The Benefits of Art Therapy

Children and adolescents developmental stages cause a skew in how different therapy tactics are effective in reaching each individual. Art therapy is a method many art teachers and therapists have worked to collaborate on to develop a new form of therapeutic expression for adolescents. Art therapy holds many benefits and is much more widely applicable to adolescents than select forms of psychological therapy.

Art therapy is aimed at directing children’s reward pathways and allowing an alternate form of expression to help teach unique problem-solving. Using art to express an emotion or tell a story that, in some stages of development, children are limited in expressing or explaining verbally.

Fei-Ya Su’s students benefit from the “no wrong answers” approach to art therapy in the classroom.

One of the main goals she describes is one of the most common and ideal concepts that are seen through participating in art therapy. The overall goal of her therapy is to see students “come to class feeling that this was a safe place to explore their passions with no right or wrong answers or methodologies.”

Teenagers need to be reminded of this. They are highly self-critical and easily discouraged, and in many areas of their lives, they feel some external pressure to conform to their surroundings while growing up. But not in her classroom. In many ways, picking at a child’s brain causes  hyper-fixation on the problem at hand, emphasizing what is wrong and making the child feel criticized. Many teenagers are not ready for these tactics to be one of the first steps taken in receiving mental health treatment. In art therapy, the lines often get blurred on the therapeutic side, and many patients take it as an art education, which helps separate their mind from the direct problem and solve these issues subconsciously before having these revelations brought to their attention. In conducting an art therapy experiment with her students through studying art therapy, Fei-Ya Su discussed the outcome and reflection of her experiment.

“If I could do this class all over again, the change that I would consider making the most is to have students create an art journal and update it every day at home. This would have given them more opportunity to think about trying different art materials and generate new ideas that they could record and refer to come class time.”

Understanding a concept can sometimes be interpreted better from an alternate perspective. Participating in artistic expression, or a visual, carves out a new sensory implication in therapy practices rather than traditional verbal expression and adds a hands-on component that makes the patient feel as if they have more control over their situation, which has a heavy influence on their willingness to participate.

A research study, “A Systematic Narrative Review on Art Therapeutic Means and Forms of Expression, Therapist Behavior, and Supposed Mechanisms of Change,” was conducted by various researchers in an effort to prove how different applications of therapy impact qualifying adolescents.

“AT interventions for children and adolescents are characterized by a variety of materials and techniques, forms of structure such as giving topics or assignments, and the use of language. Three forms of therapist behavior were seen: non-directive, directive, and eclectic. All three forms of therapist behavior, in combination with a variety of means and forms of expression, showed significant effects on psychosocial problems.“

When applied in a flexible manner, art therapy is highly effective. In this experiment, the researchers studied the applicability of therapy to certain classifications of psychosocial behaviors the subjects were exhibiting; through this, they were able to determine how they can best execute these methods. Art therapy is not just a direct practice; there is more to it than just the simplicity of having a person sit in front of a canvas. There is an entire curriculum behind the practices of art therapy; just like the psychosocial sciences behind cognitive and behavioral therapy, art therapy has a variety of approaches adapted to the individual patient.

Throughout the copious experiments revolving around art therapy, many researchers have questioned the legitimacy of its effectiveness. In the study that was conducted by Bosgraaf, Spreen, Pattiselanno, and Van Hooren, they were able to compare and contrast a variety of psychosocial therapy practices with art. 

“The results showed that the use of means and forms of expression and therapist behavior is applied flexibly. This suggests the responsiveness of AT, in which means and forms of expression and therapist behavior are applied to respond to the client’s needs and circumstances, thereby giving positive results for psychosocial outcomes.”

There are many benefits from art therapy and overtime, has been found much more applicable to adolescents than select forms of psychological therapy. While behavioral, or cognitive, therapy, which stems from conditioning through verbal communication, allows for many of one’s psychosocial issues to be addressed directly, art therapy can construct itself to present patients with more direct tasks as well. There is a more loosely based science behind the variability of techniques this practice uses, which allows for it to be more applicable to different psychosocial issues displayed in children and adolescents. Being able to interpret the practices of art therapy and how they contrast with more routine and traditional therapeutic practices allows us to begin to see the psychological depth behind art.

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.

It can be argued how to apply art therapy to patients; it can also be disputed whether or not these tactics work at all. Different behavioral issues, life circumstances, and obstacles all require different types of therapy in order to address the individual. Is art therapy capable of being applicable to everyone?

We have seen a vast majority of studies point towards art therapy being beneficial in aiding the mental health issues seen in youth. Art therapy is not solely used as the main form of therapy most of the time, but rather as an additional practice towards one’s ongoing treatment. But not everybody is equipped to gain a positive experience from this practice; as with any other form of therapy, some are more widely applicable to certain conditions than others.

In a Health Technology Assessment study revolving around the impacts of art therapy, it is seen that not all of the patients were positively impacted. While it was not deemed directly harmful, some patients claimed they simply did not see any effects, on either the positive or negative spectrum, that could play a role in how they were impacted emotionally by art therapy.

“More serious concerns included art therapy causing anxiety, increasing pain, and resulting in the activation of emotions that were not resolved. In one study, a participant was also concerned that art therapy may be harmful if the art therapist was not skilled. A final concern was that it may be harmful if art therapy is suddenly terminated. These findings were seen across only two studies, both in patients with cancer.”

Many individuals have certain comforts and outlets when it comes to taking a vulnerable stance with their emotions. In this example pulled from the study, the third chapter discussed how some recipients had concerns revolving around the therapist themselves, as in whether or not they would feel comfortable. This correlates to almost any therapeutic practice; the most critical thing firsthand is the bond or relationship between the patient and the therapist. In practicing art therapy, the fear of connecting with a therapist is one shared amongst any other therapist from any other field or practice. Whether it is communicative-based or expressive, a client-doctor relationship is always one of the main concerns in determining a patient’s comfort.

In the article Art in Times of Crisis by Edtya Zielinska, it discusses an art therapist named Rachel Brandoff, how she utilizes this therapy practice, and how she is able to connect it with clients. This example from the article shows firsthand how art therapy’s success is heavily dependent on how the therapist works with their clientele, in this case, a group of people struggling with domestic violence.

“As the weeks progressed, the projects became more complex and more intertwined with other members of the family: perhaps each person would make a component of a single piece. The final work was something they’d create as a team. They had the ability to plan and strategize, to communicate and negotiate, and they had the opportunity to get better at these skills. They had to work out their way of working together. This takes practice. What if someone in the family had all the voice? How does everyone get heard? There isn’t a single right way to be a family.  My job was to help them find their best way. Therapy is often about training to better handle the challenges in life, and in art therapy we can create smaller problems that aren’t life-interrupting and use that as a practice ground.”

Many of these practices’ main critics are those who tend to be more self-critical and cannot draw the line between doing something for a project versus for your own benefit. Hence, many stop art around age 11, when we begin to develop harsher criticisms of ourselves. But like the study and Rachel Brandoff’s practices, they were able to see how the therapist themselves does much of the work for their clients by being able to differentiate how art is used recreationally, goal-oriented, and therapeutically.

Art therapy is under the same criticism we see in therapists who just want to sit and talk with their clientele; it does not apply to everyone’s capacity for expressing emotions.

Rachel Brandoff further emphasizes this; 

“I’ve heard many people say that they don’t want to have to tell their whole story all over again. But we do that all the time in life anyway, and in therapy you can tell what you want in your own way. In art therapy, you don’t even have to tell it.”

This type of practice is not the traditional, orthodox forms of therapy that we have seen being used as a foundation for mental health and trauma treatment for decades. This type of therapy is an evolution of what we used to see in order to alleviate stressors and some of the harder parts of communicating. While it is possible to have a negative experience, this therapeutic method is still more widely applicable to adolescents than solely using other forms of psychotherapy. This problem solving is less direct than confronting a patient’s emotions; hence, it is easier for the perception of its effectiveness to be warped, as sometimes the slow buildup seen in this practice does not come with major revelations that may prompt one to see progress directly.

Therapy is different for all of its subjects, and there are many factors that play into how one may portray it, whether or not they are susceptible to outstanding contributing factors. Of course, a practice cannot apply to everyone, whether it’s your internal susceptibility or the therapists’ doing. It is frequently common for people to not want to complete therapy programs, giving a stain on many’s perceptions of looking for help. The public’s opinion stemming from this is what has created an overshadowing about how, if applied correctly, art therapy can be applied across a variety of ages as well as behavioral issues.

References

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

Bosgraaf L, Spreen M, Pattiselanno K, van Hooren S. Art Therapy for Psychosocial Problems in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Narrative Review on Art Therapeutic Means and Forms of Expression, Therapist Behavior, and Supposed Mechanisms of Change. Front Psychol. 2020 Oct 8 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33132993/

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 

Su, Fei-Ya, “How Can Students Use Art to Learn Problem Solving?” (2020). Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/8136

Uttley L, Scope A, Stevenson M, et al. Systematic review and economic modelling of the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of art therapy among people with non-psychotic mental health disorders. Southampton (UK): NIHR Journals Library; 2015 Mar. (Health Technology Assessment, No. 19.18.) Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279634/ doi: 10.3310/hta19180

Zielinska, E. (2020, June 23). Art in times of crisis. The Nexus. https://nexus.jefferson.edu/health/art-in-times-of-crisis/