Mental health studies show art therapy’s benefits

Over the last seven decades, art therapy has grown into an important means of assessing patients’ health and helping patients communicate.

By: Kelli Beck
   Art has always been with us, and certainly for even the earliest of our ancestors, it provided a form of therapy.
   The profession of art therapy, however, did not emerge until the 1930s when psychiatrists and art educators alike were discovering links between art and the benefits of its freeing forms of expression. Over the last seven decades, art therapy has grown into an important means of assessing patients’ health and helping patients communicate. The theory behind art therapy is that the creative process involved in the making of art enhances life and promotes healing.
   Today, art therapy is used in a clinical setting as a therapeutic means of helping patients cope with a variety of symptoms, stress and trauma. Art therapists receive training in both art and therapy, learning about human development, clinical practice, psychological theories, a variety of artistic traditions and the healing potential of art in general.

   Art is used as a method of treating, assessing and researching, and art therapists work with people of all ages and conditions. One of the many wonderful benefits of art therapy is the process of helping a highly resistant patient find pleasure in an artistic activity.
   For example, a typical art therapy session at Princeton House, the behavioral health care division of the Medical Center at Princeton, will have no more than 10 participants. Most program participants (including those enrolled in partial-hospital programs for mental illness and addictions, dual diagnosis and chronic mental illness) will be scheduled to have two sessions of art therapy weekly or bi-weekly.
   Some groups will run 50 minutes, while others stretch to 90 minutes. Within that time frame, the group may work in any of the following: paints, pastels, magazine collage, clay, ceramics, markers, pencils and objects found while on a nature walk.
   Sometimes a group might focus on a specific topic such as "what emotions are you feeling today?" or "what color do you think you are today?" Other times, a group may begin by painting on a fresh canvas.
   As the group paints, the art therapist facilitates discussion among the participants. A common topic of conversation involves issues that have come up in the participants’ last group therapy session. Art therapists can tell you that conversations and thoughts flow more freely when the hands are occupied in a creative way.
   Many participants enter an art therapy session after attending a group therapy session. In group therapy, the participants talk yet remain physically still. This combination creates its own kind of internal energy.
   When patients arrive in the art room, they are able to be quiet and process their thoughts. Expending the kind of energy group therapy produces can be exhausting, and the art room gives participants a different kind of outlet.
   And yet, many participants resist the idea of art therapy at first.
   The majority of patients enter their first session with a great deal of reluctance. They may not think that they are good at any particular kind of art and may dread the feelings that working on something artistic will bring up. They may not feel they are capable of producing a final product.
   Regardless of the fears they may have going into an initial art therapy session, most participants find themselves enjoying it. For the few who find no immediate comfort, they may find the art experience is touching on something inside them that needs to be addressed.
   The bottom line is that there is no bad reaction to an art therapy session. In fact, it is healthy to allow participants to work with their resistance. It teaches them that it is good to protect yourself and warm up to new experiences. Having to attend art therapy sessions allows participants to establish boundaries and work with these boundaries.
   It is interesting to note that as many as half the participants will leave behind whatever it is that they have created during their session. For the art therapist, this proves the point that the process is equally as important as the final product.
   Patients may not take the painted picture or the sculpted clay object with them, but they do walk away with the experience. That is not something they can leave behind. For others, it is important to take with them what they have created because it often serves as a transitional reminder of where life has taken them.
   The experience of learning a new hobby can be quite significant in the lives of many patients. Some patients tell of the comfort they take in knowing that there are pleasurable, healthy outlets for them, whether it be painting, woodworking or knitting. Taking a created object home and displaying it or giving the object as a gift is an added bonus. For those who choose to do this, it boosts self-esteem and has the potential to boost relationships with family members when given as gifts.
   It is interesting to note how an endless variety of artistic endeavors fosters creativity and gives it an outlet. One session may begin by taking a walk outside together, gathering a variety of objects found in nature. Once the gathering is done, the therapist and the participants will return to the art room and create any number of things from a pinecone sculpture to a nature collage.
   Another session may simply involve cutting out pictures from a stack of magazines and gluing them onto paper. These pictures may have a theme or may just be a random collection of images.
   In either case, as anyone who has ever led a focus group can tell you, conversation flows when a group is busy finding just the right pictures to tell their story. Making dream catchers is another activity that naturally encourages participants to discuss their lifelong hopes and aspirations as well as their nighttime dreams, both bad and good.
   The tactile experience of working with clay is great for the hands and the mind. Even something as simple as doodling provides a wonderful release of energy and lets something that is stuck inside have a way out.
   Mental health care professionals around the world applaud the growing acceptance of art therapy. Studies have clearly shown that even the simplest of artistic activities can produce such positive results.
   Kelli Beck is an art therapist on staff at Princeton House, a division of The Medical Center at Princeton. Health Matters appears Fridays in the Lifestyle section of The Princeton Packet and is contributed by The Medical Center at Princeton.