This study explored the impact and trauma that a cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment can have on a women’s image and experience of her body. Focus group methodology was part of the qualitative art-based research approach. Since the research was focused on body image, the participants were asked to create art based on their experience of their body before and after cancer treatment. Content analysis was applied to the transcripts of the focus group sessio n to consider themes. The clusters were then correlated with the imagery in the participants’ artwork. The study results suggest that women who have undergone medical treatment for cancer have an altered view of their body image including fragmentation of the body, scarring and disfigurement, censoring of the body and feeling less feminine. The study asserts that the art process and discussion, in a therapeutic setting, provided a supportive environment for cancer patients to discuss sensitive information about their perspectives of their body, diagnosis and treatment.

This research utilized heuristic methodology to explore how the art process can facilitate resilient traits in the lived experience of a developing art therapist with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Anxiety. The protocol followed was based on the Moustakas model of heuristic research and followed the six steps in heuristic methodology. The Moustakas method of study was implemented to show how the nature of this study and the art process revealed the lived experience of the difficulties of adolescence. The art created during the immersion phase revealed the following six themes; (1) Conflict/Duality and conflicting relationships, (2) The notion of a central figure, (3) Framing/Blurring, (4) Progressive intricacy, (5) Identity/Lack of Identity, (6) Growth, Healing, and Resiliency. The art process was very effective in illuminating how resiliency was a part of the adolescent experience and assisted in assuring completion of the adolescent developmental process. It is evident that resiliency plays in important role throughout the process assisting with the navigation of the adolescent experience. The intentions of this study were to examine, reflect and explore the lived experiences of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Anxiety. The data exemplifies that even with expendable resources, supportive measures, and a loving, caring and supportive family the diagnosed adolescent can still be significantly affected. The results indicate an importance for further utilizing the art process in order to better understand and inherently inform the art therapist of the lived experiences and implications of resiliency on an adolescent living with mental illnesses. For youth at risk the resilience process is an important protective factor to be embraced, fostered, and promoted by individuals surrounding the adolescent.

This research is an archival case study examining Helen B. Landgarten’s art therapy practice as observed in a videotaped, early stage, art therapy session with a child with elective mutism. This art therapy session is transcribed, analyzed, and given context by research questions drawn from Landgarten’s 32 journal articles published between 1973 and 2001. These journal articles are chronologically presented in the literature review in a manner resembling an annotative bibliography, familiarizing the reader with Landgarten’s writings and art therapy practice as she progressed through stages in her professional life.

The objective of this project was to examine if art therapist utilize art making in their own professional and personal processing and if so could it feedback into their resiliency as art therapists. Another aim was to give graduate students the opportunity to voice their joys, fears and doubts regarding entering the field of Clinical Art Therapy. Finally, it was also a desire that the research aid in understanding what students need in support of enhancing, expanding and/or maintaining self-care practices while developing their clinician identities. A qualitative method was applied. The subjects for this research consisted of art therapy second year students from the 2010-2012 art therapy cohorts. An email was sent to approximately twenty-three students and produced a very small pool of volunteers; four participants. The participants were asked to answer an open-ended questionnaire and to create an art response on the subject. The art work served as a visual exploration of how art making as a form of self-care has impacted their professional journey into the world of clinical work. The answers to the questionnaires and the visual data were compared. Themes were developed and connections to emergent themes examined. The themes which emerged from both the questionnaire and art processes combined were balance, hope and self-integration. Although a very small study, the significance of this research is the understanding that therapists struggle to find professional and personal balance, the art making process has the potential to foster hope in the art therapeutic processes, to foster hope in self as a facilitator of change and solidifies the notion that art making as an on-going self-care practice has the potential to feedback into the art therapists resiliency development.

This study explores the process by which emotionally disturbed children attach to a new therapist during the first stage of art therapy. Observations center on the ability of artistic metaphor and visual communication to illuminate attachment strategy. Research, in case study format, focuses on two students at the Kayne Eras Center Non Public School. Participants were a 15 year old African American boy and an 8 year old African American girl. Data, consisting of detailed process notes and art products, was analyzed through the application of three research questions; 1. How does artistic metaphor inform the understanding of a child’s inner world, particularly in regard to attachment? 2. Is there a variance between information gleaned from a single, initial art piece, opposed to a body of work, created over time, in regards to attachment? 3. Are attachment strategies conveyed visually, (through art) in the same way they are conveyed verbally or behaviorally? This study found that content of artistic metaphor correlates to existing literature on attachment strategy, thereby substantiating potential for undirected art products to act as assessments of attachment. Additional information was observed concerning subcategories of attachment strategy, trigger patterns of approach and retreat response, internal working models and general coping skills. The congruence of visual, verbal and behavioral communication was found to be dependent on stress levels and the directive structure of therapy. Visual communications frequently served to illuminate internal emotional states. Overall communicative patterns, regarding attachment, were observed in relation to self-protective strategies.

As The United States population becomes more and more diverse, it is inevitable that clinicians will come across clients from a different culture. In this case study the researcher explores how cultural similarities and differences between the client and therapist affect the therapeutic relationship and clinical process. This is done by gathering data from 21 clinical sessions between the therapist who is Asian American and the client who is Samoan American. The result of this study shows that the client and therapist’s cultural similarities does not aid in the therapeutic alliance but the therapist’s racial visibility leads to a magnified projective identification from the client, which sets the course of their relationship. The art is used as a tool to diffuse the tension caused by the cultural proximity in the relationship and provides safety for the client to express himself rather than healing through the relationship with the therapist.

The purpose of this study was to explore existential group art therapy (EGAT) as an alternate or integrated method in treating clients with substance abuse and a history of trauma. Subjects for this study were male and/or female adults, ages 18 and older, volunteer participants who were in treatment for substance addiction at Tarzana Treatment Centers. A group of seven participants who met the criteria for both substance abuse and history of trauma received Existential Group Art Therapy (EGAT) treatment for eight consecutive weeks. Participants were asked to fill out the Scale for Existential Thinking (SET) at the start of the group and at the end of the treatment process to determine whether or not there was an increase in “existential thinking” following eight weeks of EGAT. The group engaged in the art-making process and discussion of their artwork each week, and were asked to answer Post Group Survey Questions (PGSQ) after the termination of the group. This study details four of the seven participants since they attended most consistently and were deeply engaged in the process. The statistical significance of the observed results was measured using a paired two sample for means T-test (one-tailed). Changes in SET scores were deemed to be statistically significant with a result of p

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This research project explores the work done by professionals who work with street children in Mumbai, India, and their perceptions of how art therapy could benefit this population. Ten organizations that serve street children in Mumbai, India participated in a qualitative interview and survey that aimed to gather information and explore the specific needs, psychological issues, and services provided to street children in Mumbai, India. The link between the surveys and the interviews strongly suggest an interest and desire from professionals to learn more about art therapy, and in corporate this modality into the services they provide for this population. The research found that the basic needs of food, shelter, and medical health are a foremost priority for organizations that serve street children, before psychological issues can be addressed. The literature, interviews, and the surveys also make it manifest that the development and incorporation of art therapy should be culturally specific, and sensitive to the needs of that population. Further research and study with these organizations is needed to garner a deeper understanding of how art therapy assessment and treatment modalities can be adapted to best serve street children in Mumbai, India.

This research examines the experience of a long-term creative arts project within a women’s cancer support group. Specifically, the research explores the effects of a creative arts project on quality of life. Literature describing cancer support groups has been reviewed, as well as literature published which specifically studied the effects of art therapy with those living with from medical illnesses including, but not limited to, cancer. Qualitative data was gathered through surveys, interviews, and by analysis of the creative art projects. Group participants were offered the directive to create an altered book in which to express their cancer journey. The art directive was a long-term project, with participants given the opportunity to work on their altered books over the course of six months. Both the processes by which the creative art projects were created as well as the content of the finished products were evaluated. Four prominent themes were discovered during analysis of data; time, a sense of life and growth, gratitude for social connections, and the creative process. These findings were then examined in the context of the general literature as well as art therapy literature on medical support groups. The research supports general literature which identifies that cancer diagnoses and treatment can create social isolation, creating a vital need for social relations and connection. The art therapy research studied chose to focus more on the art product, whereas this research also greatly considers the process of the art-making as significant data.