Art Therapy

6 articles

• The History and Theory of Art Therapy — Two Pioneers, Four Theoretical Frameworks, How It Works and What the Evidence Says How did art therapy begin, and what makes it therapeutic? The two traditions of Naumburg and Kramer, psychodynamic, Jungian, humanistic and cognitive-behavioural frameworks, mechanisms such as externalisation and nonverbal processing, and the level of evidence from randomised trials and systematic reviews, at university level.
• Art Therapy with Adults and Older Adults — Phased Trauma Treatment, New Understandings of Grief, Life Review and Dementia In what order should you work with adults who have experienced trauma? Does grief really move through five stages in order? Life review and legacy projects, the relationship between dementia and art, and what a Cochrane review says about the evidence — closing the course at university level.
• Materials and Colour in Art Therapy — the Expressive Therapies Continuum, Fluid and Resistive Media, and Research on Colour and Emotion Why hand one client paint and another a pencil? The four levels of the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC), fluidity and control in media, colour–emotion links in a 30-country study, and the limits of claims that colour can diagnose the mind, at university level.
• Drawing Assessments and Their Limits — HTP, KFD and DAP, Formal-Element Rating, Illusory Correlation and Ethics Can a house-tree-person drawing reveal the mind? The principles and history of the HTP, Kinetic Family Drawing and Draw-a-Person tests, research on the reliability and validity of projective tests, the illusory correlations even experts fall for, the formal-element FEATS, and how to use drawing assessments ethically, at university level.
• Core Techniques in Art Therapy — Clay, Collage, Mandalas, Digital Art and the Evidence Why does clay draw out bodily experience? How does magazine photo collage build a story? Does colouring mandalas really reduce anxiety? The principles and research behind the main techniques, and what to watch out for, at university level.
• Art Therapy with Children and Adolescents — Stages of Drawing Development, Play and Trauma Treatment, Identity and Body Image, Evidence and Ethics How do children's drawings change with age? Lowenfeld's developmental stages, art within play therapy and trauma-focused treatment, identity and body-image work with adolescents, the research evidence and the ethics of working with children, at university level.