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This study utilized Moustakas’ heuristic methodology as the vehicle in which art creation was explored as a coping mechanism to fend off vicarious trauma when working with incarcerated juveniles with extensive trauma histories. During Moustakas’s initial engagement phase, the following questions were considered: What healthy coping mechanisms help a student deal with the harsh realities encountered in practicum? Can the art creation process fend off vicarious trauma? Can the art making process help the counter-­‐transference and help as a container for residual emotions after contact with a client? The data gathered for the study included twenty pieces of art and twenty journal entries, along with a culminating art piece for the Creative Synthesis. Six major themes were found in the researcher’s art work: Figure drawing, Stream of Consciousness Narrative, Duality, Powerlessness/Trapped, Schema Shifts, and Color. The findings of this study suggest that art making acts as a container for negative emotions that result from working with more challenging clinical populations and assists in fending off vicarious trauma.

The purpose of this research was to explore the integration of restorative justice approaches within the structure of group art therapy. The research approach was based on a mixed methods design that incorporated both a survey and a case study of a group. The open group structure posed some challenges; however, four of the adolescents agreed to participate in the research study. Each of the eight group art therapy sessions was structured to include an art directive, psychoeducation, and group discussion. Based on the analysis of the data, restorative justice approaches can be successfully integrated into group art therapy. Findings suggest that the participants experience an ambiguity between the roles of victim and offender and had difficulty distinguishing the short-­‐term and long-­‐ term effects of behavior. The developed curriculum can be beneficial for incarcerated and anger management populations, as well as in school-­‐based programs. Future research may include explorations into the efficacy of the curriculum in a school setting with a closed group format. This research has opened the door for several future studies and has provided valuable information to the art therapy field.

This qualitative case study examined the influencing factors of runaway behavior, trauma, and the survival response of “flight.” The participant, an 18-year-old male residing at a transitional living program, ran away at age 17 and experienced a significant trauma history. Throughout the course of treatment, artwork and clinical notes were used as data. Many themes surfaced in the analysis process, including controlled chaos, body fragmentation, sun symbols, female imagery, and lack of color. The act of running away emerged subtly, whereas, traumatic experiences, chronic in nature and beginning early in life, were acutely evident. While the study was specifically concerned with the “flight” response, due to the age of the client when the traumatic events began, the “freeze” response was more prevalent in his artwork. This suggested that further research with this population may reveal the thread that connects these two survival responses and specifically when the “freeze” response shifts to a “flight” response related to running away behavior.

This research explores the experience of participation in a pilot program that integrated poetry and photography for a group of seven adults living with severe and persistent mental illness. Data was gathered in the form of written, visual and verbal responses generated through a semistructured, qualitative focus group that took the week after the end of the pilot program. The data was categorized and coded using a analytical procedure based on Photovoice, a participatory action research model that seeks to empower research participants by providing them with cameras to document and share issues of importance to their lives. Analysis of the data resulted in the emergence of six overarching themes: 1) The group experience 2) Self vs. other 3) Accomplishment and challenge 4) Confinement vs. freedom 5) Observing vs. Being observed/new perspectives and 6) Memories recalled. These themes were examined against existing literature about the use of photography and poetry in therapy, arts-based and group therapy treatments of severe and persistent mental illness, and the use of participatory and artsbased research in mental health. The findings of this research emphasize the rich possibilities for incorporating linked language/written and visual interventions in the treatment of severe and persistent mental illness, as the two offer complementary but distinct opportunities for healing, growth and self-expression. Moreover, this study demonstrates the importance of including mental health clients as participants in qualitative research regarding their perceptions of treatment, and the fundamentally empowering experience of being viewed and treated as experts on their own lives.

In recent years, a multitude of literature have discussed the turbulent nature for young adults to navigate the difficulties of suicide bereavement with lack of support. This experience can be further cumbersome when the bereavement is co-occurring within an academic profession, such as attending university. This study explored three participants experience of suicide bereavement support at a university level, utilizing a phenomenological arts-based approach for inquiry. Data analysis revealed eight common themes that reflect the university students' lived experiences of the phenomenon discussed: Acknowledgment of the communicated loss by faculty, provision of academic support, lack/absence of practice, reluctance, emotional response, non-faculty support, recall, omission. The findings within this study highlight the unique nature of arts expression and the use of it as a communicative tool to those experiencing a death loss. Results suggest a reluctance to disclose for fear of a further loss of professionalism within the University setting and the absence of a solidified grievance plan that left individuals feeling further unsupported. Furthermore, individuals spoke to a heightened need for meaning making of the experience to facilitate the bereavement process and a reliance on the self rather than community due to previous fears of disclosure. Our understanding of suicide bereavement would benefit from an inclusion of non-art affiliated participants, a wider sample size and individuals that associate outside of the female identification for a more diverse range of experiences.

In this heuristic exploration, data was collected through in vivo reflections using the cultural humility model. The researcher used art making, journaling, and a process of indwelling to collect data exploring the relationship between multiple identities and cultural humility. Through this exploration, four main themes emerged. These themes were explored in a final creative synthesis art process. This research serves as a starting point for developing a culturally humble stance as an art therapy trainee. In addition, this exploration highlights the way that art making can enhance the heuristic research experience by deepening the reflection and pulling out themes not readily seen.

This study is an art exploration of the combined use of mindfulness practice, cultivated through a body-scan meditation, and art-making in mitigating compassion fatigue for a beginning clinician. The researcher used an arts-based inquiry with a quantitative component in her data collection and analysis. A reliable, evidenced-based test was self-administered at the beginning and end of the data collection to measure compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. The arts-based inquiry included the researcher engaging in a body-scan meditation, journaling, and art-making over a period of four weeks as methods to process the relationship between mindfulness practice, art-making practice, and compassion fatigue in her clinical work at a community based mental health agency. The body-scan meditation provided insight into the clinician’s experiences and conceptual understandings. Journaling provided a tool for reflection and analysis of the researcher’s engagement in mindfulness and art-making. The art-making process offered a more in-depth understanding of the researcher’s application of mindfulness, as a tool, in clinical practice with her clients. The One-Canvas Process Painting can be utilized as a tool to reflect the researcher’s transformative learning process about her countertransference with clients. The data analysis in this study indicates that engaging in mindfulness practice and art-making practice can increase a beginning clinician’s compassion satisfaction within her clinical work.

This study employed a mixed method approach to explore perceptions of healing, particularly as it relates to the mind, body and spirit. The data was collected via a questionnaire consisting of word lists, scaling questions, narratives and an art based component among thirty-two yoga therapy students and twenty-one art therapy students at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. The information gathered was used to explore, compare and contrast the perceptions of healing within and between the two groups. The findings suggested that both study groups shared similar concepts about the integration of the mind, body and spirituality in their healing journeys while decidedly demonstrating the importance in personal change and growth in their perceived healing experiences. However the yoga therapy participants appeared to take a more concrete approach that was directly related to the practice of yoga and its philosophy, whereas the art therapy participants seemed to take a broader and more intuitive path. These differences were especially noted in the expressive art pieces.

A qualitative research study presents a thorough examination of a group art therapy curriculum for child survivors of disaster or traumatic events. A review of the existing literature was used to inform the current study. The researcher utilized focus group method of inquiry to gain a better understanding of the topic from experts in the art therapy field. Through the gathering of data and analysis, the findings suggest that the curriculum developed to assist child survivors of traumatic events or disasters has intrinsic value and can assist in the recovery process. The focus group provided a means to analyze the curriculum in a critical manner, allowing it to be adjusted and revised for implementation in the future. Drawing on their expertise in working with survivors of disaster or traumatic events, the focus group participants provided valuable feedback used to revise the proposed curriculum. The revised curriculum has the potential to provide safety and containment to encourage integration of the trauma amidst internal and external chaos that a disaster or traumatic event may evoke.