Art Therapy

Art therapy, as a means of self-expression and healing, is used in a variety of clinical and rehabilitation settings. Here, it is tested with a population judged to be involved in terrorism-related activities. This paper presents an extensive review of the art therapy program at Mohammed Bin Nayef Center for Counseling and Care, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The objective of this study is to showcase the use of art therapy in the care and rehabilitation of ex-jihadists, with suggestions for best practices. This paper is the first description in the literature of the efforts of the Saudi government to explore the use of art therapy in counterterrorism. Art therapy outcomes on a population incarcerated for terrorist activities are presented alongside treatment and reconstruction of extreme ideology through art production. We conclude that a successful art therapy program is required within the overall approach to counterterrorism. Further, a strong understanding of the cultural backgrounds of the subjects, along with recommendations for relying upon specific artistic components of the therapeutic process are clearly indicated. According to government sources, together with the other programs offered to ex-jihadists, the art therapy program discussed here, which has been in operation since 2007, has achieved an 86.17% success rate, with (as of January 2015) a 13.83% recidivism rate. This is a strong indication that art therapy is an efficacious approach in counterterrorism.

Pasando la mayor parte de las veces desapercibidas, aunque existen ya desde hace ya mucho tiempo, no es raro encontrar en los más diversos entornos asistenciales psiquiátricos, ciertas publicaciones, en formato de periódico, revista o fanzine, realizadas por las personas allí atendidas. Nacidas primero en los hospitales psiquiátricos, más recientemente dieron un paso fuera y ampliaron su difusión a otros entornos comunitarios, impresas primero en papel para, en la actualidad, aprovecharse también de las potencialidades y economía del formato digital a través de Internet. Pero, a pesar de su amplia difusión y utilización, parecería que su existencia queda relegada a una especie de subproducto ocupacional, que apenas ha merecido la atención de la literatura académica y especializada, incluso obviando que su existencia se remonta a un ya muy lejano primer tercio del S. XIX. Solo las más recientes corrientes historiográficas son las que han empezado a considerar dichas publicaciones como una importante fuente de información y documentación desde la perspectiva de los propios pacientes. Este tipo de boletines resultan, además, un reflejo práctico de las diferentes modas y tendencias asistenciales predominantes a lo largo de sus ya casi dos siglos de vida, con una evolución que es la que intentaremos esquematizar en esta presentación, resumiéndola en diferentes etapas con sus matices diferenciales entre sí, en cuanto a su presentación formal, contenidos y objetivos.

The focus of this paper is on the integration of artistic techniques within the feld of gestalt therapy.
From a humanistic and phenomenological framework, this paper focuses on how these techniques
can enhance mental well-being and therapeutic change. Through the exploration of past research,
both from gestalt therapy and art therapy literature, art is viewed either as a vehicle towards verbalization or as an entity on its own. During Art therapy, a piece of art is created however the focus
and subsequent in depth exploration is on the creative process itself, within the therapeutic relationship. During this exploration, art is used as the ground to facilitate and enhance the expression
of individuals' feelings in therapy. Through this manner art can be used in gestalt therapy to help
an individual become aware of unconscious processes in order to creatively adjust to the present
moment. Whilst tapping on the emotional processes, the client can experience direct, reality-based
and immediate responses. One can say that both gestalt therapy and art therapy focus on the
therapeutic process that is created in between the therapist and client.

Trauma, particularly physical and sexual violence, is silencing. There is often a loss of words or an inability to communicate the horror of what the survivor experienced; yet, internal meaning is made of the events that have transpired. The person may not have been ready, which is rarely the case, so the mind and the body continue to experience symptomology that are residual “leftovers” from the traumatic experiences. How does a clinician manage the silence, the ripples, the phenomenological interpretation, and body responses?

In extreme cases clinicians feel powerless; traditional psychotherapy may not be making progress. The power of art making is the transfer of symbolic non-verbal communication between client and clinician. A client finds their own creative expression of the events that have transpired and they communicate through an intermediary, the paper. Within the paper lays their trauma narrative, their lifestyles, and their phenomenological understandings of the trauma. With art, the movement in session has already begun; the client is showing you the way.

This presentation will provide clinicians with a brief introduction to the principles of Adlerian Trauma Centered Psychotherapy and some basic interventions that can help engage clients in trauma treatment. Be prepared to make some art, for the best way to learn is to experience!

The above quote sounds all very Alice-in-Wonderland'ish but it was taken from a website entitled 'Depression, Suicide & Self-Injury Quotes'. And it startled me out of an assumption I have long held to be the truth. The basic assumption is that the person who continues to choose the hard road through life actually sees an alternative-that there are two roads, not just one. In relation to depression or any maladaptive behaviour which continues to hold sway over a person's life long past the time when that behaviour had value and relevance, I have come to believe there is choice involved. Sometimes the ability to choose is buried way down deep or hidden way back in the dim mists of our past. Over time we may come to believe we have lost the freedom to choose because a particular action or emotional state has become so much an integral part of our being. Life continues to surprise me. For which I am eternally grateful, as there was a time when my mind was so totally closed against any notion of unexpectedness or unpredictability, any possibility of life-being-any-other-way, it both frightens and amuses me to look back on it now. But I also have a greater empathy and understanding for that long-ago depressed self than I had at the time. I now see shutting down and shutting off from the world as a natural response to the death of my mother, the person I loved most in the world, rather than an abnormal reaction. The source of my surprise-a graph presented at a workshop on grief-in itself, surprises me. Having long since given up on the validity of statistics-as Mark Twain famously noted, 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics'-it was enlightening to see the wave-like shape of grief over time. Anyone who has experienced grief will recognise that it comes in waves. We even speak of waves of emotion but to see something represented visually is always far more effective than having only the verbal description. The presenter of the workshop stated that over the first 12-13 month period-that first year after someone we love has died in which we have birthdays, anniversaries, holidays without that person in our lives-we always experience grief at a 100% level. We may expect our grief to diminish after a set period of time and when it is still at the same level after 6 months or 12 months, when a song or a scent or a visual reminder sends us back to that initial high level of loss and sadness, we may begin to think there is something wrong with us. Being able to see the shape of these waves-the peaks wide and close together at the beginning, narrower and further apart as time progresses-was an Aha! moment for me, an 'of course, how could it be otherwise' dawning of comprehension. It's that deeper understanding that comes via images as opposed to words. It's why I view the combination of image plus language as being so powerful. To draw a picture of something as ephemeral as an emotion gives us another tool with which to change an entrenched behaviour, to choose one road over another. These days, I see Depression as a place. Literally. It's a town I used to live in for a period of my life. And as a traveller for many years, I know that to get to any destination you have to travel a certain path, take steps along that road and there are signposts on the way that tell you where in your journey you now are. The more conscious I become, the more mindful of the connection between my internal world and my external reality, the more often I take responsibility for stayin' the hell outta that town called Depression. The more images and metaphors I develop, the more concrete I make my internal world and its emotional territory, the more easily I navigate the tricky bits. All of this means that I am able to take back my life as mine and hold it as the precious possession it is. When my father died almost four years ago, I had planned to start my studies in Transpersonal Art Therapy. Mum's death many years before and my ensuing depression meant that my previous intended career as an

The research study at the center of this proposal focuses on Mind-Body Medicine strategies to improve clinical outcomes in inpatient psychiatry settings. More specifically, multidisciplinary approaches in the areas of clinical psychology and behavioral medicine have been utilized to better support the healing process and treatment plans for patients with multiple mental health diagnosis.

People receiving treatment for cancer are under significant emotional stress (Andersen, Kiecolt-Glaser, & Glaser, 1994). Nearly half of women undergoing treatment for breast cancer show signs of depression or anxiety (Thyme, et al., 2009). Art therapy in group settings has been shown to relieve some of this pain and anxiety for both patients and their loved ones. This positive change is particularly apparent in groups where members may share their creations with one another (Luzzatto & Gabriel, 2011). Similarly, narrative therapy helps terminally ill people find meaning in their lives by recontextualizing their struggles as necessary for growth (Jones, 2005). Art and narrative intersect in sequential art, e.g., comic books. One way to combine art therapy and narrative therapy is by helping clients create autobiographical comic books or graphic novels. Autobiographical sequential art is a well-established art form, with a history of authors expressing their struggles with everything from typical growing pains to surviving the Holocaust. Writers often say that the process of creating comics is contemplative and cathartic, and helped them find meaning in their struggles. Graphic Novel Art Therapy (GNAT) is a promising new field with the potential to help people struggling with a variety of issues. The Pentagon is currently investigating GNAT as an intervention for veterans with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (Shilling, 2013). Based on the evidence, a similar form of therapy would be helpful for people undergoing treatment for cancer.

The purpose of this brief note is to present a discussion of the first two sessions of a poetry group conducted with moderately to severely cognitively impaired adults in a nursing home. Exercises and techniques used with this population are discussed. Poetry groups such as this may provide joy those who suffer, a chance to re-experience memories, to connect to others, and the creation of moments of increased value and meaning.

This study aimed to explore whether aesthetic beauty and the pleasure that results from artistic activity can contribute to a reduction in the symptoms experienced by palliative care patients, and to improve the effectiveness of art therapy sessions. A self-assessment of six symptoms (pain, anxiety, ill-being, tiredness, sadness, and depression) adapted from the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) was completed by patients before and after a one-hour art therapy session. This assessment was completed after the session with a self-assessment of aesthetic feeling. A correlation analysis was then performed. From July of 2012 to December of 2013, 28 patients took part in 63 art therapy sessions. On the whole, these sessions reduced the global distress of patients by 47% (p < 0.0001). There was a significant reduction in all the symptoms studied; pain (p = 0.003), anxiety (p < 0.0001), ill-being (p < 0.0001), tiredness (p < 0.0001), sadness (p < 0.0001), and depressi...

This article describes how a fine art teacher, an art therapist, and a social worker analyzed art works created by students taking an art course in a masters-level social work degree program. The premise of this research is that the fine art teacher, the art therapist , and the social worker hold different perspectives about art in general, and including art produced by students in this course. The three different visualizations expressed by our subjects about the art works are then broken down and compared. Our assumption is that we will find different understandings of the art based on understandings about relationships between technique, composition, content, process, and artist intentions. These visualizations intersect and thus help to redefine the role of the art as well as offering important connections between social practice and the arts.

[Co-authored with Faye Brands] Attention to the role of art within healthcare is on the rise. Dutch hospitals are increasingly embracing the concept of the ‘healing environment’, which aims to create agreeable hospital surroundings for the well-being of employees and patients. The concept is being interpreted in diverse ways; irrespective of the specific outcome of this interpretation, the healing environment does have consequences for the healthcare facilities’ policies related to art. Research at a few Dutch hospitals has revealed that the more stringently the guidelines on the healing environment are followed, the more emphasis is placed on the medical-functional approach to art and the lesser attention is paid to the intrinsic value of art. Hospitals that reject the concept of the healing environment, however, also clearly demonstrate defining art in terms of making the surroundings agreeable to the patient. The healing environment therefore cannot serve as a new legitimation of autonomous artworks in existing hospital collections, but it is congruent with the recent attention given to the societal role of art.

This study's objective was to understand how art therapy and mindfulness meditation could be integrated together in the context of different cultures and political violence and in work with asylum seekers suffering from trauma. We conducted a qualitative phenomenological study based on the social construction paradigm. Twelve participants took part in 4 intensive full-day art therapy and mindfulness workshops. The study's setting was an art therapy and mindfulness studio (Inhabited Studio) in Hong Kong where participants engaged in art making and in mindfulness-meditation practice. Different aspects of the Inhabited Studio appealed to participants based on each individual's worldview, culture, religion, and coping style. Responses to the Inhabited Studio were organized into 7 thematic clusters. Five themes were categorized into 2 broad categories composed of personal elements (memory, identity) and mediating aspects (emotional/self-regulation, communication, and imaginat...

In the article  historical experience of the use of sleeps, and also substantive theo¬re¬tical provisions of modern  art-therapy, is exposed  in therapeutic work with dreams.
В статье  раскрыто исторический опыт использования снов, а также основные теоретические положения современной арт-терапии в терапевтической работе со сновидениями.

Whether art therapy can be an effective rehabilitative treatment for people with brain or mental diseases (e.g., dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, autism, schizophrenia) is a long-standing and highly debated issue. On the one hand, several observational studies and anecdotal evidence enthusiastically support the effectiveness of arts-based therapy. On the other hand, few rigorous clinical investigations have been performed, and there is too little empirical evidence to allow a full assessment of the risks and benefits of this intervention. Nevertheless, there is a progressively increasing demand for the development of appropriate complementary therapies to improve the personal and social lives of patients with neurodegenerative diseases. This is because conventional medical treatments are aimed at alleviating symptoms but cannot arrest or reverse the degenerative process. Thus, as disease progresses and adverse effects emerge, patients' quality of life ...

The Life Album project. Alzheimer and image has been developed within the framework of
Visiona (Image Program of Huesca) and in collaboration with the Alzheimer Association of Huesca.
It is a pilot experience carried out to promote from cultural practices, quality of life improvement of
patients and caregivers of Alzheimer’s and other dementias, with the photographic image as the engine
of cognitive and emotional processes. Specifically, from the promotion that a creative view can facilitate
thanks to the social and exploratory utilities of the photographic image. Thus, the project explores ways
based on photography that promote discovery, mobilization and dialogue between people affected by
the disease, with special interest in the relationship between patients and caregivers.

Vortrag vom 06. Dezember 2017, am Bezirkskrankenhaus Bayreuth

Anhand der künstlerischen Arbeiten einer Traumapatientin unternommene philosophische Wanderung. Von der Oberfläche her werden Themenkomplexe wie "Leibselbst", "das Böse" und "das Fremde" im Kontext des künstlerisch-therapeutischen Prozesses der Patientin betrachtet

ART THERAPY MEETS EMDR: PROCESSING THE PAPER-BASED IMAGE WITH EYE MOVEMENT

Bruce Tobin, Ph.D., ATR


This paper examines the role of the visual image in psychotherapy, and explores connections between how art therapists use physical images, and how EMDR practitioners use mental images in assisting emotional growth and healing.  It outlines a clinical program in which EMDR eye-movement activity is integrated with the art therapist’s use of paper-based images, and considers the merits of such a synthesis.

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).

Dysarthia is a common sequela of cerebral palsy (CP), directly affecting both the intelligibility of speech and the child's psycho-social adjustment. Speech therapy focused exclusively on the articulatory organs does not always help CP children to speak more intelligibly. The program of art therapy described here has proven to be helpful for these children. From among all the CP children enrolled in our art therapy program from 2005 to 2009, we selected a group of 14 boys and girls (average age 15.3) with severe dysarthria at baseline but no other language or cognitive disturbances. Our retrospective study was based on results from the Auditory Dysarthria Scale and neuropsychological tests for fluency, administered routinely over the 4 months of art therapy. All 14 children in the study group showed some degree of improvement after art therapy in all tested parameters. On the Auditory Dysarthia Scale, highly significant improvements were noted in overall intelligibility (p<0....

Art Therapy Theories: A Critical Introduction is an important addition to the relatively small literature that relates to theory in art therapy.  I am thrilled to see that the direction of a search for a multiple theoretical perspective in art therapy, founded by Rubin (2001) and continued by Huss (2012, 2015) in earlier books with the same name, is being embraced by the larger art therapy community. Hopefully additional writers will continue this direction that is sorely lacking in the art therapy literature . The book has a chapter for each of the following theories: Cognitive- behavioral, Psychoanalytic, Analytical gestalt, Person centered, Mindfulness, Integrative therapy, Feminist, and social art therapy . Each chapter presents the theory with a few examples from the literature and from an art therapy case study allegedly using this theory. The chapters are well written.
The importance of this book, and of its above-mentioned predecessors, is that it goes beyond prescribing art therapy activities for static art therapy populations, and enables art therapists to work through a theoretical prism as a base for addressing different interventions, skills and populations. A limitation of this book is that it does not break down these theories into a skill-set for practical art therapy practice, as do the other books in this genre. However, this book does provide a thoughtful introduction to each theory and nicely illustrates each on a general level.
Another limitation of this book is that the word critical is used somewhat loosely and as such is misleading as there is no general explanation of this concept, and of the implication of a critical hermeneutic stand, in relation to all of the theories in the book. A critical stand by definition demands placing theories within their historical context, so as to deconstruct their absolute power (Huss, 2015).
Additionally, a critical stand demands a critique of each of the theories in the book. This is also lacking. Lack of historical and critical context means that each of the theories tends to 'float in space' and is not connected on a time-line or through an organizing critique to the other theories. For example, the book starts with cognitive theory, and then moves on to a dynamic theory.  Gestalt theory is provided as an additional chapter, but is in fact part of a dynamic orientation (Huss, 2015). There also seems to be a confusion between critical theories, and feminist theories, that are not exactly the same thing.
A more effective way to make these theories more accessible but also to maintain a critical stand may have been to outline the impact of the theory on setting, therapists, role, different types of population, and intervention skills, and to state the limitations of each of these theories as well as the advantages. This has been done in former books of this name, but these books are left out of the literature surveyed. This is a strong limitation, in that much of the existing theoretical literature within art therapy is missing (Allen, 1995; Arrington, 2001; Betinsky, 1995; Buchalter, 2009; Burns, 1997; Cambell, 1999; Case& Daly, 1990; Dalley et al., 1993; Edwards, 2001; Emmerson & Smith, 2002; Furth, 1998; Hass-Cohen, 2003, 2008; Huss, 2012, 2015; Kalmanovitz & Loyd, 2005; Kramer, 2000; Landgarten, 2003; Liebman, 2003; Malchiodi, 2007; Mason, 2002; Moon, 2003, 2008; Pink& Kurty, 2004; Riley & Malchiodi, 1994; Robbins, 1994; Skype& Hayle, 1988; Wadeson,2000), to name just a few. This does not build on former work and so tends to weaken the existing theoretical base of art therapy.
However, together with these limitations, as stated, the most important thing is that this book, with its predecessors, encourages art therapy to seriously engage with theory. It is an important part of the revival of the understanding of the importance of theory within art therapy.

This paper first elaborates 'Art' and the aesthetic as these concepts emerged in the eighteenth century, and uncovers the conflict between the resulting ideal of 'art for art's sake' and the increasing use 'art therapy' for personal and social purposes. Taking this conflict to be a reason for the rejection of 'Art', it considers two accounts of 'the end of Art', one by Arthur Danto and the other by Nicholas Wolterstorff. The paper argues that both accounts fall short of adequately recognizing the presence of the aesthetic in everyday life, and that once we do acknowledge the properly aesthetic character of 'Design', a way of thinking is opened up that can make better sense of art therapy. The paper concludes with a brief indication of where the next philosophical question about art therapy lies. When the words 'art' and 'aesthetic' are used, the most likely associations that come to mind are the special institutions of the art museum, concert hall, theater, film festival , literary prize, and so on. We are much less likely to think of the things that surround us in daily life—fabrics, décor, furniture, food and the like. Yet all these aspects of everyday life have an unmistakably aesthetic dimension to them. Moreover, since human beings are not solely concerned with cost and value, the aesthetic dimension of the things they use is something to which people pay a great deal of close attention when engaged in deciding what to buy, what to wear, how to furnish their homes and so on. Why is it, then, that 'high' art commands our philosophical reflection in a way that the aesthetics of the everyday does not, and what difference would it make to our thinking about the role of art, as well as art therapy and design, if we gave the aesthetic dimension of ordinary life the careful philosophical attention than has for long been given to the aesthetics of the art world? The purpose of this paper is to explore these questions, beginning with the first.

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.

La paneurythmie est une pratique physique universelle pour la santé du corps, l’intelligence, les émotions et l’esprit humain. Ses résultats sur le plan physique, psychique et social sont d’une impressionnante efficacité bénéfique.
La paneurythmie est née et évolue en un système d’exercices, dans le contexte d’un vieil État chrétien d’Europe. C’est une pratique psycho-physique et spirituelle d’essence européenne, compatible avec le yoga en Asie, mais toutefois elle s’inspire de la tradition chrétienne et le patrimoine culturel occidental. C’est pourquoi on peut désigner la paneurythmie comme le « Yoga de l’Occident ».
La paneurythmie fascine des personnes partout dans le monde qui suivent des cours d’apprentissage et la pratiquent. Il y a moins de 80 ans qu’elle est apparue, et pourtant elle est déjà présente dans des pays des cinq continents. Car elle possède l’impressionnante capacité de donner du sens à la vie qui gagne en beauté et en plaisir, d’unir les gens de toute race, sexe, âge, nationalité et confession.

Le présent texte est un résumé du livre de Ludmila Chervenkova « Paneurythmie, santé et bien-être : une solution bulgare d’activité physique », publié en 2013 à Sofia par l’Édition de l’Université « St Clément d’Ohrid » (en bulgare). Le résumé est rédigé par l’auteure.

This paper explores the literature regarding the financial dilemmas involved in being a professional art therapist and counselor. Among the sources reviewed were two textbooks: Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions, 9th ed., (Corey, Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2015), and Ethical Issues in Art Therapy, 3rd ed., (Moon, 2015); two edited books compiling essays by several authorities in the fields of psychoanalysis and finance: The LA$T Taboo, (Krueger, Ed., 1986), and Money Talks, (Berger & Newman, Eds., 2012); and numerous scholarly articles regarding various aspects of financial decision making in the business of being a mental health provider. The literature explores how money influences the therapeutic relationship, enumerates some of the conflicts that arise, and conveys the pragmatic, yet often emotionally charged, choices that both clients and therapists must make in the course of treatment. It examines discrete meanings money may have to both client and therapist, both in similar and in different cultural contexts, and the importance of identifying those meanings. The current economic climate is addressed and how it may influence financial decisions. The overall conclusion drawn from the literature is that regardless of the financial options chosen, clear and concise communication regarding the details of those financial arrangements will ameliorate ethical dilemmas and support better therapeutic outcomes for the client and stronger financial stability for the therapist.