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Posted May 1, 2006
An Excellent Article for Fighting Depression
Art Therapy & Healing
Anne Corson, M.A., ATR-BC
Vol. X, No.2
January/February, 2006
St. Luke’s Institute
“They want me to do what?” I can’t draw. How is this going to help me?”
Comments like these are often made by residents who have begun our
residential program and have just received their schedules. When residents
are in a group for the first time, the art therapist as well as a “veteran”
of the group explains that skill is not important and that group members
should simply do the best they can. At the end of a few art therapy
sessions, some residents have said “This was powerful. I didn’t know
drawing could help me tell my story and that I would feel support from
others so soon.”
Group Work
All residents in the men’s and women’s programs at SLI engage in group art
therapy. Many, whatever their primary diagnoses, have some interpersonal
problems. Some can identify feelings of loneliness and isolation that have
been getting worse in recent months. In ongoing therapy groups, people
eventually act the way they do with others in their lives. Often, their ways
of relating have antecedents in their families of origin. Although group
work is emphasized in all programs at SLI, in group art therapy, patterns of
relating develop very quickly and are made tangible and available. A person
’s unconscious feelings about being part of the group often emerge in
his/her drawing. For example, the number of figures or objects in a drawing
may coincide with the number of people in that group. The arrangement and
details can be revealing.
Theory
There are two basic approaches to art therapy. One can be called art as
therapy and the other is art psychotherapy. The latter approach is used at
SLI. Each session allows time for residents to engage in the art activity
and also time for them to comment on their own artwork and give responses to
other group members.
When residents are making art, their customary defenses, especially
intellectualization and denial, are often bypassed. An image may have
several levels, even contradictory ones. It is not uncommon for a group
member to say, “I was not able to express in words what I just drew.”
Participants find that they can draw frightening scenes in a safe and
contained environment. Childhood trauma is sometimes acknowledged through
artwork. Grief and tears may be unlocked or released for the first time in
years as the person draws his/her picture and comments on it. The repression
of these feelings in the past may have been contributing to depression
and/or addiction. Anger, an emotion that many men and women have trouble
acknowledging, is often expressed. One resident drew a man holding a stick
pointing toward a shadowy figure in the background. When he exclaimed, “It
looks like a gun,” others asked who was he aiming at. It is notable here
that the person who made the drawing was the one who “saw” the gun. Art
therapists rarely, if ever, make an interpretation and group members are not
encouraged to “analyze” another’s work. Rather, what is encouraged is a
question, a challenge or a simple response to the artwork or the person.
As with any modality, art therapy takes place in the context of a
relationship. A key component here is trust. In art therapy, Trust develops
in the relationship of the group members to each other and to the
therapist(s). At times, a psychologist and the art therapist work together
as co-therapists.
Structure and Materials
There is some structure offered in an art therapy session. Although in most
sessions the topic is open, some individuals are helped by a suggested
theme. This is often useful for a new resident. The first time that a
person is in group, the therapist suggests a specific topic, a childhood
memory. Residents sometimes depict their first day of school, a childhood
injury, a hospitalization, or a family meal. There is always a connection
between this scene and what the person is experiencing here and now, and the
therapist may ask about this connection.
During the discussion part of a session, group members are expected to claim
their own time. Most groups try to get the therapists to “call on” people
or to divide the time up equally. Because the requested structure is not
given, typical patterns of relating emerge. For example, who is the one who
is generous to others and then is left out and feels deprived? Or who
dominates, making others angry?
A variety of art materials, pastels, markers, watercolors, colored pencils,
clay, and collage materials are available for use. These materials can be
thought of as being on a continuum from what offers the most control
(pencils) to what offers the least (clay).
Does it work?
Frequently, members of art therapy groups learn to access and express their
feelings, tell their stories through pictures, and connect with their peers.
In one example, a woman’s first painting showed a small figure surrounded by
thick circles of dark-colored paint, separated from a group of girls. Her
last picture, drawn at the end of treatment, was a pastel drawing of seven
smiling people in a boat on a bright blue ocean. She had illustrated
poignantly her transition from depression and isolation to optimism and
closeness to the other group members. She titled the picture “We are all in
the same boat.”
Anne Corson, M.A., ATR-BC is the art therapist at SLI.
LUKENOTES is a bi-monthly publication of Saint Luke Institute. Telephone
(301) 422-5579 Fax (301) 422-5400 lukenotes@sli.org www.sli.org
All previous and current LUKENOTES, both articles and case studies, are on
our SLI website. Visit us on-line at www.sli.org.
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