The making of mess in art therapy: Attachment, trauma and the brain

Abstract

This article explores the hypothesis that artwork created during art therapy may activate neurological structures of the brain enabling non-verbal early experience to become known. Art making is a right brain activity and early experience is processed in the right brain. Art therapy can attempt to access early emotional trauma which has caused damage to the right hemisphere of the brain. Mess is often present when working with children who have had early experience of abuse or neglect. The article investigates the meaning of this through a review of research on attachment, trauma and the brain, and linking it with case material. Early relational trauma is suggested as a possible explanation. Mess may be a consequence of damaged neural pathways resulting from early relational abuse with dissociation used to repress the memory of abuse or neglect and to stop thinking taking place. Brain development in infants and young children is briefly explained, including how interpersonal relationships with carers and others are essential for this. Visual processes, the importance of the gaze between infant and career to establish a feeling of wholeness, and good attachment are discussed, emphasising the importance of regulation of affect by parents and others, which leads to healthy development of the mind.