Abstract
The lasting positive impact of Art Therapy on clients is expansive and widely understood, however there has been little research done to quantify this data. The research found that the data that is available shows a significant, positive impact on clients who attend art therapy as a means of treatment for personality, mood, and psychotic disorders as well as those with disorders characterized by varying levels of cognitive deficit. This review analyzes the effects of taking part in an art therapy program on the aforementioned groups and addresses the issue of accessibility to care, weighing the ethics of experiential, self-directed art therapy.
TopIntroduction
In the contemporary world, the need for access to mental health care has grown significantly and with it the variety of services clinicians can offer has also grown, from more standard talk therapies to now more creative treatment options. These innovative programs have expanded to include practices such as dance, art, music, drama, and equine therapy. While these forms of therapy are relatively new, art therapy is one form of treatment that has grown in popularity due to its more accessible nature in terms of materials and individualized to one's personal artistic ability. The effects of exploring the self and emotions through creating and interpreting visual imagery have significantly and positively impacted those who attend art therapy. As the research shows in this review, art therapy can be a successful modality in treating a wide variety of disorders as well as in aiding clients in the general direction of growing a sense of identity and developing the ability for free expression.
Fundamentals of Art Therapy
Art therapy’s acceptance into the public domain as a valid therapeutic approach was a contemporary movement, taking place simultaneously between primarily Europe and America in the mid-20th century. The words “art therapy” were first used in 1940s England by artists and patients of sanatoriums, who discovered that making art was a beneficial way to experience freedom and a constructive way to process emotions about the time. The term rose in popularity post World War II and mental health care providers including psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers began to utilize these creative outlets as forms of treatment.
As the movement grew, Malchiodi (2012) explains that two American psychologists were at the forefront of this movement, Edith Kramer and Margaret Naumburg. Margaret Naumburg is often thought of as the “mother of art therapy” since she is considered the main founder of the American art therapy movement, which gained momentum in the 1960s and 70s, making way for some of the first organized research in the area.
Margaret Naumburg
Naumburg is primarily credited with her expansion on the theory that children develop better when they can express themselves creatively and pursue subjects that are aligned with their own specific interests. Naumburg was heavily influenced by theories involving the psychoanalytic approach to therapy and she viewed visual language and art-making processes as tools to receive clearer communication about one’s unconscious thoughts and emotions.
Her personal treatment approach consisted of trying to take the visual experience of her client's mind and combine it with verbal communication to achieve a true level of healing, believing that this goal was entirely possible through art therapy sessions. She would go on to author several publications and books that have stood the test of time and have become staple pieces of literature in the art therapy world and are still useful resources today.
Edith Kramer
Edith Kramer was another giant in the field of art therapy and was able to build from the foundations that Margaret Naumburg set by focusing her work on the sublimation aspect of art therapy. She believed that sublimation was the key to the success of the therapy and focused heavily on the principle of making something productive out of any negative emotions that may arise during the session. Kramer and Naumburg helped to pave the way for the development of innovative ideas on the use of creativity to heal.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Pediatric: Medical term meaning in relation to children and adolescents.
Accessibility: The practice of making information, activities, and/or environments sensible, meaningful, and usable for as many people as possible.
Psychotic Features: A collection of symptoms that affect the mind, where there has been some loss of contact with reality.
Neuroplasticity: The ability of the nervous system to change its activity in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli by reorganizing its structure, functions, or connections after injuries.
Existential: Concerned with existence, especially human existence as viewed in the theories of existentialism.
Psychosocial: Relating to the interrelation of social factors and individual thought and behavior.
Cognitive Deficit: Impairment in an individual's mental processes that lead to the acquisition of information and knowledge.
Transference: The act of the client unknowingly transferring feelings about someone from their past onto the therapist.
Sublimation: The channeling of socially unacceptable behaviors into socially acceptable ones.
Comorbid: The simultaneous presence of two or more diseases or medical conditions in a patient.