Art Therapy as a Branch of Psychotherapy

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The Aims of Art Therapy
Medicine, Health, and Rehabilitation
Art Therapy and Occupational Therapy
Neuroscience and art therapy
Humanistic approach to art therapy
Reference List

Introduction

Art therapy is based on the idea that the productive procedure of art making is healing, making life better or attractive and it is also a form of gestural activity of transmitting information of individual thoughts and feelings. Like other forms of psychiatry concerned with psychological methods and counselling, it is used to encourage individual growth, gain self understanding, and helps in emotional reparation and has been used in a comprehensive range of circumstances with children, adults, families, and groups.

It is a classification of propositions on the basis of whether they claim necessity, possibility or impossibility that can assist individuals of all ages create message that is intended, expressed or signified and achieve clear (and often sudden) understanding of a complex situation, find assistance from intense emotions or emotional wound or shock often having long-lasting effects, settle open clash and problems, improve the quality of daily life, and attain an increased sense of well being (Malchiodi,1998).

Art therapy supports the cognitive content that all individuals have the ability to express themselves in a creative manner and that the product is insignificant than the therapeutic process connected by participation. The therapist’s centre of attention is not specifically on the aesthetic admirable quality or attribute of art making but on the therapeutic needs of the individual to express.

Consequently, the most important thing is the person’s participation in the work, selecting and smoothing the progress of art activities that are useful to the being, helping the individual to fully understand the creative method, and making it easier to share in the experience of image making with the person skilled in a particular type of therapy.

While other types of therapy are in an effective manner, art therapy is progressively being utilized by therapists with individuals of different ethnic groups and of all ages. Furthermore, art expression for therapy is not only used by art therapists, but also counsellors, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and physicians.

With the introduction of short forms of therapy and the increasing forces to complete treatment in specific number of sessions, and the research carried out by therapists they discovered that art activities help individuals to transmit thoughts or feelings about relevant issues and problems quickly, as a result, to speed up the progress of assessment and interference. Even the simplest task in the representation of forms or objects on a surface by means of lines presents radically distinctive possibilities for expression that complements and often, assists a child or adult to communicate what words cannot.

The field of art therapy is an acknowledged form of treatment, which is still to some extent a mystery to several professionals. However, the professional therapists who use art with their clients understand that art therapy is an effective form of intervention, but most do not know its rich history, why it works, and what its benefits and limitations are as a form of therapy and evaluation. Regarding this, some therapists distinguish art therapy as modality that helps individuals to express their thoughts and feelings, beliefs, problems, and world views.

By this definition, art therapy is an addition to the branch of psychiatry concerned with psychological methods, which facilitates the process through both image making and verbal exchange with the therapist. In reality, both distinct features chip in to art therapy’s efficiency as a form of care provided to improve a situation and most art therapists pledge to both explanations in their work. Making of representations is of assistance for people to transmit thoughts or feelings both through image and words and, with the direction of a therapist, can help individuals in conveying that which cannot be said by words alone. Artistic expression is any behaviour that engages the brain in a manner that can be used to improve therapeutic treatment and evaluation.

Many therapists question if art therapy is strictly about translating the content of art expressions and clinicians new to the field often question what exactly art expression can tell them about the patients who makes them. Images are types of being other than verbal communication and therapists are frequently inquisitive if it is possible to interpret their client’s artwork. To a large extent, art therapists are worried with understanding the importance of client-created artworks and research is presently being carried out in the area of art based classifications. Art therapy is an interesting, changing field, one which continues to develop in terms of depth and applications.

For the art therapist’s professional, it is a modality that is central to their work and is the foundation of their global view of therapy in general. For counsellors, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, it is a modality that is essential to their work and is the base of their world view of therapy in general. Furthermore, for counsellors, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and others, art may also be a tool that is employed as an addition to verbal therapy.

Art therapy is a crossbred discipline primarily founded on the fields of art and psychology, drawing characteristics from each parent to change a unique new entity. But the twisting of arts and healing is hardly a new remarkable development.

It seems clear that this combination is as old as human extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization itself, having repeatedly taken place throughout the history across place and time (Malchiodi, 1998). The development of the profession of art therapy can be seen as the formal application of an established human specific practice of long standing shaped by the intellectual and social trends of the present millennium (Junge & Asawa, 1994).

The Aims of Art Therapy

Art therapy involves both the process and products of image making and the provision of a healing relationship. It is within the supportive totality of surrounding conditions, furthered by therapist-client relationship that it becomes possible for individuals to create images and objects with the clear plan of exploring and sharing the significance these may have for them. It is by these means that the customer may gain a better understanding of themselves and the essential qualities or characteristics of their problems or suffering.

The aims of art therapy repeatedly vary according to the exacting needs of the individuals with whom the art therapist works. These needs will have to change as the therapeutic relationship build up. The process of art therapy might entail the art therapist encouraging the clients to share and search an emotional difficulty through the creation of images and conversation; whereas to others it may be focussed towards enabling them to hold a crayon and make it mark, by this means developing new ways of giving form to previously unexpressed feelings.

Medicine, Health, and Rehabilitation

Hospitals have long served as important incubators for the field of art therapy. For better or worse, medical model concepts such as diagnosis, disease, and treatment have had a strong influence on the development of most schools of thought within western psychotherapy, including art therapy. While psychiatry has always been the medical speciality most closely allied with the field, art therapists have worked with patients being treated for AIDS, asthma, burns, cancer, chemical dependency, trauma, tuberculosis, and other medical and rehabilitation needs (Malchiodi, 1998).

All these seem to suggest that art therapy will continue to have a role in exploring the connections between body and mind. For much of human history mental illness was regarded with fear and misunderstanding as a manifestation of either divine or demonic forces. Reformers such as Rush in the United States and Pinel in France made great strides in creating a more humane environment for their patients. Freud, Kris, and others contributed to this rehumanization by theorizing that rather than being random nonsense, the productions of fantasy revealed significant information about the unique inner world of their maker (MacGregor, 1998; Rubin, 1999).

The term art therapy began to be used to describe a form of psychotherapy that placed art practices and interventions alongside talk as the central modality of treatment (Naumburg, 1950/1973). Psychoanalytic writers placed on early childhood experiences made the crossover of these theories into education an easy one (Junge & Asawa 1994). Some progressive educators placed particular emphasis on the role art played in the overall development of children. In addition to psychoanalysis and the rehumanization of people with mental illness, one of the strongest trends to emerge within modern psychology has been the focus on standardized methods of diagnostic assessment and research. Whether discussing the work of a studio artist or the productions of a mentally ill individual, (Kris 1952) argues that they both engage in the same psychic process that is ‘the placing of an inner experience, an inner image, into the outside world. This method of projection became the conceptual foundation for a dazzling array of so-called projective drawing assessments that evolved in psychology during the 20th century (Hammer, 1958).

Art Therapy and Occupational Therapy

One profession with which art therapy has been mistaken with respect to the therapeutic application of art is occupational therapy. There appear to be two main reasons for this. Firstly, the respective histories of the art therapy and occupational therapy are inextricably linked. Many art therapists were based in occupational therapy departments and their work was part of the overall service provided by them.

Although the use of art mental health settings by occupational therapists appears to have declined since the mid 1980s, a trend, in part, influenced by the development of art therapy as a profession, their work in this area is nevertheless frequently confused with that undertaken by art therapists. It may, therefore, be helpful to examine the areas of commonality and difference between the two professions in order to clarify further what art therapy is as well as what it is not. Research identified four main areas of difference between are therapy and the use of art in occupational therapy. These they distinguish as, education and training, the use of single arts based medium, the importance attached to the artwork, and the level of direction evident within the therapeutic approach.

Art therapy has historically resisted an association with science and has favoured a more art-based stance in its philosophy and practice. However, recent scientific findings about how images influence emotion, thoughts, and well-being and how the brain and body react to the experience of drawing, painting, or other art activities are clarifying why art therapy may be effective with a form of populations. As science learns more about the connection between emotions and health, stress and diseases, and the brain and immune systems, art therapy is discovering new frontiers for the use of imagery and art expression in treatment.

Neuroscience, the study of the brain and its function, is rapidly influencing both the scope and practice of psychotherapy and mind and body approaches. As new technologies allow researchers to scan brain and other neurological and physiological activity in the body, we are learning more about the relationship between mind and body. However, researchers have described the neurological and physiological phenomena related to memory and how images conceptualized and how they affect the brain and body. Hammer, (1958) have broadened the understanding of how the brain, human physiology, and emotions are intricately intertwined, the importance of early attachment on neurological functions throughout life, and the impact of trauma on memory.

Nonetheless, the relationship between neuroscience and art therapy is an important one that influences every area of practice. Ultimately, science will be central to understanding and defining how art therapy actually works and why it is a powerful therapeutic modality.

Neuroscience and art therapy

How the brain functions and how it influences emotions, cognition, and behaviour are important in the treatment of most problems people bring to therapist, including mood disorders, posttraumatic stress, additions, and physical illness. Although many areas of research are relevant to the practice of psychotherapy, several areas are particularly important to art therapy. These areas include images and image formation, physiology of emotion, attachment theory, and the placebo effect.

As regards this, neuroscience continues to provide an ever widening understanding of how the brain and body react to stress, trauma, illness, and other events. It also is central to understanding how images influence emotions, thoughts, as well-being and how the visual, sensory, and expressive language of art are best integrated into treatment.

Humanistic approach to art therapy

Psychology of pertaining to or concerned with the humanities is considered the third strength of psychology and came out as an option to incorporation of methods and theories of psychiatric treatment and approaches relating to behaviour. The following models, among others, encompass humanistic psychology: existential therapy, person-centred therapy, and Gestalt therapy. Maslow was also instrumental in developing the humanistic trend in psychology, proposing the ideas of self actualization and personal potential. The humanistic approaches to art therapy developed both in reaction to psychoanalytic approaches to art therapy and as a result of the human potential movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

In conclusion art therapists conceived an overarching humanistic approach to the practice of art therapy based on three principles:

emphasis on life-problem solving;
encouragement of self-actualization through creative expression;
emphasis on relating self-actualization to intimacy and trust in interpersonal relations and the search for self-transcendent life goals.

Reference List

Hammer, E. F. (Ed.). (1958). The clinical application of projective drawings. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas.

Junge, M. B., & Asawa, P.P (1994). A history of art therapy in the United States. Mundelein, IL: American Art Therapy Association.

Kris, E. (1952). Psychoanalystic explorations in arts. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Malchiodi, C.A. (1998). The art therapy sourcebook. Los Angeles: Lowell House.

MacGregor, J.M. (1989). The discovery of the art of the insane. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Naumburg M. (1950/1973). Introduction to Art therapy: studies of the “free” art expression of behaviour problem children and adolescents as a means of diagnosis and therapy. New York: Teachers College Press/Chicago: Magnolia Street.

Rubin, J.A. (1999). Art Therapy: An introduction. Philadelphia: Brunner/Mazel.

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