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CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The Art Therapy Room

 BACKGROUND

The Art Therapy Room describes the different settings of different art rooms where therapy sessions are carried out based on where the therapy is being taken, e.g. hospital, school, care home etc. Central question that pops in the reader’s head when reading this chapter is can a therapy room really be a therapeutic place and provide a sense of safety in itself? The selection of this text was made because of the language this book has used; it is easy for nonclinical readers to fully understand the context of the chapter. This text best fits to the investigation because it elaborates significance of each item put in a therapy room hence really crucial read for trainee art therapists who constantly see clients in different settings of the therapy rooms and the knowledge of visual stimulus and triggers may be really helpful for a trainee therapist to ensure safer practice. The constructive purpose behind choosing this text is to highlight the importance of the surroundings where art therapy takes place, is the place therapeutic or stressful? Is the place intimate or intimidating? Whatever happens in a therapy room is cut-off from the outside world momentarily, and everything is rather observed first than acted upon. Hence the therapy room should not just be another room but rather a client’s motivation and affirmation of the safe place.

TYPE OF LITERATURE

The type of literature of this chapter is both theory and practice based, the author has used psychological theories of happiness, sadness, blissfulness and stressfulness and has associated them with the visuals of the art therapy room to really measure the effectiveness of the art therapy room on the mood and brain of the client itself. This type of literature is commonly seen in art therapy books because of the grounds upon which art therapy is based which is theory and practice.

 CRITICAL EVALUATION

The authors have succinctly put forward the idea of marriage of mental stimulating visuals and physically accessible tools for art making in the space as the ideal place for conducting art therapy sessions. The author has provided real life examples by which they have told the setting of the room, the furniture of the room, the art material and environment of the room and have simultaneously explained how each stimulus works on the brain using the paradigm of symbology, the right hemisphere of the brain and the power of imagery as well as the necessary protocol including light, warmth, enough room to move around, accessibility to the art material like paints, clay, palettes, scissors, water pots hence an ample supply of the material. All of these elements are crucial for the brain of the client. The chapter also explains the individuality of the mental reactions a client’s brain may have on the imagery and environment of the art therapy room for example in one room in a hospital, the art therapy room had a window which opens to a lake, now the client may get satisfied by the calmness of the lake or may be terrified by the darkness on the inside of the lake. The knowledge of such elements is critical for evaluation in order to make the art therapy sessions effective for the clients.

the authors mode of working is a good laid out therapy room which is used primarily for individual and group therapy. Although, each client has different impression of each and every thing in the room and may work differently on every individual but the author has mentioned a well laid out room an ideal for all. Comfortable seating is the primary clause the author puts forward to work with art materials to hand, then he emphasizes on the storage space where art work is put safely and the finally he mentions a separate area to sit down and may be reflect upon the artwork the client just made. As it can be really very uncomfortable for the client to have sudden urge of talking in person with the therapist but not finding enough privacy while in a group setting and have to go out of the art therapy room to do that.

The author has greatly stressed upon the factors that may contribute to the client’s experience in the art therapy room where he says the client should feel safe enough to develop a healthy relationship with the therapist as they engage in a creative art making process. The therapy room should have clear appearance as to not trigger the already cluttered mental state of the client, he then goes on to telling how when working with autistic patients, it is crucial to keep the space clean only to subconsciously tell them that if the mess is made, that surely is a mess and cleanliness looks the other way round but The art therapy rooms are relatively unclean and are supposed to look splashy and cluttered. Hence the author has maintained the difference of protocol with different client groups. Not only physically conditioning their understanding of chaos and cleanliness but psychologically letting the children learn the art of bringing order from chaos.

Furthermore, the author tells about the history of art therapy rooms mentioning 1930s where art therapy departments were situated in large mental hospitals for long term patients, some of the patients had spent their lifetime in those hospitals. So how did their art therapy rooms look like? The author doesn’t say they looked suffocating, but rather says how spacious, concrete and concealing they were as they separated the human beings from the outside world making them feel like “forgotten people”. The author’s personal stance on such rooms is unclear, however he mentions the effects of living in such rooms for long had resulted in patients’ inability to have social life and difficulty adapting to everyday life. He calls those rooms ‘Asylum within an asylum’.

 TEXT INFORMATION

The text used for the critical analysis is a part of the chapter “The Art Therapy Room” of the book called ‘The Handbook of Art Therapy’ by Caroline Case and Tessa Dalley, published online on 11 June 2014. Routledge.

REFERENCE

Caroline Case, Tessa Dalley. 11 Jun 2014, The art therapy room from: The Handbook of Art Therapy Routledge Accessed on: 06 Apr 2020

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REFLECTIONS-1

Whenever I see a plant, I wouldn’t just get fascinated by the anatomy or color of it, but also upon its very existence. I would immediately look at its roots and surroundings and see the dying sprouts. Then may be someone will water the dying sprouts at night and the sun will cooperate in the morning and so the sprout will be healed and grow up to become a plant too.  Then some days, when I am sick and lethargic, I consider my body just like that sprout, in need of my water and sun; but humans have different ways of healing, so I am given a magic potion by the doctor which was sometimes called a calpol and other times with different names, healed me as days went by. I was healthy and hearty again. So I reflected upon the idea of how faith prevails, wounds get healed, tears go away, smiles come back, everything becomes alright and life goes on. This is the most beautiful reality of living. Those very details of getting back all the power and fortitude kept me wondering for days. How does something get healed? What makes it live once again? What breathes life into it? How beautifully something travels from one stage to another, completely letting go of the previous one, growing in the forward direction. Launching forth into a better state of being. So this idea informed my wish to study art therapy.

REFLECTIONS- 2

Reflecting on my journey as art therapy trainee , why I feel the way I feel about everything surrounding me, I am an international student, a lot has changed since I moved here and started my first semester, I am from a third world country so moving here was a culture shock obviously, with a baggage full of loads of things that are deep rooted in my belief system be it ethical or cultural or individual feeling or a sudden need of running along the world around me. My parents’ expectations with me, my great friendships and my toxic friendships and my mental peace. I experienced a shift in everything. A shift of a place, a shift of emotions, a shift of priorities, new friendships, new responsibilities, It is safe to say that when we read, we relate, we become protagonists of a story we read, we keep up with the story as our own, when words come in front of us, we narrate our story back as answers, first in our minds, then through the very text itself, a very unique exchange of dialogue between words and reality is born.  To authenticate a human experience, I relate every text and every problem and its solution to my current circumstances to get a grasp of the experience of the author and see what I would have felt in such circumstance, this has increased my trait of being an empathetic person.

REFLECTIONS - 3

A change of place was a very impactful emotion in the beginning of my semester as I was in a new home with a new routine where no one but myself to take care of, sometimes I would have internal dialogue with myself about how I made it here and I will just go down the memory lane, when you are from a brown family and you are a daughter, it is not always easy for u to actually make your dreams come true especially if they demand a lot of freedom and a lot of time. So when my dream did actually come true, all my sorrows flew out of the window, I was living in my dream place, London’s grey clouds were not depressing at all, rain was never bothering me. I realized, that my very room was my safe place, I could restart my life and be whoever I wanted to be, I was out of my family’s scrutinizing eyes and I could let my emotions out whenever and however I could. Here I think the safe place reinforces a person to let the fragments of the past become obsolete and let out the emotions as raw as possible, the baggage of the past, I thought, sometime becomes too heavy that the existing place doesn’t feel like a safe place anymore no matter how safe it is, visuals matter so much that mind constantly denies any visual of existing place that reminds of uneasiness and discomfort of the bad memories, bad relationships and toxic interactions.

REFLECTIONS- 4

 I wonder, in this uncertainty of the times, where human interaction is limited and we are constantly being denied of meeting our loved ones, our therapist to say, we have entered an era where we are somehow forced to stay away and use technology rather than face to face interaction and technology has limited us to our homes, we can’t go places, we can’t have new visuals, we can’t have rather good stimulus, here the question arises, are the digital therapy sessions effective for the service users? Do they provide us the safe place we need? And to what extent, as there is definitely a lack of change of place, lack of safe visuals, lack of new air and a lack of new fragrance. Safe place being the primary protocol of therapy, one thing that adds up to my frustration is continuous digital encounters have taken over many meetings which could have been in person. I wonder how different and how much beneficial that would have been.

REFLECTIONS- 5

Being a fine arts student, expressive arts has been a strongest tool for me to express my own feelings; I have always believed that art has a lot more to offer to people than just a wall painting. Art carries in itself attributes that are not revealed to many people and it takes a different viewpoint to understand what more art could offer in a clinical setting.

·         Therefore the way I artistically work comes from my personality which is altruistic, and I want to do anything I can with my skill to making lives better. This may have great impact in my art therapy training because this is what keeps me motivated, to serve human beings, and with a passion like this, I think I will prove myself a compassionate therapist professionally.

REFLECTIONS -6·     

    Art therapy is an ongoing research based practice that is going on in the world, everyone in their reach has tried their best to bring out the benefits of art therapy both on mental and physical health. Art therapy has managed to solve the mind-body problem through neuroscience and mental intervention has proven to improve moods and even physical pain for longer times now. I relate therapy to natural healing process of the wounds, how the condition of anything changes overtime and becomes stronger than before. Metaphorically, art therapy is a medicine to mental injuries and offers healthy and sound-minded outcomes through sessions.

·         Art Therapy being a unique form of therapy under psychotherapies, is a complementary form of treatment that service users get, art therapy involves a range of materials that suits different temperaments of the service users making it vastly approachable to clients, art therapy is an intimate experience between a service user and their artwork where the end result of art making is not important but rather is what the service user experienced and revealed through it. Sometimes art therapy is opposite of intimate, it is intimidating to many people who don’t feel confident in using certain materials and are scared of being judged.

·         I am interested in intervening art therapy into palliative diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s, although art therapy has already begun touching those subjects but my area of interest specifically is mind-body correlated investigation in which I would research how cancer patient may have a reduced bodily pain through mental stabilization.

REFLECTIONS- 7 

I want to talk about family, about attachment and mentalization, they say the baby mirrors the mother, and the mother mirrors the baby, such concept has deeply moved me, when you are a child, your first human interaction is with the mother who shapes your personality, tells you when to eat when you want to cry she lets you cry but tells you when it is not okay to cry, there your emotions are being supervised without you realizing it, you are being conditioned, and your stimulus is your mother’s permission, agreement and disagreement to whatever emotion you need to display. same goes with fathers, my father has been an extremely important person in my life, he has motivated me and he has loved me to bits. but even with such close relationships, when you grow up, your brain untangles itself from the previous conditioning, you are the slave of your growing hormones and hence moods and emotions. the autonomic nervous system outgrows your parent’s scrutiny and will and whispers in your brain: “it is you who decides, when to smile and when to cry”

REFLECTIONS- 8

WHAT IS ART THERAPY

Art Therapy is a type of psychotherapy which deals with visuals and their movements and color to heal trauma and mental illnesses. Art therapy has made its way through clinical practices of treating mind body problems. Art Therapy of image making plays a significant role in client’s mental health evaluation because of the very instinct of human beings and their need to relate to the surroundings and art therapy provides just that. Visual image making is an important aspect of the human learning process (Waller, 2006)

art made in the safe confines of the art therapy room may enable a child to explore and express feelings that cannot easily be put into words. Instead of acting out ‘difficult’ feelings the child puts these into the object. This can then be shared with the therapist. The art can act as a ‘container’ for powerful emotions, and can be a means of communication between child and art therapist. Some art therapists focus on the physical enjoyment, and the ‘play’ elements of art therapy, believing that the more a child can become creative, the better for his or her psychological growth.

REFLECTION- 9

Person or a Place? NEW PLACE AND A NEW PERSON, Therapeutic enough?

Art made in the safe environment enables the client to explore and express feelings that cannot be easily said through words. So it helps the client to not act difficult and let the image or object convey his emotions. Art artwork or an outcome of an art therapy session can act as a container for powerful emotions and can be means of communication between client and therapist (Waller, 2006) the final product made with clients can be the most authentic and raw form of self. Art opens media to all kinds of expressions of emotions and helps bridge the gap of misunderstandings between communicators for better understanding of the feelings, because verbal barrier may often be the reason of bottled-up emotions and thus Art therapy is expected to make way and help well-being and investigate limbic states of the mind of a client. Art therapy is not just an understanding of client mental state; nor a set of instructions to teach art; but is a method through which we try to analyze and heal the patient by understanding his feelings and thoughts. Hence this art and its science are very powerful and must be valued in the domains of psychotherapies.

Various new forms of art therapy are introduced which include expression through painting, collage making, sculpting, drama therapy, music therapy and drawings. These are different modalities in art therapy and they help one in overcoming the effects of traumatic or unpleasant memories in their life. Many referrers would like the opportunity for their clients to experience assessments in all of the arts modalities, each modality having its own specific benefits and values (Fenwick, 2012).Art therapy modalities require specific space in which art therapy is given are also designed to suit the needs of the patients, The art therapy rooms and working spaces for art therapists working in different settings vary enormously, but all of them attempt to provide a sense of permanence, consistency, a ‘set apart’ space or ‘creative arena’ for interactions to take place between therapist, client and art materials (Caroline, Dalley, 2004)

The primary purpose of art therapy is to accelerate positive emotions while inhibiting negative emotions providing feeling of self mastery and control within a safe and comfortable environment.

REFLECTIONS- 10

I believe that art to a common mind is a world of possibilities, and i see my role in this world of art is to make each and everyone hopeful in themselves and hopeful to the world. 

Because as it is, Images, words, surroundings and sounds have huge impact on our lives. And as a therapist i would like to know which frequencies to set for my clients to navigate them towards a way of healthy and sound mind. The therapist in the room on the other side of the table is as much of a visual stimulus as any art material in the room, the experience that is intimidating at first is because of the transference of the personalities that the client/service user and art therapist encounter with each other. 

by now we have established that the right brain has its own language of aesthetics, less corporate if you like, no language but music. no numbers but abundance hence emotions win over logic. and that is why i think, art therapy is such unique intervention to the mind to heal trauma and any irregular emotion that has lost its way and has walked toward the extreme side of the life’s see-saw.

REFLECTION- 11

Art therapy and clinical neuroscience  is one of the holy grail books that i first encountered, it not only gave me an insight into the mind-body relativity and how we are less hampered now in regards to their coherence. one of the most beautifully explained chapter about stress expressed that the idea of stress is always taken as a negative thing, one that must be tackled down before it drains us human beings. but the book mentions another way of tackling the stress, that is to take every setback as a transformative experience, rise above any adversity, understand the whirlpool of the situation, and come out of the tunnel as a well-lived through adverse times person and well learned as well. 

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Annotated Bibliography

1-Zubala, A., MacIntyre, D. J., and Karkou, V.,Art psychotherapy practice with adults suffering from depression in the UK: qualitative findings from depression-specific questionnaire., The Arts in Psychotherapy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2014.10.007.

This research was carried out in the United Kingdom in 2014 with ethical approval of Queen Margaret University of Edinburgh in 2011. The research aimed to find out how art interventions are used by art therapist to tackle depression in adults. 5 art therapists prepared a thematic questionnaire with specifics of depression and were surveyed in adults aging 18-64. The limiting factors of the research were lack of qualitative data collection and small number of research surveyors. The conclusions give away that various definitions of depression were given hence the final data cannot be accepted widely and may be used with caution. It also said that the arts therapists use mix methods of theoretical treatment depending on the client’s needs. The results supported various theoretical approaches e.g. verbal therapy, solution based therapy, narrative therapy, non-verbal and systemic therapy etc.

2- Waller, D, & Sibbett, C 2005, Art Therapy and Cancer Care, McGraw-Hill Education, Berkshire. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [23 November 2020].

 Diane Waller, Professor of art psychotherapy at Goldsmiths University of London and Caryl Sibbett, art psychotherapist, senior trainer and supervisor at British association of art therapy have presented Broadly theoretical perspective on art therapy and cancer care, this chapter of the book “art therapy and cancer care” is from the second part where the practitioners have contributed one case study in which patient tells that during her fight with breast cancer and therapy sessions she has seen the riches of life. Despite being fully aware of the illness of the body, the subconscious brain decides to intervene in the session and illness-free work was produced to alter the reality. Few sessions in-between informed severe helplessness and urge to fight the circumstances and few showed letting go of the pain eventually and being brave in the reality for what it is, these experiences ask the patient to come out of the mind and onto the paper. Art making demands next move continuously until you answer the paper hence you stimulate the brain.

  3- Gress, Carol E., "The Effect of Art Therapy on Hospice and Palliative Caregivers" (2015). Nursing Theses and Capstone Projects. Paper 211.

 This research was submitted to the faculty of Gardner-Webb University Hunt School of Nursing in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Science in Nursing Degree intended to answer the question of whether art therapy is effective on compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress in hospice/palliative caregivers through art therapy for the purpose of understanding and healing traumatic emotional reactions to events such as suffering or death. It was found out that emergency nurses in comparison to hospice nurses had more anxiety towards death and experienced symptoms of burnout. Emotional distance was the main reason of this for which art therapy sessions proved to be of better coping strategies that dealt with self-awareness, teamwork and cooperation by identifying each other’s emotional needs. Hence caregivers will be required to learn new ways of delivering care in hospice/palliative care.

4- Chong, C.Y.J. (2015). Why art psychotherapy? Through the lens of interpersonal neurobiology: The distinctive role of art psychotherapy intervention for clients with early relational trauma. International Journal of Art Therapy, 20(3), pp.118–126.

Chong presents in her article,  the relationship of art and neurobiology in her article where she discusses the language of the mind and the language of the art both as the limbic dialogue between the subject and the object, and hence she puts forward the idea of art psychotherapy as the most valuable and trusted intervention whilst addressing mental conflict in early relational trauma or intrapsychic conflicts especially in comparison of verbal therapy  and cognitive behavioral therapy, establishing art psychotherapy as the ultimate language of emotions and irrespective of logic as emotions and logic don’t really go hand in hand.

 5- Celine Schweizer, Erik J. Knorth, Tom A. van Yperen, Marinus Spreen, Evaluation of ‘Images of Self’ an art therapy program for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), Children and Youth Services Review, Volume 116, 2020, 105207, ISSN 0190-7409

 This study was conducted in the primary school of the Netherlands and The article mentions the “images of self” programme run through children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder under the supervision of art therapists, the therapy type was particularly art based, the number of participants was 12 children between ages 8 to 12 and the parents as the source of primitive informants, as well as the teachers and art therapists. All children showed anxiety and were reluctant with the experiment at first.  The methodology used was mix and measurements of pre-test and post-test were determined, which collectively showed improvements in social behavior of children and happiness in the children’s mood was evident.

 6- Cassandra Rowe (2016). Evaluating Art Therapy to Heal the Effects of Trauma among Refugee Youth: The Burma Art Therapy Program Evaluation. Sage Journals, Volume: 18 issue: 1, page(s): 26-33

 The article opens by defining art as therapeutic tool where it is described that art helps heal mental illness and promotes self growth, followed by the importance of using art therapy clinically with the patients of trauma especially the refugees, emphasizing that art is so much related to symbolism and helps retrieve memories through visuals, therefore art therapy was ideal with the vulnerable refugees who had been displaced from homes. The experiment was run through assessment tools and the methodology was clinical and four validated tools were used with 30 participants with a follow-up to determine levels of increased or decreased behavioral problems.

7- Caroline Case, Tessa Dalley. 11 Jun 2014, The art therapy room from: The Handbook of Art Therapy Routledge Accessed on: 06 Apr 2020

This chapter gives detailed insight into the art therapy rooms where art activities may be carried out depending on the client group, the author has provided theory behind the practical setting of the art room, stating that art room can be a significant and memorable place for a client, because amidst of the chaos, the client may consider art therapy room as his/her solace and may use objects and his/her therapists as the remedial source of his/her internal or external problems. Meanwhile, potential triggers are mentioned in the chapter, for example an art therapy room by the view of a calm beautiful lake can also be a dark deep haunting because of the lake water where crocodiles can eat humans. Hence art therapy rooms differ with clients and are carefully planned.

8- Hinz, LD 2019, Expressive Therapies Continuum: A Framework for Using Art in Therapy, Taylor & Francis Group, Milton. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [18 January 2021].

The chapter broadly explains the kinesthetic movement use in the expressive therapies continuum emphasizing that it is the basic mode of expression. When dancers move their bodies, they express through their bodies, without words, hence any assessment in art therapy that is preverbal meaning if we want to retrieve memories from the childhood, then kinesthetic movement can play a key role Kinesthetic movement and release of bodily tension are directly proportional, the more attuned is the body with nature’s rhythm, the less the bodily tension it carries Further explaining the importance of movement of body, the chapter establishes that according to research, action influences images and thoughts, which inform decision-making and hence action plays a vital role in cognition.

9-King, J.L. (Ed.). (2016). Neuroscience concepts in clinical practice. Art Therapy, Trauma, and Neuroscience: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives (1st ed.). Routledge.

This chapter covers basics of brain, neurons and neural network through which messages travel in the body’s periphery which is responsible for the humans to take actions and initiate and sustain behaviors. The chapter also establishes that just like every human is different, every brain is different and has it’s own individuality and pace of plasticity. And at some point some decision  makings alter the brain’s structure due to intensity and demanding nature of the networks. The chapter further talks about genetic mutations as they are responsible for neuromodulation as each brain has some factors under which it is effected for example genetics, gender and environment so  what we can do is When we combine multimodality imaging with a detailed clinical history, subjective symptoms, clinical observation, and objective neurobehavioral assessment, to define a patient’s unique strengths and weaknesses. We can gain greater understanding of the person.

10- Rubin, J.A. 2016,  Marcia Rosal. Cognitive and behavioral art therapy.  Approaches to Art Therapy: Theory and Technique, 3rd edn, Taylor and Francis, Florence. P 333

The chapter explains development in cognitive behavioral therapy and its models today, dialectical behavioral therapy, mindfulness therapy, cognitive therapy with both children and adults. The chapter establishes behavior therapy as the most ideal form of therapy in expressive arts therapy paradigm because it uses thinking to identify emotions, the feedback and reinforcement system of the brain motivates the brain muscles and instant creativity gives a sense of achievement. Making art can accelerate positive emotions because the drawing constantly awaits the maker to take next action, whether in a hopeful stroke or a stressful stroke, it produces an inner dialogue between a client and artwork.