The Psychological Benefits of Art Therapy

Emotions are limitless, but we are reluctant to express most of them. Our individual emotional palettes differ; hence, psychologists struggle to achieve a therapy practice applicable to a wide range of emotional complications and disorders. Standard therapy practices, such as cognitive or behavioral therapy, treat only selective mental complications. So therapists must adapt their practices across multiple spectrums. As children age, art therapy is beneficial to adolescents because it is flexible and adaptable to individual circumstances, which is one of the pluses of incorporating creative expression into art therapy.

My mother has been an educator for 25 years, teaching classes for kindergarten through fifth graders. She discusses how incorporating art into her classes helps give her a better understanding of how to organize her class for the day. When her students enter her classroom, my mother has her students draw a picture of how their day is going. After reviewing the drawings, it helps give her a better idea of what type of book the students would be most interested in and whether they do art stations or independent reading as an activity afterwards. She noticed the rowdy behavior diminishing as these children all sat and drew about their day. While every student’s drawing was different, there was never a blank page. She noticed higher classroom engagement and a faster so-called “cool down time” from when they first walked into the library to when it was time to sit on the rug for group reading. This is just one example of how easily art can help influence a child’s behavior in an everyday setting, and not just an individual, but a class of 25 elementary schoolers. Not only does it benefit wellbeing, but it also allows for open communication with educators and authority figures.

 MaryGrace Berbarian discussed in her work “Creative Problem Solving in Art Therapy” The influences art therapy can have on a child’s resilience and problem-solving skills How many may wonder: How does painting or drawing a picture help you solve a problem in life?

It is common to categorize art therapy as one of the more frivolous practices in psychology, but many do not understand that there is more than just painting in art therapy; there is an entire curriculum behind it that can reach more patients than standard practices. Berbarian utilizes instances in which art therapy may be influential:

 For example, the tolerable access of traumatic memories via art processes is encouraged by the trusting, empathic relationship with the therapist and the reward derived from the sensorially pleasurable creative process. Further, by safely re-encoding terrorizing memories through art therapy, the child can construct new options for safety through mirroring from the art therapist and reap the rewards of feeling validated.

Many children cannot even begin to comprehend their feelings, let alone verbally explain them; sometimes the only thing they get is a picture in their heads. A way to show that emotion visually may be the easiest way to explain their innermost thoughts. Many children do not know how to confide in a stranger. When looking at a picture, it is an activity that coincides with children’s creative and developmental nature.Color theory discusses how many people can associate certain colors towards emotions subconsciously. Some instances of this can be a child being stuck in a dark red room, which could symbolize them being trapped in their own anger, or a child portraying their self-image much smaller than their parent may be their form of expressing how they feel belittled by that figure.

A Rowan University figure Jessica Anne Masino Drass published a paper on the programs of Rowan’s art therapy; in this, she includes a background on various tactics and studies revolving around the practice. In an effort to limit students’ disciplinary actions, they implemented an after-school art program and further recorded the results they uncovered through this program,  which consisted of a group of teenagers from South New Jersey.

All of the students reported that they enjoyed being a part of the program and had fun at the meetings after school. What they enjoyed most about the program was creating a permanent public art project by being able to paint on the walls of the school. They also remarked that their involvement in the program gave them something positive to do with their time and kept them from getting into trouble outside of school.

Many students displayed positive behavioral changes when they redirected their energy and also learned how to express their rebellion. While the drawing on walls was sanctioned, they still felt a thrill from participating in something that tends to lie outside the norm.

By the end of the eight-week program, it was easy to see that a bond had grown between the five students, and they looked out for each other. At one meeting in particular, one of the students came in after school clearly upset about something. He had an incident with a teacher that brought him to tears. Instead of making fun of his emotions, the other students tried to calm him down and listened to him tell the story of what had happened to make him so upset. They also gave him suggestions on ways to remedy his situation in a positive way. When the program began, these were five high school students who didn’t know each other very well or at all, and by the end, they were sticking up for each other.

Jessica’s program utilizing these South Jersey teens ended up having them grow a bond through art and cultivating a friendship through the group art sessions they attended. These students, all who had behavioral issues in school, many involving their peers, ended up understanding each other better through their art and felt special and unique through not only their work but the bonds they made.

As children grow through various psychosocial developmental stages, it is harder to determine what types of standard therapeutic practices are most beneficial to their specific circumstances. Through the examples shown, art therapy has been deemed successful on all different stages of development, considering the varying age groups shown of the children subjected to practicing art therapy. This is one of the reasons why art therapy is very attainable from different types of behavioral issues and specified circumstances.

References

Berberian, Marygrace. (2019). Creative Problem Solving in Art Therapy. file:///Users/bellaaquilino/Downloads/Art_Therapy_Practices_for_Resilient_Youth_Berberian_CreativeProblemSolving.pdf

Drass, Jessica Anne Masino, “Using art to teach problem-solving and other social skills: the effectiveness of the RATE Program” (2009) https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/607