Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Expressive Arts Therapy And Grief: A Literature Review, Christina Schell Pate

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Grief is a natural human response to loss. This could be the loss of a loved one, a lost identity, a divorce, or the loss of a pet. Just as there are many types of loss, there are also many types of grief. Grief can present as uncomplicated or it can be traumatic, anticipatory, or cumulative. Grief can also develop into prolonged grief disorder as seen in the most updated version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-RT). Theorists from Sigmund Freud to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross to George Bonanno have developed a variety of grief models (O’Connor, 2019). …

Expressive Therapies And Resiliency – Resistance In Mental Health: A Literature Review, Gabrielle Lopez

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This review evaluates the current literature on psychological resistance amongst human service professionals experiencing burnout and the effect of Expressive Arts interventions on resiliency. Concepts include identifying the main symptoms, risk factors, causes, and treatments for burnout in education faculty, medical staff, and clinicians. Qualitative, quantitative, and meta-analysis studies are included to identify the most prevalent intervention frameworks for reducing stress including Arts-Based and Mindfulness-compassion based techniques. The effectiveness of Arts-based tools on strengthening identity, self-esteem, emotional regulation, and meaning-making in combating burnout is presented. Based on analysis of the literature, the author proposes a three-step intervention framework for utilizing …

Fiber Art Circles, Belonging, And Mental Health In The Queer Community: A Community Arts Based Project, Sage Hess

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explores the role of community and chosen family for queer belonging. The queer community is in a mental health crisis, with substance abuse, high suicide rates, anxiety, depression, personality disorders, and complex post-traumatic stress disorders being pervasive in the community. Current therapeutic services and medical services often enact more harm than good and that mutual aid and chosen family has been a cornerstone to support chronic illnesses. To better understand these complexities, a community arts project was held to explore how it might support these theories. This research was facilitated at a local queer owned Boston fiber shop. …

Queering Clinical Spaces Through Gender Discussions Development Of A Method: Collage And Creative Storytelling At An Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Program, Kierstyn Brady

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

A lack of queer acceptance in all areas of life has been shown in large-scale studies to exacerbate the mental health needs of LGBTQIA+ individuals. LGBTQIA+ youth are at a particular risk for suicidality, self-harm, low self-esteem, and other extreme adverse mental health outcomes if their support network does not accept their identity, according to research. Because LGBTQIA+ youth are at a greater risk of adverse mental health outcomes, it is essential for higher levels of mental health care to address the needs of the queer community. The exclusion of queer-inclusive subjects from the partial hospitalization program (PHP) group curriculum …

I, You And We: Expressive Arts Therapy Interventions And Childhood Identity Development: Development Of A Method, Nicole Stroumbos

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis examined the value and intersection of intermodal Expressive Arts therapy work and childhood identity development. Through a critical review of the literature on identity work, Expressive Arts therapy, and child-centered approaches the author extricated reoccurring themes in each approach. The author also identified gaps in field research pertaining specifically to the 7-9 year old prepubescent population and the growing need for a holistic, arts-based approach to healthy identity exploration and development prior to the adolescent stage. To address this, the proposed method was used in a dyad with two 8-year-old cis-female children in a therapeutic school environment over …

Drag As A Method Of Expressive Art Therapy For Lgbt+ Individuals, Nicole Soubosky

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The field of expressive art therapies utilize the process of creativity to promote therapeutic healing. The focus of this thesis is the mental health concerns that impact the LGBT+ community, and how the art of drag performance can be implemented as an arts-based treatment approach for this population. Traditional forms of mental health treatment reflect majority values that discount the experiences of queer individuals, despite the disproportionately high levels of mental health challenges faced by the LGBT+ population compared to those who identify as heteronormative. The research included in this thesis explores the mental health concerns prevalent within the LGBT+ …

Utilizing Expressive Art And Dance/Movement Therapies As An Embodied Practice To Inform Childbirth, Kayla Johnson

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

An eight-week curriculum developed by this researcher was implemented with a group of women in the Spring of 2018. The goal was to provide evidence, create resources, and demonstrate the effectiveness of Expressive Art Therapy and Dance Movement Therapy as an embodied practice to create connection, promote self-expression, empathy, embodied awareness, and healthy coping skills so that embodied childbirth seems obtainable and do-able. The shift away from embodied wisdom has moved women away from embracing their bodies and created risk in childbirth. In the United States of America, the maternal mortality rate is on the rise, which is unusual for …

Burnout Treatment And Prevention Using Multimodal Expressive Arts Therapy In Massachusetts Wellness Programs., Amanda Medas

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Abstract

This capstone thesis will explore the issue of burnout in the field of mental health and the argument for the promotion of using expressive arts as a therapeutic component to decrease and prevent symptoms of burnout. The writer of this thesis will be sharing her personal experiences with burnout while working in the field of mental health. The researcher will review a multimodal expressive arts self-study that she engaged in over the course of one month and will be using the Maslach Burnout Inventory to track symptoms of burnout. Burnout and its prevalence in the field of mental health …

Solution Focused Brief Expressive Arts Therapy, David Sherman

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This graduate capstone thesis paper and project proposes a new therapeutic intervention called Solution-Focused Brief Expressive Arts Therapy (SFBExAT). This intervention and approach is based on the synthesized theories, techniques, and principles of Expressive Arts Therapy (ExAT) and Solution- Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT). A review of relevant literature on the combined use of SFBT, ExAT and expressive therapies, as well as on the foundational literature of the individual theories establishes conceptual grounds for a SFBExAT model. A SFBExAT intervention is developed and explained. The intervention was ultimately applied in a hospital outpatient setting with a teenage client. The process, results …

The Use Of Role Theory To Build Identity In Adolescents, Jordan Crawford

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This paper discusses how role theory introduced through the arts can aide adolescents in understanding the many parts of their own identity. The research focuses on the idea that through strengths based identity building, teens can increase their self-knowledge and self-esteem which will in turn decrease the chances for each individual developing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Relevant literature and research were used in order to develop evidence based expressive art therapy interventions to further explore identity using a strengths based approach. The intervention was introduced to an adolescent client who has a diagnosis of adjustment disorder with anxiety and …