Art Therapy: Helping the Mind and Body

Can art imitate life and healing? The use of art therapy began in the early 20th Century, used by a myriad of education and mental health practitioners, as a means of therapy for children and, eventually, adults (American Art Therapy Association, 2011). Art Therapy is beneficial in treating victims of illness from mental issues, including sexual abuse and schizophrenia, to physical disease like HIV/AIDS and fertility in women.

Used in association with group talk therapy, art therapy has been proven to be effective with sexually abused children and with those patients who suffer from more severe mental disorders like schizophrenia. In a study of South African girls, Natascha Pfeifer found that art therapy helped girls who had been victims of sexual abuse to improve self-esteem and with symptoms of anxiety. Pfeifer evaluated 25 sexually abused girls from 8 to 11 years old. The program was based on Gestalt’s client-centered and abuse-focused principles (Pfeifer, 2010). “The Solomon four-group design was used to investigate the efficacy of the intervention, the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children and Human Figure Drawing were used as measures for assessing symptom change” (Pfeifer, 2010). The girls were asked to explore feelings associated with the abuse they had experienced. In addition, they were asked to draw different feelings and discuss them among the group. “They were then asked to draw or paint a ‘happy box’ and an ‘unhappy

box’ in which their feelings could be stored. Hereafter the children drew the person who abused them (as an animal, shape or colour) and their feelings toward the perpetrator. In order to further address any unfinished business regarding the abuser, the girls were given the opportunity to verbally or physically express their feelings, which could then be placed in the happy or unhappy box. This was followed by a discussion on how it felt to express these feelings” (Pfeifer, 2010). The results showed that the girls in the experimental group had lower levels of depression and anxiety than those girls who were in the control groups. Self-esteem seemed flat for all groups, according to Pfeifer. “The findings of the present study suggest that the programme does not target low self-esteem as successfully as depression and anxiety. Alternatively, the findings may reveal that the HFD is not sensitive to changes in self-esteem symptoms” (Pfeifer, 2010). In targeting schizophrenia, art therapy has had more promising results in aiding with rehabilitation and socialization.

In 2003, Virginia R.