Treatment of the Bullying Phenomenon: A Survey of the Art Therapy Community

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate if Art Therapists were encountering children involved in the bullying phenomenon in the therapeutic milieu, and how were they assessing and/or treating these children? The method that was utilized to explore art therapists’ experience of treating the bullying phenomenon with children/adolescents was a survey that was developed and distributed to art therapists registered with the American Art Therapy Association. Art therapists were surveyed about assessments and treatment employed with this population of children, settings for treatment, referral sources, artwork produced by this population, and course of treatment. Overall the results revealed that art therapists are or have treated this population of children. Group and individual art therapy were the contexts of treatment most used by the survey sample. School staff were found to be the largest source of referrals for use of art therapy with this population. As reported by respondents to the survey, artwork produced by this population had themes of aggression, lack of trust, low self esteem and depression. Due to findings indicating the school setting housing the majority of incidents of bullying, training for art therapists treating children in this setting or receiving referrals from the school staff warrant inclusion of recognition of and interventions for the bullying phenomenon. The results of this study cannot be generalized because of the limited sample size (N = 64). The study does support some of the literature found. Because of this support and the benefits that could be gained for all parties involved, a refined and expanded version of this study is recommended for more definitive results.%%%%M.A., Creative Arts in Therapy – Drexel University, 2008