What is Art Therapy – Therapeutic Ability To Heal

What is art therapy?  It is essentially the professional therapeutic ability to utilize artwork that was produced by individuals who yearn for personal growth. This growth has not been able to be achieved, as a result of trauma, illness, personal crisis, and certain challenges that happened to them.

When it comes to what is art therapy? Irrespective of age, people can make use of art therapy, produced by a professional art therapist who has been well trained about the human growth; artistic traditions in a host of cultures, psychological theories, and the healing abilities vis-à-vis the use of art. Therapies are provided to these individuals during art therapy because they cannot express through words, emotions, and feelings about their true mental condition.

The professional settings that participate with art therapy methods are mental health services, rehabilitation, medical institutions, education services, nursing homes, corporations, forensic agencies, community outreach, and independent practices.

Rigorous standards for art therapy have been established by the American Art Therapy Association, Inc. (AATA) and The Art Therapy Credentials Board, Inc. (ATCB). Certain individual states legalize their own practices of art therapy, while other states permit art therapists to develop into licensed counselors or mental health therapists. These art therapists make use of art-based assessment instruments to verify their client’s level of functioning. From this they are able to devise a certain level of healing programs, settle on what strengths and weaknesses their client has, gaining a better perspective of who their client is and the troubles they have, and be able to appraise their client’s development.

The Master level of training and education for an art therapist is compulsory, as ensuring the right usage and application of drawing tests, evaluation of the instrument validity, and its reliability is particularly important to better serve the client. According to Donna J. Betts, Ph.D., ATR-BC, in her 2005 Doctoral Dissertation, some of the top art therapy tests that can be used are:

1.       Favorite Kind of Day (AFKOD)

2.       Person Picking an Apple from a Tree (PPAT)

3.       Bird’s Nest Drawing (BND)

4.       Bridge Drawing

5.       Diagnostic Drawing Series (DDS)

6.       Child Diagnostic Drawing Series (CDDS)

Rating instruments are also scrutinized, which can comprise:

1.       Descriptive Assessment of Psychiatric Art (DAPA)

2.       DDS Rating Guide and Drawing Analysis Form (DAF)

3.       Formal Elements Art Therapy Scale (FEATS).

These are just some of the art therapy appraisal tools that can be used by art therapists, in clinical settings or in research. Each art therapy tool is a structured appraisal that is collected under standardized conditions. Most are developed to offer a compatibility with psychological testing and psychiatric evaluations:

1.       Art Therapy-Projective Imagery Assessment (ATPIA)

2.       Draw-A-Story Screening for Depression (DAS)

3.       Used to identify children and adolescents at risk for harming others or themselves.

4.       Through the artwork, it can be seen that significant differences will emerge between aggressive and non-aggressive groups in its emotional content and self-image.

What is art therapy is essentially the therapeutic ability to heal? It is most effective for child therapy that is creative and enthusiastic and it can help them focus elsewhere instead of remembering the traumatic experience.

Art therapy courses for Art Therapists are rapidly becoming an international trend, spreading from the United States clear to Northern Ireland. But in the United States alone, the bulk of art therapy education is located on both coasts only. In the U.S. College Search, only 42 Art Therapy Colleges and Universities are listed, as contrasted with 53 for Music Therapy.

The AATA, or American Art Therapy Association, Inc., has a catalog of credited schools they personally have approves for a specific period of time, not going over seven years. And the AATA recognizes long distance learning, providing they follow the same standards of approval that relate to all programs.

The student applying for the Art Therapy courses is necessary to have a bachelor’s degree from any accredited institution in the United States to be valid for Master-level Art Therapy courses. Another alternative is to be already accepted into a bachelor-master duel degree program in art therapy. But if the student is coming into the United States from another country, an academic preparation that is comparable from the out-of-country institution is obligatory.

Each student requires having a portfolio of their unique artwork to the school so as to be admitted to the art therapy courses. The purpose is to show their competence of using the art materials in their work. Once they are admitted, they are required to finish in twelve months:

1.       Minimum of 18 credit semester hours of study with studio art, using a variety of materials and assorted processes.

2.       Minimum of 12 credit semester hours of study in psychology, including developmental psychology and abnormal psychology.

In order for the art therapy courses to be relevant to a Master’s degree, 48-graduate semester credits are required to meet the graduate level art therapy education standards. Some states may entail 60-graduate semester credit for licensing or clinical education standards.

There are several compulsory content areas to be eligible for admittance to the art therapy courses:

1.       Minimum of 24 semester credits in art therapy content

2.       History and theory of art therapy

3.       Techniques of practice in art therapy

4.       Application of art therapy with people in different treatment settings

5.       Group work

6.       Art therapy assessment

7.       Ethical and legal issues of art therapy practice

8.       Standards of practice in art therapy

9.       Cultural and social diversity

10.   Thesis or culminating project

11.   Required related content areas

12.   Psychopathology

13.   Human growth and development

14.   Counseling and psychological theories

15.   Cultural and social diversity

16.   Assessment

17.   Research

18.   Studio Art

19.   Career and lifestyle development

20.   Practicum and Internship

21.   Minimum of 100 hours of supervised art therapy practicum

22.   Minimum of 600 hours of supervised art therapy internship over a minimum of two academic terms

The way art therapy activities are structured depends a great deal on the type of individual that it is being performed on. Remembering that the objective of art therapy is based on each individual client’s diagnosis, their particular capabilities, individual needs, and their personal interests – an emphasis on the creative development is placed along the path rather than the final finished assignment.

As a rule, adults do not respond as well to art therapy activities as do children, requiring a certain degree of convincing that they have creative aptitude. There is an excited enthusiasm about children (and certain adults) when they see paint, pencils, colored paper, and clay. This is why they can respond so well to art therapy activities in a therapeutic sitting as compared to adults. In fact, most adults would have a preference to articulate their own creative side in the solitude of their home in order to diminish stress. But there are times when more serious problems necessitate the assistance of professional help -for instance with an art therapist.

Art therapy activities thrive because they have the capacity to move the mind from the trouble itself, in hopes of achieving happiness and peace. The Dalai Lama once said, “In the final analysis, the hope of every person is merely peace of mind.” This attainment can be achieved with a agreeable state of conscious, on the condition there is a correlation with reality. With art therapy and art therapy activities, reality can be moved and altered for a few minutes, as art can take a person’s mind off what is the dilemma, allowing the subconscious to come forward and speak in another language that is kinder and much more gentler.

When creating with art therapy activities, the body and mind attains a certain flow about it, almost as if it was in a near-meditative status. Over the centuries, philosophers have been conscious that meditation has the capacity to blank the mind out of what is currently going on around it. In reality, the visualizations that build up through this form of creativity have the capacity to build tomorrow’s desired reality, if the art is permitted to be formed in a thoughtless state of pure automation.

This mind-set works fine with art therapy activities, as not all children and adults can correctly verbalize about how they feel what is going on within their mind or their body, especially if something traumatic has occurred. Not in touch with the reality of emotions and inner feelings, the mind is not free to understand the present which is where we are, but is buried in the past with hidden memories that cannot break away. 

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If you would have told me two years ago that the most influential person in my life would be a man who couldn’t speak, walk, or go to the bathroom by himself, I probably would have laughed out loud. Two years ago I was a different person. Two years ago I met a man named Henry. I never learned his last name, and I probably never will. Henry was the man who couldn’t speak, walk or go to the bathroom by himself. Despite these maladies, Henry was in fact the most influential person in my life.

I began volunteering at the Gurwin Geriatric center during my summer between sophomore and junior year of high school. The Gurwin center was a great opportunity to gather community service hours that were mandatory in my participation in the National Honor Society. Volunteering there was a blast. I spent Tuesday mornings in Arts and Crafts, Wednesdays at bingo, and Thursdays working in the nail salon.

Now it shouldn’t be surprising my favorite part of the week was Arts and Crafts, nor should it be that I became very close with its instructor, Ms Julianne Cutolo. Noticing my interest in the arts, she told me that she had a degree in art therapy, and that she held an art therapy program at Gurwin each Friday. I agreed to help, not realizing what I was getting myself in to.

The Art Therapy program was located in the section of the home dedicated to the people with extremely bad conditions. The room was filled with about twenty elders, each with worsening conditions. I began helping everyone get situated before we began the program when I noticed a man in a wheel chair huddled in fetal position in his wheel chair. His clothes were about three sizes too large, and had a Yankee cap sitting on his head. I walked over to him noticing he had a red colored pencil in one hand, a ruler in the other, and a white piece of paper on his lap.

At first he was reluctant to my help. He was a very humble man, and you could tell it pained him to have to have someone constantly helping him. He took the ruler and extended it towards me, and pointed on the paper. So, I took the ruler from him and placed it on the paper where he pointed. He drew a red like across the paper. We repeated this step about thirty times when I noticed the lines he was drawing were beginning to form a red convertible.

Each day was the same routine. He pointed, I placed, and he drew. He couldn’t speak very well, but as time went on I learned to decipher his mumbles. We laughed, told jokes, and shared stories every time he came to the program. We never introduced ourselves, but we always acted as if we had known each other forever. It wasn’t until my last day at Gurwin that I learned his name was Henry.

On the outside, Henry and I seemed very different. He was an eighty-five year old man with Multiple Sclerosis, and I was a young and light-hearted fifteen year old with the rest of her life ahead of her. On the inside, Henry and I were very much alike. We came to Gurwin for the same reason: we were alone and needed some company in the world.

If I could never speak, walk, or go to the bathroom by myself ever again, I would have one thing going for me. Henry taught me that if you can look for the good in life instead of accepting the bad, you would forever be happy. He told me he was very content in his life because even though he had it really bad at that very moment, he lived his dream of pursuing his art, and never regretted anything.

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If you would have told me two years ago that the most influential person in my life would be a man who couldn’t speak, walk, or go to the bathroom by himself, I probably would have laughed out loud. Two years ago I was a different person. Two years ago I met a man named Henry. I never learned his last name, and I probably never will. Henry couldn’t speak, walk or go to the bathroom by himself. Despite these maladies, Henry was in fact the most influential person in my life.

I began volunteering at the Gurwin Geriatric Center during the summer between sophomore and junior year of high school. The Gurwin Center presented a great opportunity to gather community service hours that were mandatory in my participation in the National Honor Society. Volunteering there was a blast. I spent Tuesday mornings in Arts and Crafts, Wednesdays at bingo, and Thursdays working in the nail salon.

Now it shouldn’t be surprising that my favorite part of the week was Arts and Crafts, nor should it be that I became very close with the instructor, Ms Julianne Cutolo. Noticing my interest in the arts, she told me that she had a degree in art therapy, and that she held an art therapy program at Gurwin each Friday. I eagerly agreed to help, not realizing what I was getting myself in to.

The Art Therapy program was located in the section of the home dedicated to the people with acute medical conditions. The room was filled with about twenty elders, each with worsening conditions. I began helping the residents get situated before the program started when I noticed a huddled in a fetal position in his wheel chair. His clothes were about three sizes too large, and had a Yankee cap sitting on his head. As I walked over to him, I noticed he had a red colored pencil in one hand, a ruler in the other, and a white piece of paper on his lap.

At first he was reluctant to my help. He seemed to be a very humble man, and you could tell it pained him to have to have someone constantly assist him. He took the ruler and extended it towards me, and pointed to the paper. So, I took the ruler from him and placed it on the paper where he pointed. He drew a red line across the paper. We repeated this step about thirty times when I noticed the lines he was drawing were beginning to form a red convertible.

Every day was the same routine. He pointed, I placed, and he drew. He couldn’t speak very well, but as time went on I learned to decipher his mumbles. We laughed, told jokes, and shared stories every time he came to the program. We never introduced ourselves, but we always acted as if we had known each other forever. It wasn’t until my last day at Gurwin that I learned his name was Henry, and he too was dedicated to the arts as a young man.

On the outside, Henry and I were very different. He was an eighty-five year old man with Multiple Sclerosis, and I was a young and light-hearted fifteen year old with the rest of my life ahead of me. On the inside however, Henry and I were very much alike. We came to Gurwin for the same reason: we were alone and needed some company in the world.

If I could never speak, walk, or go to the bathroom by myself ever again, I would have one thing going for me. Henry was such an inspiration because everything in his life at the time was going wrong, but he still pursued what he loved. It was so difficult for Henry to move his hand muscles, but he did it anyway, all for the love of art. He taught me that if you can look for the good in life instead of just accepting the bad, you will live a long and happy life.

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