Art Therapy with Children
– A Window to Their World
A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when it is a picture drawn
by a chronically ill, troubled or autistic child. This was the subject of
the March 29 “Arts in Medicine” series presentation.
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| "Chaos" drawn by a sibling of a child with autism. |
What is Art Therapy and Where
Did it Come From?
When can we say art therapy began?
“As far back as caveman times. Even before language, pictures were painted
on cave walls, expressing feelings and recording actions at that time. A simple
and effective way of communication even then,” said Dr. Robin Gabriels,
PsyD, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Medicine at UCD.
Art therapy uses the creation of art to help people discover their feelings.
It is not only focused on the finished piece of artwork, but also on the process
of the creation of the art piece itself. Art therapists believe that the act
of making a piece of art triggers internal activity that contributes to emotional
healing.
Even though the idea of self-discovery through art is not novel, the concept
of art therapy is relatively new. Sigmund Freud in his early studies of psychoanalysis,
discovered that artwork done by disturbed patients could communicate patient's
emotions and events that language could not. Freud found that images were
less anxiety provoking forms of communication.
What it Does
“Art therapy can increase verbal expressions, it can redirect expressions
into productive forms - a sort of catharsis,” said Dr. Gabriels. Art
therapy is often used in treating patients with emotional illnesses who have
difficulty talking about their fears and hopes. An angry patient may draw
an angry picture to vent his anger and fear. Art therapy engages and builds
on strengths of children with developmental disabilities to develop art, play,
and social skills. Family or group art therapy helps patients learn about
and practice appropriate interactions with others and/or family members.
Children and Art Therapy
Child therapists often use art in therapy because children often have more
difficulty than adults trying to put feelings into words. Art therapy can
be used with children, adolescents and adults who are struggling with personal
issues or just in search of personal growth. There are many developmental
stages that children go through during their lives from scribbling at ages
2-4 to pseudo realism at ages 11-13, where the child is more critical of themselves
and when they began to make decisions on their own. It is not unusual for
children to go back and forth between stages
Drawings used as assessment helps the art therapist understand children's
concerns and issues that they cannot express verbally. The therapist's role
in art therapy is to get the child to talk about their art in a narrative
way to help the child externalize his thoughts, experiences, and feelings.
The therapist must pay attention to things such as the theme of the piece
of art, sequence, size, pressure used to draw the picture, strokes and details
of the pictures.
“What a picture can tell is amazing,” said Dr. Gabriels. She showed
slides of artwork done by children with severe asthma, some who had also been
sexually abused. She also showed art of children living in violent and chaotic
homes and children with a lot of anger and resentment. The pictures children
drew about their asthma depicted children with weights on their chest, some
being held under water and a picture of a person standing on the child’s
chest cutting off his air. Another showed a “monster’s”
hands wrapped around the chest of the child, cutting off his ability to breathe.
Robin Gabriels, PsyD currently conducts autism research at UCD and works
at The Children’s Hospital as the coordinator of autism and developmentally
disabilities programs in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
She previously worked for 12 years as the director of the art therapy department
at National Jewish Medical and Research Center with emotionally disturbed
and asthmatic children.
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