Art Therapy Research Research Articles

Reflect Interview using audio-image recording: Development and feasibility study

This paper outlines the development to date of two art therapy practice research tools: the audio-image recording (AIR) format and an art-based semi-structured interview entitled Reflect Interview. These aim to capture service user views of what changes, and what mechanisms cause change, in the art therapy they have received. A feasibility study was undertaken to establish whether these tools could be used to build credible data sets across multiple sites and populations. Results indicate this is possible if the data collection period is longer than six months. The authors argue that results indicate the tools have high respondent validity, are unobtrusive to administer in naturalistic settings and offer a novel contribution to art therapy research from within its practice.

Art Therapy and Flow: A Review of the Literature and Applications

Flow is a construct developed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi that describes a psychological state of optimal attention and engagement. Creativity and improved well-being have been empirically linked to the flow experience; therefore, the study of flow has implications for art therapy research and practice. Art therapists may facilitate personal growth by helping individuals enter and maintain a state of flow in their art making. This article reviews the literature on the characteristics of the flow experience and its neurological functions and suggests applications to art therapy theory and practice.

Research watch: art therapy: a dose of treatment, an aid to social inclusion or an unnecessary indulgence?

PurposeThis Research Watch aims to summarise two recent and very different research publications on art therapy and comments on their ability to shed light on the usefulness of art therapy to address mental distress and enhance social inclusion.Design/methodology/approachThe author discusses a recent edition of a UK art therapy journal in which research papers focus on art therapy with people who have been given a diagnosis of personality disorder. The main methodologies are qualitative describing participants’ and/or therapists’ experiences and the role of art therapy in addressing serious mental distress. The second publication is a recent report of a large randomised controlled trial of art therapy for people given a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The author assesses the value of both publications in informing us about the usefulness of art therapy in addressing mental distress and enhancing social inclusion.FindingsIn the author's view, neither publication establishes definitively how or whether art therapy might address serious mental distress, whether labelled personality disorder or schizophrenia. However, the qualitative articles provide insight into possible helpful (and less helpful) aspects of therapy. The randomised trial should have been able to establish general principles about the effectiveness of art therapy for a specific group of people in specified contexts, but instead exemplifies many problems inherent in the pervasive research culture of putting numbers onto complex human interactions and calculating their value for money, sometimes at the expense of really understanding what is going on.Originality/valueThe author draws upon these two very different examples of research to reflect a current dilemma in UK art therapy research, and tentatively looks at possible ways forward.

Allowing the Artwork to Speak: the use of a visual display as research method in a retrospective study of four years’ artwork in art therapy with a four-year old boy

This paper presents the curating of a visual display of all the artwork from a child’s art therapy for the purpose of understanding the art processes and managing a very large number of pictures. The paper is in two parts: a video documenting the display and an accompanying text. The visual display, arranged chronologically, was found to produce useful information for research and preserve the freshness of the original intent of the child in making the work. The information gathered offers rich pathways to follow in further research into this case. It is concluded that a review of all the pictures, whether in exhibition format or in a more informal review, helps to isolate and foreground the narrative of the art making and offers an effective and unbiased way for an art therapist to gather data to write case studies. Keywords: art therapy research, visual display, retrospective review of the images, visual methodology, art process, curating

Positive Art Therapy: Linking Positive Psychology to Art Therapy Theory, Practice, and Research

As a growing movement in the larger field of mental health, positive psychology has much to offer the art therapy profession, which in turn is uniquely poised to contribute to the study of optimal functioning. This article discusses the relationship of positive psychology to art therapy and its capacity to mobilize client strengths, to induce experiences of flow and positive emotions, and to express life purpose and meaning as well as positive emotions. Suggested research and practical applications illuminate the potential of positive art therapy to move individuals, groups, and communities beyond solely the relief of suffering to a state of flourishing.

Ethical Considerations in Art Therapy

:Art therapists, counsellors, and mental health professionals who utilize arts-based interventions encounter many, sometimes unexpected, ethical issues (Moon, 2000). Because it is crucial that these professionals enter into an open dialogue about potential ethical dilemmas, this article discusses several areas that have unique implications in the art therapy field (the therapeutic space and art materials, the rights of artwork, the use of art techniques by other professionals, and art therapy research). In doing so, it references the ethical codes of the two national art therapy associations in North America - the Canadian Art Therapy Association’s (CATA) Standards of Practice and the American Art Therapy Association’s (AATA, 2011) Ethical Principles for Art Therapists. Where possible, it considers the larger community of mental health professionals by referencing the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association’s (CCPA, 2007) Code of Ethics. Future directions are discussed.

Book review: The Creative Arts in Dementia Care: Practical Person-Centred Approaches and Ideas and Introduction to Art Therapy Research and Music Therapy and Addictions

Book review: The Creative Arts in Dementia Care: Practical Person-Centred Approaches and Ideas and Introduction to Art Therapy Research and Music Therapy and Addictions

Does Art Therapy Work? Identifying the Active Ingredients of Art Therapy Efficacy

Art therapy research is beginning to identify more precisely the active ingredients that produce change in treatment and to test commonly held assumptions about efficacy. This editorial discusses the progression from clinical observation to single-case research and randomized controlled trials in building an evidence-based model of art therapy.

Mentoring and other challenges in art-based enquiry: You will figure it out

This article traces an art therapy practitioner/educator’s history with art therapy research and recounts significant influences that helped the author develop a clear sense of the importance of art-based modes of enquiry. Particular attention is given to the scepticism in the professional art therapy community regarding arts-based methodologies and the pivotal role of mentorship in overcoming such reservations. A plea is made for integrating arts practices into the ways researchers initiate questions, gather and analyse data, and articulate findings. The author calls on art therapy researchers to bring their artistic sensibilities to every question and problem, and to use those sensibilities in every presentation and scholarly production.

Issues in creative arts therapy research: An interview with Lynn Kapitan, Ph.D., ATR-BC

In this interview, Lynn Kapitan, PhD, ATR-BC, recent Past President of the American Art Therapy Association, talks about issues in creative arts therapy research relevant to poetry therapy that are addressed in her book, Introduction To Art Therapy Research (Kapitan, 2010).

The History of Art Therapy at the National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Research Center is a government facility that has a long history of groundbreaking research. Art therapy research began at NIH in 1958 with Hanna Kwiatkowska, whose work contributed to the foundation of art therapy with families, and with Harriet Wadeson, who conducted psychodynamic art therapy research. This article describes the early history of art therapy research at NIH, its loss of salience at the institute as government funding priorities shifted, art therapy's reestablishment there as a clinical practice in palliative care, and possible directions for future research.

Research Ethics: Institutional Review Board Oversight of Art Therapy Research

By having their research proposals reviewed and approved by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), art therapists meet important ethical principles regarding responsibility to research participants. This article provides an overview of the history of human subjects protections in the United States; underlying ethical principles and their application in research practice; and a discussion of concerns nonmedical, post-positivist art therapy researchers need to consider in the IRB approval process. Aspects of ethical human subjects research of particular importance to art therapy researchers, such as working with vulnerable populations of research subjects and the use of art in research reports, are discussed. Recommendations to help further art therapy research through IRB oversight are offered.

PACTO: 10 anos de ações na interface arte e saúde e suas ressonâncias no campo profissional

On June 19th and 20th, 2008, professionals, students, professors and researchers got together in Sao Paulo, at the Department of Physical Therapy, Speech and Hearing Therapy and Occupational Therapy during the “I Encontro de TerapiaOcupacional e as acoesna Interface entre as Artes e a Saude” (First meeting of Occupational Therapy and the actions on the interface between arts and health). The event was organized to celebrate the 10th anniversary of ‘PACTO’ – Artistic Compositions and Occupational Therapy Permanent Program - a didactic-assistance project of the Laboratory of Studies and Research in Art, Body and Occupation Therapy, developed at the Occupational Therapy Program of the University of Sao Paulo - USP. This article presents excerpts of verbal contributions made by some professionals who attended the event. The reported experiences have brought different perspectives to the project: its daily sustainability in the ambit of the University of Sao Paulo, its resonances on other practices and trajectories in the field of Occupational Therapy, its way of operating partnerships, the required clinical-artistic- -cultural articulations to make it possible for the participation of people in vulnerability in art and culture projects

Hermeneutic methods in art therapy research with international students

This paper describes a phenomenological approach to art therapy based on hermeneutic grounded theory methodology. The study investigated the lived experience of art therapy with international students from 10 world regions. Nineteen international students from an Australian university took part in 10 weeks of group art therapy. Data were hermeneutically analyzed across participants’ artworks, behaviour and spoken and written narratives and core themes were developed for each participant. Where verbalizing in English as a second language (ESL) was often laborious, the aesthetic dimensions of participants’ artworks served as both an anchor and signpost for organizing thinking and expressing emotions. Furthermore, the images provided a context for exploring autonomy, identity and personal growth in relation to sojourn adjustment. This paper illustrates a method for analyzing synergistic processes in art therapy where translating thoughts and feelings into tangible form functions as a way of knowing through the universal language of human experience. Importantly it adds to our understanding of suitable counseling methods for international student adjustment.

Ações de Terapia Ocupacional no território da cultura: a experiência de cooperação entre o Museu de Arte Contemporânea da USP (MAC USP) e o Laboratório de Estudos e Pesquisas Arte e Corpo em Terapia Ocupacional

This article's aim is to report a collaborative experience, started in 1996, between the Laboratory of Studies and Research in Art, Body and Occupation Therapy and the Museum of Contemporary Art of USP (MAC USP), by focusing on some actions and their unfolding for the construction of Occupational Therapy practices in the cultural field. For 10 years, joint actions in teaching, researching and extending services to the community were developed. The experience made it possible to follow up groups of elderly people and people in vulnerability, in proposals that articulate doing art, appreciate and contextualize artistic practices in art history. It made possible, also, deepen studies on contemporary art and the comprehension of occupational therapists' role to build up the access of vulnerable populations to the artistic-cultural field.

O Coral Cênico Cidadãos Cantantes: um espaço de encontro entre a música e a saúde

This article presents the experience of the Theatrical Choral Singing Citizens, created in 1992 as an extension of the activities developed at the Convivence and Cooperative Centers of the Health Secretary of São Paulo, and supported by the NGO "SOS Mental Health, Ecology and Culture". The Choral is a heterogeneous group formed by interest on artistic construction, which gather people suffering from mental illness, people in vulnerability, and others from general population, having been established as a workplace Galeria Olido, in São Paulo. From 2006, the Choral has worked in a partnership with the Laboratory of Studies and Research in Art, Body and Occupational Therapy. This practice recovers the sense of art as a human attribute capable of transforming attitudes, knowledge spaces, and existential spaces in orther to alter one's quality of life. The Coral's tool is the promotion of encounters in which the singers could harmonize dissonances and tune differences, supporting an experience on the interface between choral singing, art and health on contemporaneity. Musical practice in groups who present this profile installs itself, therefore, not only as possible, but instigative in fomenting new possibilities for choral music, new establishment of relations and territories.

Formação em Terapia Ocupacional na Interface das Artes e da Saúde: a experiência do PACTO

This paper presents the education work offered in the Occupational Therapy Program developed by the Laboratory of Studies and Research in Art, Body and Occupational Therapy of FMUSP. The Laboratory conducts teaching and research activities, in the didactic-assistancial field, with groups and individuals accompaniment for heterogeneous population through the Artistic Compositions and Occupational Therapy Permanent Program (PACTO) and through partnerships made with projects in the art/health interface. Students experiences are sheltered and elaborated in team discussion, weekly supervisions, study groups and theme-deepening seminars. The education qualifies students to: understand and build up practices in the art/health interface under an occupational therapy's perspective; questioning the approaches in the art/health interface in healthcare spaces and in cultural spaces; comprehend social and institutional relations and institutional transformation processes; understanding the occupational therapists' participation in cultural policies and health humanizing policies. We chose to report and scoring aspects of the work done in recent years (2003-2008) in which some teaching strategies were consolidated and showed its effects on students' education and professional exercise. In the Occupational Therapy field there is an increase in the possibilities for professional performance linked to the issues of cultural production, in trans-disciplinary projects dealing with constructing inclusive social networks, with collective participation and production of subjectivity.

Systematic analysis of art therapy research published in Art Therapy: Journal of AATA between 1987 and 2004

This paper presents a systematic analysis of methodologies used in research published in Art Therapy: Journal of AATA between the years 1987 and 2004. The context of epistemological paradigm shifts affecting research in general and art therapy research in particular is examined. Quantitative inquiry supports hypotheses that the number of publications has continued to grow over the years and that author demographics differ from general demographic of art therapists. A qualitative analysis identified eight methods common to art therapy research: clinical case studies, self studies, survey research, interviews, art therapy tests, historiography/anthropological research, behavioral observations, and exploration of clients’ artworks. Thematic exploration of each method and integration of findings suggest indicators of methods’ maturation and shifts in how and when methods are utilized, field-specific challenges, and emergence of art therapy research norms.

Review of Research on Therapeutic Factors in Group Counseling/therapy and Future Suggestions of Group Art Therapy Research

Review of Research on Therapeutic Factors in Group Counseling/therapy and Future Suggestions of Group Art Therapy Research

Art therapy improves coping resources: A randomized, controlled study among women with breast cancer

Women with breast cancer suffer from considerable stress related to the diagnosis, surgery, and medical treatment. It is important to develop strategies to strengthen coping resources among these women. Research in art therapy has shown outcomes such as an increase in self-esteem and cohesion, significant improvement in global health, and a decrease in anxiety and depression. The aim of the present article was to describe the effects of an art therapy intervention program on coping resources in women with primary breast cancer. In this article, we report some of the results from a study including 41 women, aged 37-69 years old, with nonmetastatic primary breast cancer, referred to the Department of Oncology at Umeå University Hospital in Sweden for postoperative radiotherapy. The women represented various socioeconomic backgrounds. They were randomized to a study group (n = 20) with individual art therapy for 1 h/week during postoperative radiotherapy or to a control group (n = 21). The article focuses on changes in coping resources, as measured by the Coping Resources Inventory (CRI) before and 2 and 6 months after the start of radiotherapy. The study protocol was approved by the Umeå University Ethical Committee at the Medical Faculty (archive number 99-386). There was an overall increase in coping resources among women with breast cancer after taking part in the art therapy intervention. Significant differences were seen between the study and control groups in the social domain on the second and third occasions. Significant differences were also observed in the total score on the second occasion. This study shows that individual art therapy provided by a trained art therapist in a clinical setting can give beneficial support to women with primary breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy, as it can improve their coping resources.