Art Therapy Intervention

Intervention Strategies The goal of art therapy is to improve or maintain mental health and emotional well-being (Farokhi, 2011). There are many variations of art therapy. Art therapy typically utilizes drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, collage and other forms of visual art expression. Art therapists are trained to recognize the nonverbal symbols and metaphors that are communicated. Art therapy allows clients to express their thoughts and feelings that may be too painful to put into words through creative process. Art therapy helps clients discover what underlying thoughts and feelings are being communicated in the artwork and what it means to them. The hope is clients will not only gain insight and judgment, but perhaps develop a better understanding of themselves and the way they relate to the people around them. Art therapy has been identified as evidence based practice in treating many symptoms. In particular, art therapy has been identified as an evidence based practice when treating children and youth that have experienced trauma. The research states that the most researched and evidence based …show more content…
It has been suggested that art therapy allows children exposed to traumatic events with expressing their emotions, thoughts and allows them to communicate their experiences in a non-threatening way. Art therapy empowers children and allows them to feel control following the traumatic event. Some children may not be able to verbally communicate what happened and art therapy allows for them to have a voice through creative process. Art therapy has been used as an additive in cognitive behavioral interventions (google book). Children that are unable to put into words how they feel, are asked to either draw or paint how they feel. The therapist is able to interpret what the child has