Art therapy is well known in the therapeutic field but not very well known amongst adolescents and adults, my job is to inform people who are unaware. In many cases art therapy can be used with other psychotherapy techniques such as group therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy, it is a very diverse field when it comes to its range of limits. Not everyone can creatively suspect the act of art would help their mental state of mind but art therapists were put here to prove those people wrong. Through the findings of my research I have found interesting and important reasons why one might become an active art therapist, and discovered the therapeutic process of how to diagnose and treat their patients. My curiosities also lead me to wonder when art therapy originated, which I found dated back all the way to the 1940’s by a woman named Margaret Nawmburg. By researching art therapy it taught me the real importance of an art therapist job and how their service helps ones in need. The therapeutic process of using art was built to treat a wide range of mental disorders and psychological distress so its experience differs from a regular art class, making the art therapist quiet different than your average art teacher. My job is to make you aware of the differences between an art therapist and an art teacher. They have similar jobs in the same kind of field but differ greatly in importance. An art therapist is trying to get you to experience something different then your art teacher, and that difference being art therapists are trying to get you to focus on your ‘inner- experience’, your feelings, perceptions, and imagination. Their teachings generally involve learning skills in art and techniques, but its emphasis is on developing and exp... ... middle of paper ... ...alary earns you by being an art therapist it is quite a fulfilling, passionate job. During my interview with Carolyn Crotty, an art therapist/educator at Center point Adolescent Center shared with me the highlight of her career so far. Her response was very meaningful, she said, “Having a group of teens tell me how much the art therapy group I’ve been running for 3+ years has meant to them in terms of feeling connected to a healthy and supportive community. It is a real blessing to be able to offer people something I love and feel passionate about and know that it has left such a meaningful impression on so many lives. I feel real grateful to be a facilitator and witness to that.” My overall thoughts from this response were very hopeful; someone who aspires to help people and put others before themselves is a powerful person and an asset to our community and world.
While growing up I had many ideas of what professional career I wanted to obtain, although until recent years, occupational therapy was not even a thought. It was not until my grandmother had a stroke that I even knew what occupational therapy was or entailed. I watched my grandmother participate in therapy leading her to learn how to tie her shoes again, and the things I thought were so simple as to dress herself again. It was during that time as high school graduation was approaching that I realized I wanted to be apart of that. I wanted to have a role helping others learn and exceed as she did because I seen how much joy it brought her. This experience opened my eye to the things we so often take for granted, that some people lose the ability of doing or lack the ability of doing. Throughout her journey of facing and overcoming these problems, it led me to a yearning to pursue this
When I was 15, my grandmother suffered from a severe stroke and was advised to go to a rehabilitation center. At that time I had not ever heard of the profession called occupational therapy. Upon visiting my grandmother, I had the opportunity to witness several health care professionals working together to help rehabilitate her. I have always wanted to engage in a career in which I could attribute to helping people, and at first I thought physical therapy would best compliment my natural abilities but then I encountered the occupational therapist. So as I watched her work with my grandmother diligently I realized that I had found exactly what I was looking for.
The American Academy of Art possesses an interesting background. Frank Young Sr. dreamt of creating a school that would “provide the best instructors, attract the best students, and neglect nothing that will help them to build successful careers.” In 1923, Young decided to turn his dreams into reality, thus creating The American Academy of Art (AAA). The school was originally designed as a school to offer Associate's Degrees in commercial arts, but with the help of the current owner and president of AAA, Richard H. Otto, the ‘Bachelor of Fine Arts Program’ was established in 1992 (“About the Academy”).
The British artist Adrian Hill noted that art making was helpful in his recovery and other patients that were hospitalized for tuberculosis, because of this he noted this he could be called one of the first “medical art therapist. More recently, the use or art expression has increased and enhanced the promotion and development of programs in the health care settings with children. Due to this interest in art therapy there is now a need for clinical skills in worked with child life, counselor training programs, to address the need to understand how art expression is used specifically with the pediatric population (Malchiodi, 1999)
Art therapy incorporates art and therapeutic techniques and aids people of all ages. Many people may benefit from art therapy because they may “find it scary or difficult to express themselves in a clinical setting” (How Art). Art therapy is “the prescripti...
Fortunately, a few weeks were given to me to observe in person the sessions, and I am supported by my on-site supervisor and learning from art therapy classes. The points I may miss in my art therapy sessions will be learned from supervisors or art therapy class and classmates. I also would like to share my experience. The relationship between the supervisors and the intern will be an important factor that elicits better effects of art therapy, as much as the relationship between the therapist and the client.
"Medical applications of art therapy are a natural extension of the use of art therapy with psychiatric populations. The fundamental q...
“Not surprisingly, professionals are well represented among the jobs beginning college students say they hope to get after graduation…” (Macionis, p.385). I am certainly among that demographic, as it is my goal to pursue what would be considered a profession. It is my dream to become an art therapist, a profession which incorporates artwork as a form of therapy. Helping people and having the opportunity to embrace a subject that I love is my dream. According to the American Art Therapy Association (AATA), “A goal in art therapy is to improve or restore a client’s functioning and his or her sense of personal well-being.” For me, it was not all that surprising to learn that art is an exceptional resource for healing and
One of the disadvantages of art therapy is that the therapist is more vulnerable to misinterpretation in terms of the objective understanding of content. Care must be taken not to make rapid interpretations on the specific piece of art which might prevent or even deny the client the satisfaction of discovering and finding out for herself (Case and Dalley, p. 65). This is because art therapy involves a lot of interpretation, it is understandable that critics about this technique are similar to that of psychotherapy. The client’s images can come across as many things with contrasting ideas, but only the individual themself can explain it. The therapist is urged not to point out obvious red signals, instead they should allow the client to come up with their own interpretations. Their own interpretations alone are something to make note of as it may shed some light on the client's thought process about the
The next issue we will talk about is creative art therapy with adults who have severe mental illness. Each year, the lives of about 5 million Americans and those close to them will be affected by a severe and persistent mental illness that interferes with their ability to think, to feel, to work, and to sustain meaningful relationships. These often disabling conditions include schizophrenia, a thought disorder that can cause delusions and hallucinations, and the more severe cases of depressive disorders, which include major depression and bipolar disorder. The prevalence and urgency of severe mental illness challenges therapists to develop hope-inspiring approaches for working with this population. However, therapists are often discouraged in their efforts to provide adequate treatment due to the realities of health care in the United States. Treatment is brief, often limited to one or two sessions within hospital settings, and a few months in day treatment. Individual art therapy is nearly obsolete, and people are often seen in large groups with various diagnoses, emotional states, and cognitive abilities, and at widely different stages of their recovery. There are three necessary conditions for therapists to be confident and competent working with people with severe mental illness: authenticity, creativity, and recovery. Authenticity describes the deeply human relationship between the therapist and clients, which becomes a model for clients’ relationships with one another. Creativity relates to clients’ engagement in the arts and the therapist’s awareness of the special role that creativity can play in the lives of people with mental illness. Recovery represents the therapist’s belief that people with mental illness can build l...
Brooke, S.L. (2004). Tools of the trade: A therapist's guide to art therapy assessments (2nd ed., Rev.). Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.
Most people have had to take multiple art classes through their years in school. In elementary through middle school, it is a required class for most students. In high school it is considered a fine art, which means that it is not fully required, but most students take an introduction to art class of some kind. Then in college, it is not a requirement, but it is strongly suggested for most to take the class. Depending on the college, it also counts as a fine art credit. Usually, students who only take these classes as a credit take introduction to art. This is where people sometimes discover how much they like art classes. For some, art is relaxing and fun, it is an easy way to express one’s self and to lose themselves in such a healthy way. There is a well-known quote that says, “Art helps you to not only lose yourself, but find yourself in the process.” Through the research I have done, I find this to be completely true for people who participate in art therapy. Even though it is not a very widely known therapy, art therapy is a technique that combines a safe place to talk about anything going on in a person’s life, with any form of art which can benefit many people.
Art therapy is a mental health profession in which clients, facilitated by the art therapist, use art media, the creative process, and the resulting artwork to explore their feelings, reconcile emotional conflicts, foster self-awareness, manage behavior and addictions, develop social skills, improve reality orientation, reduce anxiety, and increase self-esteem. A goal in art therapy is to improve or restore a client’s functioning and his or her sense of personal well-being. (AATA, 2013)
Psychoanalytic art therapists must understand that the approach is symbolically meaningful to children who undergo this type of art therapy. The creative process is the most important aspect of psychoanalytic art therapy because it targets children’s unconscious thoughts as a means for symbolic expression. The developmental approach involves a substantial understanding of the stages of child development. This is important for developmental art therapists to understand because they design their treatment plans according to the developmental stages of children. Because art stimulates the right hemisphere of the brain, it triggers growth in the cognitive and emotional domains. The adaptive approach involves normalization, which means helping children with special needs to experience life just as children without special needs experience it. Another aspect of the adaptive approach is that adaptations can be made for all children so that their art-making experience may be maximized to its fullest potential. Adaptive art therapists must be aware of children’s unique, individual strengths in order to help them succeed. The cognitive-behavioral approach involves a substantial understanding of higher mental processes. Cognitive-behavioral art therapists study the mental processes of children to gain an understanding of how they have affected children. They decipher which mental
Some children do not understand how art is relevant in their treatment. Others resist doing anything creative. Samuel Gladding states that “one drawback to using the arts is that some individuals resist doing anything that is creative…” (The Expressive Arts in Counseling). Some children may have a fear of artistic expression, which is why Gladding goes on to state, “… they fear artistic expression is only for the very disturbed” (The Expressive Arts in Counseling). Another limitation of art therapy is that some unskilled councilors misuse the arts in therapeutic practices. The third limitation of art therapy is that some patients might already have insight to the arts. Gladding mentions, “A limitation of using the arts is the ineffectiveness of them for persons who work as artists, who are concrete thinkers, or who are mentally disturbed. In such cases, there is resistance and little insight is gained” (The Expressive Arts in Counseling). Although the first fact may not apply to children because they typically do not obtain careers at this point in their lives, they very well may be disturbed or even concrete