In this viewpoint, the authors describe their impressions of a 2018 conference and the significance of participating in a learning environment that centered on arts therapists of color. Collectively, ...two art therapy educators, a music therapy educator, one new professional art therapist, and one art therapy graduate student, question the maintenance of professional norms that have at times motivated BIPOC students and practitioners to leave the creative arts therapies in search of other professional places to thrive. The article concludes with a Womanist Manifesto for Arts Therapies Education.
There has been increasing attention to the use of teletherapy in art therapy with accessibility at the forefront of the argument for its use. Concerns have persisted around how to use art materials ...and media for therapeutic gain in a digital platform. The debate quickly needed to be reconsidered as the shutdown orders surrounding COVID-19 forced many of us to adopt online art therapy practice.
My child, teen and family art therapy outpatient practice in the Northeast United States, quickly pivoted online in late March. This move entailed establishing a new framework for creating a 'magic circle' for emotional resonance to create positive change.
Adapting a new framework, we established routines and rituals for engaging even our youngest clients. Ethics and boundaries needed to be established in a new landscape of service delivery.
Adaptation enabled us to work with our clients. While many things worked, art making and responsiveness to client needs proved to be challenges, along with the limits of technology and other distractions.
We are now more adept, have developed shared art tools, and can assess how to build a working alliance for online art therapy practice.
Massive use of online art therapy affords us the opportunity to look at how it may operate in a virtual world. Research may parse out best practices, what doesn't work, and for whom it might work best, and look at issues surrounding working alliance, therapist responsiveness and sensory processes in online art therapy.
The world-wide pandemic of 2020 forced therapists to provide services online. My art therapy practice was no exception. We immediately had to pivot our child-centered art therapy services to online platforms and adapt our approach. The 'magic circle' framework that we create through our physical space, presence and three modes of engagement during art therapy were translated into telehealth. This framework is explained with two case vignettes to suggest both challenges to online art therapy practice as well as the success of the new model. Implications for research are discussed.
The research aims to identify the extent to which the theatrical and musical arts contribute to diagnosing and treating psychological problems among the residents of children’s villages in Jordan, ...and the methodologies adopted by the theatrical and musical arts to achieve this. It moves on to prove the theory that theatrical and musical arts have an impact on improving the psychology of the residents of children’s villages in Jordan by reviewing the theories and opinions that address the subject from a scientific point of view proven by experiences and expertise. The research took place in the period between (2019-2020), and the spatial limits came within the (SOS) children's villages in Jordan. The importance of the research is to provide a frame of reference for researchers and specialists in treating children’s psychological problems using the arts, and the research can benefit those engaged in theatrical and musical art, including authors, directors, actors, critics, composers, singers...etc, as well as providing benefit to academic institutions concerned with theatrical and musical arts and psychological and educational sciences.
Mental health problems account for almost half of all ill health in people under 65 years. The majority are non-psychotic (e.g. depression, anxiety and phobias). For some people, art therapy may ...provide more profound and long-lasting healing than more standard forms of treatment, perhaps because it can provide an alternative means of expression and release from trauma. As yet, no formal evaluation of art therapy for non-psychotic mental health disorders has been conducted.
This review aimed to evaluate evidence for the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of art therapy for non-psychotic mental health disorders.
Comprehensive literature searches for studies examining art therapy in populations with non-psychotic mental health disorders were performed in major health-related and social science bibliographic databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PsycINFO, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED) and Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA) from inception up to May 2013. A quantitative systematic review of clinical effectiveness, a qualitative review to explore the acceptability, relative benefits and potential harms, and a cost-utility analysis of studies evaluating cost-effectiveness of art therapy were conducted.
In the quantitative review, 15 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were included (n = 777). Meta-analysis was not possible because of clinical heterogeneity and insufficient comparable data on outcome measures across studies. A narrative synthesis reports that art therapy was associated with significant positive changes relative to the control group in mental health symptoms in 10 out of the 15 studies. The control groups varied between studies but included wait-list/no treatment, attention placebo controls and psychological therapy comparators. Four studies reported improvement from baseline but no significant difference between groups. One study reported that outcomes were more favourable in the control group. The quality of included RCTs was generally low. In the qualitative review, 12 cohort studies were included (n = 188 service users; n = 16 service providers). Themes relating to benefits of art therapy for service users included the relationship with the therapist, personal achievement and distraction. Areas of potential harms were related to the activation of emotions that were then unresolved, lack of skill of the art therapist and sudden termination of art therapy. The quality of included qualitative studies was generally low to moderate. In the cost-effectiveness review, a de novo model was constructed and populated with data identified from the clinical review. Scenario analyses were conducted allowing comparisons of group art therapy with wait-list control, group art therapy with group verbal therapy, and individual art therapy versus control. Art therapy appeared cost-effective compared with wait-list control with high certainty, although generalisability to the target population was unclear. Verbal therapy appeared more cost-effective than art therapy but there was considerable uncertainty and a sizeable probability that art therapy was more clinically effective. The cost-effectiveness of individual art therapy was uncertain and dependent on assumptions regarding clinical benefit and duration of benefit.
From the limited available evidence, art therapy was associated with positive effects when compared with a control in a number of studies in patients with different clinical profiles, and it was reported to be an acceptable treatment and was associated with a number of benefits. Art therapy appeared to be cost-effective compared with wait-list but further studies are needed to confirm this finding as well as evidence to inform future cost-effective analyses of art therapy versus other treatments.
The study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42013003957.
The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme.
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