Articles and Blogs About the Practice of Art Therapy
The links below offer a sample of how art therapy is utilized in various settings. Some articles are from published journals written by experts in their field, where other links connect to internet blogs written by parents or teachers. Each discuss the author's own experience with art therapy.
Second Lady Karen Pence visited Florida State University in Tallahassee on October 18 to announce her official platform, titled Art Therapy: Healing with the HeART. Florida State University is home to a nationally acclaimed art therapy graduate education program. Following her announcement, Mrs. Pence visited Canopy Cove Eating Disorder Treatment Center to speak with an art therapist and clients about their experience with art therapy.
In an article published Wednesday, Mrs. Pence shared her story of learning about art therapy and selecting it for her platform as Second Lady. In 2006, a conversation about art teaching techniques connected her with Tracy’s Kids, an organization in Washington, D.C. offering art therapy to child cancer patients. Amazed by how effectively the art therapy approach served patients, Mrs. Pence (who is a former art teacher, not a therapist) joined the board of Tracy’s Kids in 2011.
“It is evident when I visit art therapy programs across the United States and world, that art therapy is making a positive difference, said Mrs. Pence. “From children with cancer, to struggling teens, to grieving families, to people with autism, to military service members experiencing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, to those with eating disorders, art therapy is changing lives.”
As an approach to mental health, art therapy has heavily relied on expert opinion rather than actual evidence via various forms of research. Despite the collective enthusiasm from the profession, there has been very little substantiation that art therapy makes a positive difference in emotional recovery in individuals challenged by personality disorders.
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ScientificAmerican.com
Turning Adversity into Creative Growth
May 6, 2013 • By Scott Barry Kaufman
Can we all channel our trauma in creatively productive ways? Absolutely! Various forms of creative engagement, including art therapy and expressive writing, have demonstrated therapeutic benefits. Researchers have argued that creative expression offers therapeutic benefits because they increase engagement and flow, catharsis, distraction, positive emotions, and meaning-making.
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TIME.com
Why Selfies Matter
September 6, 2013 • By Alexandra Sifferlin
Developmentally, selfies make sense for children and teens. And for the most part, they are simply reflections of their self-exploration and nothing more. “Self captured images allow young adults and teens to express their mood states and share important experiences,” says Dr. Andrea Letamendi, a clinical psychologist and research fellow at UCLA. As tweens and teens try to form their identity, selfies serve as a way to test how they look, and therefore feel, in certain outfits, make-up, poses and places. And because they live in a digital world, self-portraits provide a way of participating and affiliating with that world.
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Pacific Standard
This Is Your Brain on Art:
Why we're moved by certain works
January 22, 2014 . Tom Jacobs. Pacific Standard
Goodtherapy.org
Five Things I Learned About Autism From My Art Therapist
August 28, 2013 • By Janeen Herskovitz, MA
“Certain artworks, albeit unfamiliar, may be so well-matched to an individual’s unique makeup that they obtain access to the neural substrates concerned with the self—access which other external stimuli do not get,” writes a research team led by Edward Vessel of New York University’s Center for Brain Imaging. Activity in the brain region linked to introspection and self-referential thought suggests “self-relevance is an integral aspect of intensely moving aesthetic experiences.” Read more...
1) Art Therapy is very different from doing "arts and crafts"
2) Art is a communication tool
3) Art is a self-regulation tool
4) Process is more important than the product
5) Art provides an opportunity to truly be with our kids.
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Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 2004
Art Therapy with a Child Experiencing Sensory Integration Difficulty
Diane Kearns,West Linn, OR
Brainblogger.com
Improving Emotional Intelligence in Psychosis with Art Therapy
July 26, 2013 by Ann Reitan, PsyD
It is suggested that artistic self-expression is a means of creating a personal stance in the social arena that will allow for healthy regulation of emotion. Art therapy could be an important avenue toward increased mental health in the psychotic individual. Engaging in art not only allows the psychotic individual to express his own emotions to others, but the canvas (whether a poem, song or literal canvas) can reflect back to him his internal state. This dialogue between the artist and his work serves an important therapeutic function. Read more...
Art therapy focused on preart activities using three media. Teacher ratings assessed classroom behavior for improvement. Each of the varied media sessions was compared to control sessions where a nonart experience was offered. Results indicated an increase in positive behaviors after art sessions as well as postponement of the first incidence of negative behaviors. Art therapy was found to be a useful intervention. Read more...
The Atlantic.com
The Diminishing Role of Art in Children's Lives
July 5, 2017 by Tracy Brown Hamilton
