, trauma, or challenges in living, and by people who seek personal development.
Through creating art and reflecting on the art products and processes, people can become more
aware of self and others; cope with symptoms, stress, and traumatic experiences; enhance cognitive
abilities; and enjoy the life-affirming pleasures of making art.

Art therapists are professionals trained in both art and therapy. They are knowledgeable about human
development, psychological theories, clinical practice, spiritual, multicultural and artistic traditions, and
the healing potential of art. They use art in treatment, assessment and research, and provide
consultations to other professionals.

Art therapists work with:

 People of all ages

 Individuals
 Couples
 Families
 Groups
 Communities

Child art therapy is also often confused with play therapy and for many
good reasons. Play therapists introduce various art-based activities in their
work with children when appropriate; similarly, art therapists who work with
children include play activities [toys, puppets, props and games] to
supplement art therapy and stimulate children’s creative expression. Art
making within the context of therapy is, however, a slightly different
experience from play because it encourages the creation of a tangible
product in most cases. Art therapists are also in the business of helping
children visually express and record experiences, perceptions, feelings and
imagination; they capitalize on their vast knowledge of art media and arts-
based approaches to enhance young clients’ ability to communicate
through creative expression. Here is a brief overview of how and why art
therapy “works:”

Non-Verbal, Sensory-Based. By its simplest definition, art expression is a

form of non-verbal communication. For children who may not be able to
articulate thoughts, sensations, emotions or perceptions, it is one way to
convey what may be difficult to express with words. For those who have
experienced abuse, it is one way to “tell without talking” when they are
unable or afraid to speak about specific events or feelings. It is also a
sensory-based approach that allows the children to experience themselves
and communicate on multiple levels—visual, tactile, kinesthetic and more—
and to not only be heard [talk], but also be seen via images [art].
Growth and Development. Art expressions, particularly drawings, provide
useful information on development in children, especially young clients who
are 10 years or younger. For example, differences in artistic development
can help us understand something about a child’s emotional
experiences, cognition and sensory integration —but only up to a point
because most of what has been widely published has been derived from
largely Western cultures. Despite this challenge, the currently accepted
stages of artistic development, especially with younger children, are still
generally helpful and add valuable information not always apparent
through talk therapyalone.

Self-Regulation. Neurobiology continues to inform mental healthprofessionals

about why specific art-based activities, within the context of therapy, may
be helpful to children. In particular, certain sensory characteristics of art
making seem to be effective in improving mood, sensory integration, and
calming the body and mind, especially with children who have
experienced traumatic events.

Meaning-Making. Like play therapy, art therapy provides an opportunity to

express metaphor through art expression. In fact, one of the strengths of
both approaches is their ability to encourage and enhance storytelling and
narratives. Storytelling about a drawing, painting, collage or construction
does not have to be literal to be therapeutic. In fact, a child who has
experienced traumatic events or is challenged by an emotional disorder
may only find it possible to generate imaginative stories. With the support
and guidance of the therapist, these narratives serve as a way to slowly
and safely release disturbing or terrorizing experiences.

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT

Right-Hemisphere-to-Right Hemisphere. Finally, creative expression on its
own is not a guaranteed “cure”; like play therapy, art therapy is predicated
upon a relationship with a helping professional. All creative arts therapies
are inherently relational therapies because they involve an active, sensory-
based dynamic between practitioner and individual and emphasize the
“right-hemisphere-to-right-hemisphere” connection between child and
therapist. In this sense, art therapy can be helpful in repairing and
reshaping attachment through experiential and sensory means and may tap
those early relational states that existed before words are dominant,
allowing the brain to establish new, more productive patterns. Any
professional who effectively applies art therapy principles to work with
children is well-versed in how to establish positive attachment, attunement
and reflexive convergence, the latter referring to the experience in which
two individuals feel “felt” by each other and thus deeply understood and
unconditionally accepted. Art expression, like play, adds to these positive
relational experiences on multiple levels involving sensory, affective and
cognitive channels of communication.

This a very brief explanation of some of the reparative dynamics art therapy
provides to children. The simplicity of children’s art expressions as well as
imaginative play may seem deceptively simple at first glance. But as the
fields of art therapy and play therapy continue to expand knowledge about
their effectiveness, the more we extend the possibilities for best practices
with all children in need of help and healing. And while there is still a lot we
do not know about exactly “how it works” when it comes to art therapy, we
do know that drawing, playing and pretending are all a natural part of the
“work” of children.

Art therapy combines psychotherapy or "talk" therapy with the interpretation of visual images to
delve into an individual's subconscious, employing techniques to uncover thoughts and feelings
that an individual can't immediately verbalize, aesthetic techniques that take over and succeed
where other interventions fail.

Art therapists are trained in recognizing the most appropriate tools - art materials and media -
and techniques for each client. Techniques vary depending on age, physical or mental disability,
and the reasons for seeking help. Knowing the right tools and techniques is part science, part art.

Selecting the Right Tools

Art therapists know that certain situations and personalities will require certain media - such as
oil pastels. Click here to read about the effects of trauma. For example, it takes a longer period of
time to cover a large surface with oil pastels - longer than paint. This is important as time allows
some clients to discuss their feelings as they create.

Oil pastels also provide a sensory experience, the fingers, for example, directly on the oil pastel
stick that marks the paper, rather than holding a brush that holds the paint - that marks the
surface. More intense sensory experiences, such as using soft or oil pastels or clay, provide a
way to calm and settle agitated patients.

However clients who are not agitated but like mixing colors and creating textures might prefer
paints, or mixed media techniques. Others prefer simply drawing with charcoal or graphite,
perhaps those who have had some drawing experience in the past, or don't want to think about
making color choices. Still others, especially autistic children, may prefer drawing on a computer.

Paints, oil and soft pastels, markers or other drawing tools, and clay give art therapists a solid
toolbox for various therapeutic interventions, but there are many other tools that therapists use,
such as tissue art, fiber arts, beadwork, and mask making.

Here are a few examples of some common tools, techniques, and interventions used by art
therapists:

Collage

For some, art is a scary, inhibiting process. Whether stemming from negative feedback as
children, or anxiety over creating something polished and presentable, some individuals will not
commit themselves to making marks on paper. Yet traditional "talk" therapy is hard for them as
well as they can't find the words to describe complex emotions and thoughts.

For these individuals, art therapists use a number of "collage" techniques. Using magazine
photos, digital images, or other materials gathered from books, pamphlets, junk mail, etc., the art
therapist guides these clients to cut and paste together images.

The collages that patients create are prompts for narratives, or stories that therapists ask their
clients to tell. Ryan Howes, PhD, and a contributor to Art Therapist Cathy Malchiodi's blog on
Psychology Today, calls this technique one of "The ten coolest art therapy interventions".

He says it either involves asking clients to collect, arrange, and glue images that catch their
attention, or to create an image collage around a particular theme, such as "what would your life
look like if you were in recovery."

Phototherapy

"Visual footprints" of a person's life, is how Judy Weiser describes years worth of snapshots.
Weiser, a pioneer in the use of photography in psychotherapy - called phototherapy - states that
this technique requires additional training for those therapists who want to apply this intervention.

On her website www.phototherapy-centre.com, Weiser explains how this technique works, as art
therapists and clients explore personal photographs, albums and scrapbooks, thereby piecing
together the client's inner life.
These photographs and stories "can serve as natural bridges for accessing, exploring, and
communicating about feelings and memories - including deeply buried or long forgotten ones -
along with psychotherapeutic issues these bring to light," Weiser's website states.

A "meaning" in the photograph is not found in the visual facts but in the emotions and feelings
the photos evoke in the client.

Family Sculpture

Clay or other types of sculpting materials traditionally have been used by art therapists, but
family sculpture is a relatively new intervention. It involves having the client sculpt each family
member, or a representation of each member. The figures don't even have to look like people,
only represent the family members.

These representations reflect personalities, such as a large figure symbolizing an overbearing

mother or father. The client also places the figures in relation to each other, showing the
therapist, symbolically, the relationships and patterns of interactions of the family without other
members being present.

This gives both the client and the therapist a better understanding of how the family's structure
and patterns have affected the client, and perhaps contributed to a client's current issues and
problems.

Digital art

The techniques used by therapists concerning digital art and media are the newest, most current,
most hotly debated, and yet to be studied empirically for therapeutic effectiveness.

Nonetheless, the cultural changes these new media forms have instituted demands that
therapists keep digital options available - especially when working with generations raised during
the digital age.

Photo imaging software. Instead of cutting and pasting magazine and book images and pasting
them into a paper collage, digital arts programs allow users to do the same electronically. There
are literally millions of images available online for these projects.
Drawing software. Some therapists argue that the sensory benefits of creating are excluded
using computers, yet others cite cases of younger generations preferring to draw digitally and
more intuitively than with pencils or paintbrushes.

On her blog, Art Therapist Cathy Malchiodi cites the software program Project Sketch-Up/Project
Spectrum.

According to Malchiodi, this program has been researched outside of the art therapy field and
shown to be effective in working with autistic children. Many children report drawing with a pencil
"painful" but enjoyed drawing with the Sketch-Up program. In studying children with autism and
their preference for this program, researchers showed the link to autism and a preference for
visual and spatial learning.

If you are interested in becoming an art therapist, and learning the tools and techniques that
guide these professionals to help individuals become mentally healthy and self-fulfilled, request
information from schools offering art therapy degree programs. Most positions require a master's
degree, and some states also require certification.

An effective technique for trauma:

A 24-year-old student arrived at a medical clinic after colliding with a massive object on a bike
path, as reported in the journal "Arts in Psychotherapy." She had a broken shin bone, causing
her leg to be in a cast, and walked with crutches. She was experiencing intense anger at herself -
and at the object - and was repeatedly blaming herself for the accident.

Writers and researchers Orly Sarid and Ephrat Huss, both Ph.D faculty members at Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel, described this patient as being in an acute stage of
trauma - or the period of two to four weeks after a trauma occurs.

During sessions of art therapy, the young woman chose a large sheet of paper and a black oil
pastel to draw a large rectangle in the middle of a road, adding a black colored figure next to the
rectangle. As she drew, she called herself stupid for not seeing the object.

At one point in the therapy, the art therapist suggested that she add colors to the black figure to
represent different characteristics of her personality.
By adding the colors and naming each of them as one of her characteristics, the client noticed
that even with the "black" of her figure, her overall image was colorful and bright, and that her
anger was only a small part of herself - not her entire person.

Sarid and Huss described how the art process calmed her physical agitation, and secondly how
she was able to reframe her anger - giving her the ability to control her emotions. Effective art
therapy led to healing this woman's trauma, preventing more severe, long-term problems.