Art and Design Commons^™

Understanding Clay And Its Media Properties Through The Expressive Therapies Continuum, Anne Geisz

Art Therapy Counseling Final Research Projects

For centuries, clay has been used by civilizations to hold food, memories, and records of history. To this day, it is used by engineers, hobbyists, artists, art therapists and many more. This art based, heuristic study explores clay through the researcher’s ongoing practice with the material, within the framework of the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) and examines how its unique media properties make it such a versatile material for both ceramic artists and art therapists. Results exhibit these unique media properties and clay’s ability to reach all levels of the ETC through collected data of images, journals, critiques, and notes. …

Art Therapy Awareness: A Social Media Campaign, Hannah Barnes

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A push towards advocating for mental health has made mental health services and care a primary focus. There are numerous ways to receive mental health care, art therapy being one option. This project seeks to provide information and resources on art therapy while also bringing awareness to the field and challenging misconceptions.

Can Collage-Based Art Therapy Be A Bridge To Engage Patients Experiencing Social Isolation With A Diagnosis Of A Psychotic Disorder?, Nora Wolff

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Social isolation is not only a common part of the experience of people with psychotic disorders but also often acts as a barrier to their treatment and recovery. Causes of this isolation seem to include not only symptoms of the psychotic illnesses themselves but also the social stigma related to psychotic illnesses, as well as feelings of hopelessness, anxiety, and low self-esteem related to common comorbid disorders. Engaging with patients in acute inpatient units with short lengths of stay can be extremely difficult. This paper reviews the literature and describes a collage-based art intervention with six particularly isolative patients in …

The Benefits Of Art Therapy On Stress And Anxiety Of Oncology Patients During Treatment, Helen Shiepe

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Within the last ten years research on art therapy and its positive impact on oncology patients’ stress and anxiety during treatment has been minimal. Oncology patients whether they are children or adults when diagnosed experience similar reactions due to their diagnosis, treatment, and in some cases end of life care. The current question is whether or not art therapy does have a positive impact on decreasing the stress and anxiety with oncology patients while undergoing treatment. Deane, Fitch & Carmen (2000), discussed art therapy as a healing art that is “intended to integrate physical, emotional, and spiritual care by facilitating …

Inner Portraits, Bethany Salisbury

Graduate Theses

This paper investigates the many interconnected layers of women’s mental health through portraiture and how animal and plant symbolism can represent the way women's hormones and bodily health affect their mental health. I reveal how the artwork created presents these connections and inner mental health narratives to the viewer, creating a space of empathy, destigmatization, and self-reflection. This body of portraiture art connects five women through a series of both two-and three-dimensional portraits based on interviews using my own adaptation of Sara Lawrence-Lightfoots’ (1983) portrait methodology.

Women and non-binary individuals have always dealt with difficult interactions of bodily and mental …

Art Therapy And Internal Family Systems For Adolescents At A Therapeutic School: A Qualitative, Arts-Based Study, Emma Pici-D'Ottavio

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Adolescence is an important developmental period marked by a search for identity and an increase in impulsive behaviors and intense emotions. The current study explored how a combined art therapy and Internal Family Systems (IFS) model is beneficial and appropriate for adolescents in a school setting. A brief art therapy group was facilitated with students at a therapeutic high school. The intervention integrated IFS approaches, including externalization and guided visualizations, with the goal of understanding parts and increasing self-compassion. Three main themes emerged based on observations of the sessions: 1) the concept of parts encouraged self-understanding and reduced shame; 2) …

The Effects Of School-Based Art Therapy On Depressed Adolescents, Jasmine Nicolas

Nursing | Senior Theses

Depression in adolescents is associated with deficient behavioral and health outcomes (Fletcher, 2019). Art therapy has been shown to be effective in treating mental health condition such as depression. A student’s academic success heavily depends on treating their depression. Community health nurses can play a vital role in advocating for adequate mental health support to improve a student’s overall well-being and academic success. The literature review contains six articles on the prevalence and impact of depression among adolescents, art therapy as an intervention for improving psychological outcomes and resilience among adolescents, and experiences of adolescent clients in art therapy within …

Exploring Challenges And Triumphs Within The Transgender Community Through Comics-Based Research, Carly Caldwell

Art Therapy Counseling Final Research Projects

Transgender people are marginalized and pathologized within our society, which leaves transgender individuals vulnerable to numerous negative outcomes. The minority stress model describes the factors experienced by marginalized communities contribute to adverse outcomes (Meyer, 2015). Health care professionals are often not properly equipped to serve the needs of transgender individuals due to marginalization and pathologization. Used to challenge harmful stereotypes, as a form of cultural resistance, and to incite social change comic books and zines have been used as forms of expression for individuals with marginalized identities. Through the creation of a comic book, I aimed to educate others, encourage …

Art, Movement And The Body: An Art-Based Research Exploration Of Slow, Gentle, And Repetitive Painting Movements, Melissa Hedlund Nelson

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

Art-based research explored the effects of using slow, gentle, and repetitive painting movements paired with pauses during this painting process. Five participants completed four painting sessions that were filmed; sessions consisted of painting with acrylic paints on canvas or Bristol board and reflective writing. Embodied response paintings were created by myself in response to participant paintings. A reflective research process consisting of documentation, reflection, and examination, was used to help in the materialization of outcomes. The inquiry yielded the following outcomes: it was challenging to paint slowly, there was an increase in connection to present moment awareness and immersion, a …

Zentangles For Mental Health Awareness, Rachel Immel

Honors Projects

The world is starting to see the rise of a stress related epidemic. Finding time to balance the struggles of everyday life, like academics, finances, careers and relationships, while also maintaining personal mental health is becoming increasingly difficult. This is what prompted me to use my project as an opportunity to help people relieve stress and create a community through the use of art, especially during a time where social interaction has been severely limited due to COVID-19.

My project is a series of live-streamed Zentangle art classes I hosted personally that were open to the public through Zoom. Zentangle …

No Need For Words: Participatory Action Research With An Arts-Based Peer Support Group, Samantha Boyce

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The Arts and Peer Support Group (APSG) is a free, open-studio style expressive arts therapy group for adults living with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) guided by clinicians and informed by a recovery orientation to mental health care for SMI. This capstone thesis used an arts-based participatory action research paradigm to explore the value of an expressive arts therapy group for adults living with SMI. The researcher of this capstone thesis hypothesized that an expressive arts therapy framework could be combined with innovative approaches to the recovery orientation, such as mutual recovery, which has encouraged systemic change in society’s perception of …

Art That Heals, Christina Cardona

Capstones

Beryl Brenner was a creative arts therapist for 40 years, and helped veterans heal from war traumas through art all across the city. For the past 11 years, she was at the Brooklyn Campus of the VA NY Harbor Healthcare system in Bay Ridge, where she developed the art therapy program. https://christinacardona1.wordpress.com

Mind In Hand, Anna Olson

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

This thesis explores the intersection of art and psychology as it manifests in my art practice, particularly in the medium of weaving. The contemporary frameworks of memory and archive provide the basis of this discussion, as well as findings from the field of Art Therapy. Difficult emotions like loss and grief often show up in my work, and I will discuss how artists like Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Sophie Calle also utilize these concepts. In weaving, I capture my internal mental states, memories, and perceptions of the future in a variety of found and gifted objects. Guided by the precedents set …

The Parallels Between Art Therapy And Christianity: Integrating Identities As A Christian And An Art Therapist, Kendal Hansen

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Therapists knowledge of their personal beliefs is extremely beneficial to individual’s working in the field of art therapy. Therapists are better able to serve their clients when they have a clear understanding of themselves and their biases. The writer of this thesis identifies strongly as an art therapist and as a Christian. To better understand how the two strongest parts of her identity integrated, this thesis explored the parallels between Christianity and art therapy by reviewing the literature and facilitating an arts-based qualitative study. The literature suggested that art therapy can be effective with various populations within the Christian category. …

Meditative Art: A Diversion From Stress And Anxiety, Hannah T. Justis 4239670221

Undergraduate Honors Theses

I wished to present a body of work that visually represented my own meditative process of managing stress and anxiety. Towards the end of studying for my undergraduate, I began preparing for my Final Exhibition Show, and with these preparations, my life, as well as my work, changed drastically. Within the past two years, my drawings began to take on a meditative therapeutic process. It was this development that then helped manage my growing stress levels and well as the symptoms that stemmed from high levels of anxiety and bloomed from losing control in my day to day life. It …

Visualizing The Transition Out Of High-Demand Religions, Summer Anne Myers

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

This research uses a questionnaire and a bridge drawing directive to explore the lived experience of transitioning out of a high-demand religion. Subjects include disaffiliated Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Fundamentalist Protestants who were recruited through a dedicated website via limited promotion in online communities for disaffiliates. Visual and textual responses are analyzed through qualitative coding, with additional analysis performed on the artwork using Hays and Lyons’ (1981) bridge drawing criteria. Results reveal the psychological, social, behavioral, identity, and existential effects of disaffiliation. Results also produce seven emergent themes: ambivalence; embracing uncertainty; social justice; simultaneous transitions; freedom and constraint; growth; and …

Seeking Solace: Regret, Grief, Anxiety, Rebecca Schroeder

Honors Projects

Seeking Solace: Regret, Grief, Anxiety is a triptych video and artifact piece inspired by the abstract analysis of my dreams. It recognizes worries held within my subconscious and brings them to life through graphic design, photography, and video. The process of creating provides a new perspective of looking at both art and occupational therapy as methods of solving emotional distress.

I have recorded over 80 of my dreams in the past year. In these dreams, regret, grief, and anxiety are common themes. These themes are represented in three triptychs that cycle through past, present, and future problems. The cycling of …

Creation Of A Community Arts-Based Program: Peachtree Pine Works At The Metro Atlanta Task Force For The Homeless Atlanta, Ga, Theodore Windish

Music Therapy Theses

Through the collaborative efforts of the author, staff members, community leaders, community members, the artists and individuals currently experiencing homelessness at the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, an arts based program was formed. As part of the degree requirements for the Master of Arts in Art Therapy Program at Georgia College & State University the author of this paper discusses the current literature, statistics on homelessness, the benefits of art, and implementation of an artist studio and gallery program that supports individuals experiencing homelessness. Using interviews, community resources, program strategies, and a humanistic philosophy the author discusses the …

Therapeutic Process Or Final Product? Views Of Artists Compared To Those Of Art Therapists, Katy Durler

Honors Theses

When someone approaches a piece of art, it is difficult to speculate by what standards the person evaluates the work. Surely people's backgrounds and personal tastes affect their reaction to a particular art piece, but suppose that a person evaluated art every day as part of his or her career. Do the standards of the job affect the person's method of evaluating art outside the office? Two professions that focus on the evaluation of art are art education and art therapy. In order to better understand the two fields in question, a basic knowledge of the development of expressionism in …

An Art Therapy Program For Women Who Are Chemically Dependent And/Or Victims Of Domestic Violence: A Training Manual, Mary H. Cook

Theses

Women who are chemically dependent and/or victims of domestic violence have difficulty identifying and expressing feelings. One of the most important aspects of recovery is learning to feel again and to talk a bout feelings.

Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which the therapist utilizes visual expression as a means of communication. The most common traits of these clients are low self-esteem, depression, anger, and a sense of helplessness . By making the issues symbolic, art therapy facilitates communication and reduces confusion.

This study presents an overview of art therapy, and a training manual is included for therapists …

Life-Enhancement With Art Therapy For The Institutionalized Aged, Lorraine H. Briggs

Theses

The aging of the populace is causing Americans to consider the ways in which education, medicine, housing, and leisure will be affected by this rapid growth . In this paper I will review some of the literature on aging that delineates the individual differences in physical and mental characteristics of the old . Some of the more prominent theories of the aging process will be presented briefly, with an examination of physical and psychological changes that affect the older person's ability to cope with an environment characterized by multiple loss, both physical and emotional. Myths about how age influences the …

Art Therapy With The Terminally Ill: A Guide For The Art Therapist Working With The Terminally Ill Patient, Sharon Durocher

Theses

No abstract provided.

The Calendar Of Life Exercise And Value As A Tool For Art Therapy, Betsy Gibbs

Theses

Unavailable.

Art Therapy With Institutionalized Adult Mental Patients: A Four-Week Study, Margaret E. Goodwin

Theses

Unavailable.