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Art Therapy Shows Promise in Treatment of PTSD & Trauma
**The following press release was originally written by Cathy Malchiodi, ATR-BC, Professional Relations for American Art Therapy Association (AATA).
Recent Research Efforts Identify Treatments with Children, Adolescents, and Adults
Recent research involving children and adolescents with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) indicates that art therapy may be a promising treatment. PTSD is an emotional disorder that may be caused by a one-time traumatic event, such as natural or man-made disaster, or by repeated traumatic experiences such as physical abuse, community violence, or maltreatment. Children and adolescents respond differently to trauma-inducing events than do adults and often display PTSD symptoms through creative expression such as drawing, painting, play, or storytelling.
In the latest issue of Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association (V.24, #4), Francie Lyshak-Stelzer, ATR-BC, LCAT, Creative Arts Supervisor at Bronx Children’s Psychiatric Center, NY, and colleagues report the results of a study to determine if trauma-focused art therapy (TF-ART) reduced symptoms of PTSD in adolescents in an inpatient psychiatric facility. When compared to a group of adolescents who participated in a standard arts-and-crafts activity protocol, the youth who received the TF-ART group sessions had a greater reduction in PTSD symptoms as measured by a widely used trauma reaction index. Lyshak-Stelzer notes that while these results must be replicated in other studies, the current findings look promising.
In the same issue of Art Therapy, Ohio art therapist Rebekah Chilcote [see photo] describes her work with child survivors of the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka. The small island nation, just off the coast of India, was one of the hardest hit with over 30,000 people killed in the disaster. Chilcote observes, “The children’s artwork revealed traumatic tsunami experiences, the importance of family, loss of loved ones, and religious and cultural heritage. Tasks, such as ‘the day I will never forget’ helped these children express their feelings about the events.” Chilcote has also provided art therapy to children in Africa and Cleveland, OH. Art therapists have been central to disaster relief efforts worldwide, including work with child survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. They continue to provide much-needed services to the Gulf Coast region of the US.
Filed as PTSD & Art Therapy | Comments (15)15 Responses to “Art Therapy Shows Promise in Treatment of PTSD & Trauma”
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Art therapy has been more than helpful for me. As a matter of fact when it comes to some of my memories I’ve actually been able to switch from seeing the trauma to seeing the art piece. This has worked on two specific memories of mine.
Art therapy is a power tool. It really, really is.
I keep supplies here. As a matter of fact when I buy things for the house I make sure I have enough art supplies to last me until the next payday. For me, art is a staple in my coping and healing skills cache.
Thanks for this article.
Austin of Sundrip Journals
Thanks for stopping by and sharing Austin. I definitely need to spend some more time on your site…there’s lots of great info there and I’ve only perused a tiny portion of it!
I’ve been thinking about creating a gallery section on this site that features other artists on the web. I haven’t thought about details yet as it’s just something I’ve been thinking about lately, but I would love to know if you have any interest?
I would most certainly be interested. Just let me know when you’re ready and what you’d like to include.
Honored,
Austin
Wonderful, I’ll email you with more details as soon as I figure out how I’m going to set up the gallery and featured artists section. Thanks, I’ll be in touch
Hi there!
I’m a portuguese art-therapist and I was delighted to read this article, since I work with at-risk adolescents (many of them trauma victims). I was wondering if you could advise me on some reading on trauma-focused art therapy – if possible for adolescents…
Thank you!
Sónia
Hi Sónia, thanks for commenting…I can’t think of anything off the top of my head, but I will reply back in a comment or a post with some ideas.
Hi Sónia, I’m about to leave on vacation for a week or so, but I wanted to reply with some articles for you to look into. Here are a couple of articles related to adolescents and trauma:
Good, D. (1996). Secondary traumatic stress in art therapists and related mental health professions. (Doctoral Dissertation, University of New Mexico, Dissertation Abstracts International. Pifalo, T. (2002). Pulling out the thorns: Art therapy with sexually abused children and adolescents. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 19(1), 12-22.
Sidun, N. and Rosenthal, R. (1987). Graphic indicators of sexual abuse in draw-a-person tests of psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 14, 25-33.
Stay tuned as I plan on adding a books section to the site and I’ll be sure to add some art therapy and trauma related books.
hi there!
i am working with refugee traumatised children and would love to learn more about how to use art therapy in their treatment.
thanks
[...] state. For example, the passing of a family member, divorce, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, a traumatic event, etc. Change doesn’t have to be the result of a negative experience though. Transformation [...]
I had suffered with depression my entire life. In my 20s I withdrew from everything around me and, diagnosed with clinical depression, was hospitalized. While inside, the doctors asked me to draw circles and color them in using exactly 7 colors in each circle. I must have colored several hundred circles during the month I was there. Can you tell me what this form of therapy is called and what it is intended to do?
Hi there,
Is this Patrick? I can never find your full name on this website. I am getting a number of people coming to me and asking me why you copy what I have written verbatim. You are making many of your postings look like you actually write these blogs and this is a growing problem. I also ask that you remove the photo from this page– you do not have permission from the person to use their photo on your site. If you wish to obtain permission, I can see if I can it, so contact me.
Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, ATR-BC
@Cathy,
I have tried working directly with you in the past, but you unfortunately made it clear you had no intention of working together in promoting art therapy. Regarding the press releases you wrote, I have given proper attribution per our prior communications.
You will notice your name and contact information at the bottom of each press release as you requested. If I missed adding attribution anywhere, please let me know and I will add appropriate credit.
I am not trying to pass off a press release as my own and am offended at the accusation. The point of press releases is that they get picked up by the media and help spread the word about art therapy.
Regarding the photo, I am happy to provide proper credit. Please provide a name/source and I will add it immediately. If the owner of the photo would like it removed, please have them contact me directly with their request and I will gladly remove it.
Also, please do not spam my site with the same comment in different places. If it happens again, you will be blocked. I removed your other comment and left this one for now.
I apologize for any confusion, but we’ve had this conversation before and you have been credited where appropriate. Again, if I have missed anything, please let me know as I want you to have proper credit.
Patrick, I know that you will use your power to block this message, but it is very important that you read it carefully. I am just trying to tell you that there is a problem in how you publish exact words of other people. Just putting a contact person on the bottom does not attribute an author– I am clearly getting emails from students and professionals who believe you are the author or do not know who the author[s] are. There is a copyright law at the Federal level that clearly states you can only copy 400 words or less verbatim. You clearly have your own copyright mark at the bottom of each page. I am just telling you that you need to get permission to reprint entire articles, not just mine– I have to do this all the time, that is why I bring this up, for your own protection.
I have screen captured your statements above; they are inappropriate to say that I am spamming you when I have only posted in a couple of places in order to bring this to your attention. That is rather inflammatory, don’t you think? You have kept your direct contact information a secret, so how else can one contact you without going onto this site? I will turn this over to my counsel now to review and he will get back to you directly.
Thank you for your attention to this matter,
Cathy
@Cathy,
My contact information is not “hidden” as you say. I’ve emailed you before, so you should have my contact information, which is why I thought you were trying to spam me. I get a lot of spam, as you can imagine, and when someone tries to make the same or similar comment on numerous posts (and has a history of this, as you do), then I consider this spam. Your last comment was not spam as you only posted it once.
Regarding your concern over copyright. I’ve shown you in the past that I am willing to work with you. Per YOUR REQUEST, I added the attribution and emailed you regarding the confusion. Here is what you said:
This was over a year ago and I’m not sure what has changed since then. You seemed pretty encouraging before about spreading the word about art therapy, but now you’re not for some reason? I’ve showed my willingness to work with you per your request and will contact you directly to see what we can do.
I suffer from PTSD and, at times, severe agoraphobia, if it had not been for friends insisting I take a pottery class, I may not be here at all today. I am a true testament to the fact that art is a saving grace and I cannot live my life without it.
Your site is a blessing to many.
Thank you.