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How Clay in Group Art Therapy Helps Female Veterans Maintain Well-being: Development of Methods
Get PDFUsing clay in art therapy has emerged as an evidence-based therapeutic approach to enable treatment for people with anxiety. While clay in art therapy has been researched and proven to be highly effective with children, there is limited research on the benefit for the population of female veterans. Therefore, this study examines the possibility of how clay in art therapy helps female veterans to reduce anxiety and maintain their well-being at Veterans Affairs Hospital (VAH). Three female veterans were engaged in weekly intervention for six weeks through both in-person and online sessions. Results indicate participants experienced beneficial changes in anxiety reduction through the intervention. The art therapy with clay intervention was successfully integrated and implemented during the research
Moral Distress and Allostatic Overload in Clinicians: Mitigating Burnout Through Expressive Arts Therapy - A Literature Review
Get PDFWork-related stress conditions such as burnout and moral distress have been observed to have significant negative impacts on the mental and physical health of helping professionals, contributing to higher allostatic load and stress-related disease, higher rates of job turnover, and overall poorer consumer outcomes. This paper provides an overview of burnout, moral distress, and allostatic overload pertaining to clinicians, and discusses the unique potential of Expressive Arts Therapy as an intervention for mental health providers experiencing moral distress, toward mitigation of stress-related impacts on provider mental and physical well-being. Analysis of available literature in each topic area was completed through investigation of qualitative, quantitative, and arts-based research studies and review of currently available literature. This review concluded that urgent attention is needed toward developing mitigation measures to maximize the health and well-being of clinicians working in the mental health field; Expressive Arts Therapy may offer innovative intervention for clinicians experiencing moral distress and burnout through a holistic and person-centered approach to exploring moral suffering
Art Therapy with Juvenile Offenders-Building on Community, Strengths and Self-Esteem: A Literature Review
Get PDFThe Juvenile Justice System differentiates itself from the adult criminal justice system by running on a rehabilitative model for youth offenders as opposed to a punishment and deterrence model. It is not uncommon that the youth placed in these facilities suffer from many mental health issues and have extensive trauma backgrounds leading to their delinquent behavior and crimes. Juvenile offenders are a population who are labeled as deviant and isolated from the world due to their behaviors often stemming from unhealed trauma. If left without care, these mental health concerns and unhealthy trauma responses may only perpetuate into their adult lives. This literature review explores the history of the juvenile justice system and its efforts to uphold the rehabilitation model for youth offenders. The implementation of art therapy with juvenile offenders is also examined as an expressive method to reinforce mental health care in these facilities. Different art therapy directives with this population were explored in helping juvenile offenders improve self-esteem, build on strengths, connect to the community and one another while also working to process their trauma. The literature suggests that more research and implementation of arts-based therapy along with rehabilitative models as a whole are necessary in the care of juvenile offenders while detained
Virtual Dance/Movement Therapy as a Mechanism of Change for Patients Experiencing Chronic Pain: A Literature Review
Get PDFThe purpose of this literature review is to discuss data on the prevalence of chronic pain, current treatment options, and the effectiveness of dance/movement therapy (D/MT) as a successful treatment approach. This literature review discusses the etiology of chronic pain, numerous treatment paradigms, an alternative model of care based on D/MT principles, and new considerations for facilitating D/MT groups. According to the literature, clients who participated in D/MT groups for chronic pain experienced an expansion of their movement vocabulary, a decrease in their movement-based fear response, a feeling of being seen, heard, and validated, a sense of control over their bodies, and an increase in identifying sensations in the body. This was achieved using a D/MT group structure including an opening, warm-up, theme development, discussion, and closing. Additionally, this review of the literature analyzes the consequences of facilitating virtual D/MT groups as well as addition considerations when approaching this population, such as practicing self-compassion, assigning homework, offering opportunities for shared leadership and seeking permission. Future study is needed to identify the effects of D/MT on chronic pain populations, particularly how to achieve long-term change and favorable outcomes after the group has ended
Using Narrative Theory as a Process-Oriented Exploration of Attachment: The Development of A Method in Art Therapy
Get PDFEstablishing a sense of psychological and emotional safety and security is essential within the therapeutic workspace for individuals to begin growth toward identified goals. Beginning in early childhood and developing throughout their lifespan, people build expectations of safety and security from their experiences of nurture or lack thereof. These early experiences form internal working models (IWM), which influence how individuals expect interpersonal relationships to develop; these patterns form attachment styles. Understanding someone’s attachment style is a way mental health professionals may better understand a client from a more holistic perspective. While there is much research in identifying and assessing a person’s attachment style, existing research places less emphasis on the client’s perspective and experience of their history, which forms these patterns. This thesis focuses on developing a three-phase method in art therapy that expands upon an existing assessment of attachment, called the Bird’s Nest Drawing (BND). This expansion utilizes narrative theory (NT), specifically externalization, to explore client history and bring clarity to client experience, emotion, and perception. Informed by the expressive therapies continuum (ETC), the development of this method resulted in three art and story exercises, using drawing, collage, and watercolor paint to deepen the client’s experience and expression. This thesis focused on a population of latency age children engaged in weekly outpatient therapy. This method allowed young clients to assert a sense of agency in sharing their own stories. Information gathered across the phases of this method help to inform the art therapist’s understanding of what is happening dynamically in session and illuminates how attachment styles are activated and may be reworked in session
Expressive Arts Therapy with Pregnant Adolescents in South Africa: Observations and Reflections on Intimate Partner Violence and Intergenerational Transmission of Violence
Get PDFThis paper is based on a qualitative arts-based pilot research aiming at understanding pregnant adolescents, victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) in South Africa (SA) with the long-term goal to design a mental health service to support the adolescents and positively influence intergenerational transmission of violence. Through a literature review and the author’s observations and reflections, the relation between adolescent pregnancy, trauma, intimate partner violence and intergenerational transmission of violence is discussed and explored. This paper details the expressive arts interventions, the relevance of those interventions in relation to the prevention of intergenerational transmission of violence, and the experience of the participants. Although the collected data is insufficient to predict specific outcomes, the unanimous positive feedback from the participants regarding what they received from the sessions provided hope that those sessions could influence the perpetuation of the cycle of violence. Valuable information was collected in regards of designing tailored mental health support services. Along with artistic responses, the author presented the difficulties encountered when working with this vulnerable and traumatized population, and the feelings of exclusions experienced due to the language difference. I shared my surprise at the faith and resiliency of the adolescents and I explained how this experience shifted my perception of this population, race related power dynamic in the therapeutic relationship, and resiliency
Integrating Art Therapy and Narrative Therapy through a Multicultural Lens
Get PDFThis thesis examines the impact and implications of integrating art therapy and narrative therapy within culturally competent counseling. Narrative therapy explores people’s stories in a larger collectivistic context, acknowledging how one’s identity is shaped by their history, culture, and relationship to others. Narrative therapy highlights the importance of an individual’s sense of self, their perceived life narrative, and how the process of constructing and reconstructing of these stories bridge their identity and culture. The integration of art therapy could help clients communicate their stories, adding depth through visual expression and the externalization of their problems and strengths. Research has shown cultural competency, humility, and effective multicultural counseling impacts the quality of therapy received by culturally diverse clients. However, research regarding which theories and interventions are effective is limited, especially with the Latinx population
Prioritizing Bereavement in Counseling Education and Expressive Therapies: A Critical Review of the Literature
Get PDFBereavement is a topic of clinical counseling that is limited in the education of clinical counselors. This is possibly due to bereavement not being a required course for state licensure or CACREP standards; thus, it stands as a lower priority for colleges/universities to offer a course in this subject. I sought to research new counselors’ perspectives on supporting clients who have experienced bereavement as they may not have had any foundational education on bereavement. Multiple articles have recommended that bereavement should be a prioritized course in master’s level counseling education. As an expressive arts therapy student and counselor in training, I wanted to emphasize a more person-centered expressive therapy approach as each bereavement experience is unique, and that this form of therapy is a nonverbal expression which may be more inviting to clients as sometimes grief is beyond words/talk therapy. This search was conducted through databases to locate articles and utilized resources from community-based bereavement centers and local libraries. Due to grief theories being developed for a longer period of time, the research was published from 1917 to the present. The purpose of this literature review was to provide awareness and recommendations on bereavement, grief, and loss and the incorporation of the expressive therapies for professionals in the counseling field
Spirituality & Wellness in the Black LGBTQIA+ Experience: A Literature Review
Get PDFThis literature review explores the intersections of race, sexuality, spirituality, and wellness. The findings highlight the complex trauma caused by both racialized and religious violence and how they have historically impacted the lives of Black LGBTQIA+ people today. The research offers evidence for the benefit and efficacy of implementing traditional Afrodiasporic spirituality into expressive arts therapeutic treatment, particularly for Black LGBTQIA+ people and communities. This research also suggests the necessity for actively and effectively dismantling Western psychological frameworks and approaches that have been historically harmful towards Black and LGBTQIA+ people in order to pave pathways towards collective healing and liberation
How Geek Therapy Plays Into Expressive Arts Therapy: A Literature Review
Get PDFWithin this paper, I explore how geek therapy plays well with the methods of expressive arts therapy. The combination of geek therapy and expressive arts therapy can assist clinicians in immediately connecting with their clients and identifying strength-oriented narratives that honor the client’s preferences, modes of expression, and pop culture affinities. This engagement with expressive approaches utilizing affinity-based interventions can lead to a deeper sense of understanding of the client’s intra-, inter-, and extra-personal relationships. Through this literature review of expressive arts therapy and geek therapy, primarily focusing on video games in therapy, clinicians from all walks of life can explore these techniques with clients in multiple settings and within a variety of age groups.
Video games are immersive, multimodal, and interactive digital experiences that can promote wellness through engaging a spectrum of cognitive processes, regulating emotion and physical states, exploring meaning, identity, and expression, and building interpersonal tools through in-person and/or virtual means. This paper explores how video games can impact bio-psycho-sociocultural-spiritual domains as well as other potentially therapeutic characteristics of video gaming, whether through in-direct/direct or active/passive experiences. Through understanding gamer motivations, this paper explores player taxonomy models and profilers that can assist in gathering assessment information. Lastly, ethical considerations and the potential for maladaptive behaviors are explored