The Art of Art Therapy

Musings on the Art of Art Therapy
The Therapeutic Use of Art in an Institutional Setting

·    Art Therapists incorporate art therapy into the daily teamwork through watching and analyzing art behaviors, art products, and the client’s communications. The Art Therapist, an integral part of the treatment team, formulates diagnostic assessments and treatment plans as part of the client's total rehabilitation program.

·       Art therapists are trained to use their acquired art skills/expertise, combined with extensive training in psychology, psychotherapy, and Art Therapy, to facilitate the art-making process with the client, which, ideally, will promote his well-being.  

·       The Art Therapist creates the format of a structured, non-threatening environment, whose boundaries facilitate client expression and reflection of inner conflicts. The Art Therapist sets aside his/her own issues and vocalizations, creating a sense of stillness in order to glean out symbolic and aesthetic content of the client's artwork.  Later, encouraging the client to reflect on their artwork helps them connect to and process prior unconscious feelings, emotions, and behaviors. During art therapy, rules and boundaries often shift to accommodate each client’s changing physical and emotional abilities.  This is called “Prescriptive Art”. The list includes pencils, pens, colored pencils, markers, crayons, collage materials, oil pastels, chalks, acrylic paints, watercolors, clay. For instance, a client may be given a pencil in the beginning, which allows a sense of comfort and control.  Later, paints may be introduced, and later, clay, as we observe and ascertain the client’s readiness to handle/explore wider boundaries and flowing or "messy" media.  We are trained to sense when the client is ready to move to the next media level.  Certain clients would benefit from letting go of certain defenses (depending on their diagnosis and treatment goals) and may be encouraged to try a less confining media at the beginning.

 Art therapy may serve as a tool in designated groups that focus on issues such as:

        meditation/relaxation

violence/anger management

alcohol and chemical dependency

men & women's issues

sexual identity issues

multicultural issues sexual/physical/emotional abuse

sex offender treatment

grief & loss 

learning disabilities

behavioral reinforcement and specific mental illnesses

eating disorders

     What Art Therapy is Not:

·       Many clinicians use art in therapy; anyone can learn interpretation.  However, this is not art therapy.

·       Facilitating Arts & Crafts or even Arts classes, although they can be rehabilitative, is not art therapy,   as the facilitators generally do not have the extensive training in psychology, art, and art therapy to present art as a therapeutic tool.

·       Art Therapists do not apply meaning to a piece of client artwork without connecting extensively with the creator. The significance of colors and symbols cannot be generalized.  An Art Therapist can work with and process the artwork with the client, connecting it to his/her behaviors. 

Art Therapist’s Goals for Clients: 

·       Curriculums should be designed around the needs and abilities of the clientele, and their present issues.

·       Therapeutic goals are to encourage, clarify and extend associations and ideas without imposing personal projections, participating in the process.

·       Art therapy works with unconscious content to facilitate the expression of emotions via metaphor.  ("A picture is worth a thousand  words".)

·       Art Therapist uses images and imagery as a healing process.

·       Verbal association is used in conjunction with non-verbal.

The Benefits of Art Therapy

·       Art Therapy can help a client become an objective viewer of his/her out-of-control behaviors, thus imbuing a sense of power.

·       The client may experience improved avenues of communication, an increase of coping skills, elevated self-esteem, and improved self-understanding.

·       The artwork may reveal mental processes, side effects of medication, and/or emotional states.

·       The art-making process can represent aspects of behavior, such as antecedent triggers to behavioral changes.