Art therapy: principles, applications, and therapeutic outcomes

Art therapy is quite literally what it sounds like, psychological therapy achieved through means of artistic expression. Although this field has been in practice as treatment in hospitals and outpatient centers in the past for individuals with emotional and mental disturbances, it now growing into a field that can be used and has been found to be beneficial in a variety of settings and for an array of individuals. This dynamic field of therapy has become immensely popular in the past couple of decades for its practical uses and implications in the everyday life of children and adolescents. Art therapy has proven to be useful and would have better results if it were implemented to the everyday educational system.

Although art therapy in an educational setting such as a school can be beneficial to those children with special needs, such as those with emotional, learning, behavioral, or physical disabilities (Rubin, 2005), it has also been beneficial in allowing parents, teachers, administrators, and students themselves become more psychologically aware and healthy about the daily happenings in children's lives. It has played an important role in allowing all parties involved to enhance their learning experience while going through the emotional changes that children and adolescents go through. A lot of physical, emotional and psychological growth happens during elementary school, middle school, and high school, which in turn affects academic enhancement and social skills development (Malchiodo, 2007). Using art therapy in a curriculum form in schools provides these children with the necessary tools to better understand themselves and for those around them to interpret things through their art that they might not be able to interpret verbally (allpsychologycareers.com). This does not necessarily mean that art therapy should be implemented in schools as a replacement for another academic class, but instead be incorporated for its beneficial uses for children. Traditional academics encourage intellectual growth, while art therapy could be used as a means to encourage emotional and psychological enhancement (Hughes, 2010).

With the arts being reduced significantly in public school systems, it is necessary to point out that the significant role that art therapy plays on the mental development of children and adolescents, began with a traditional art class and art education (Junge, 2010). Although they do differ, its roots cannot be forgotten as it actually is applicable to the various settings in effect in some schools nationwide as it is. Art therapy's origin with children was in working with disturbed children who had been diagnosed as being emotionally, psychologically, and academically unstable (Junge, 2010). Going in line with Freud's psychoanalytic theories of the ego, id, and superego, and its relationship with the conscious and unconscious, therapists wanted to be able to understand how children thought and how they could express their feelings in a nonverbal way. It was then that art became a means of achieving psychoanalytic interpretation without children having to actually talk to the therapists (Rubin, 2005). It is a way for children to express themselves by converting their own ideas, feelings, and perceptions into something that therapists are then allowed to interpret.

Art therapy, unlike an actual art education course, focuses on how children make the art, such as supplies and color choices, and how they produce the art, as in with or without strokes or with or without polka dots, then on what the finished product is (Malchiodo, 2007). There is importance given to how the artwork relates to the child's life at home, school, and with friends and family, which can give information to the therapists on how the child is developing socially and emotionally. The process of making art works as a medium for interpretation of its themes or possibly topics of talk that the student might want to focus on or discuss, but might not have the verbal means to do so. Having art therapy in schools can assist students in bettering their own insights about their attitudes, beliefs, and social implications (Rubin, 2007).

Art therapy is most beneficial when it is used in an educational rather than clinical environment, where more children can benefit from the behavioral and psychological benefits that this field offers. By allowing children to have an artistic outlet, they are in return more psychologically healthy and this behavior will show in academic classrooms. Having art therapy as part of an organized curriculum improves behavior in forms that will allow children to fully adapt themselves to their academic environment (americanarttherapyassociation.org). Children in elementary, middle, and high school are all in a stage where their priority is that of socializing and being liked and feeling approval from their friends, and all these different pressures and emotions affect the way they conduct themselves in the classroom. Art therapy is a way for children to receive an outlet for what they are feeling and the way they are acting and can allow them to focus more on the academic portion of school, instead of the social one (Hughes, 2010). Through art therapy, children will be in a position to allow others to help them and guide them in ways that they might not be able to express verbally, but can indeed express artistically with the same goal in mind.

The role of art therapy may seem to be confusing, as it is not one of straight discussion, but rather one of interpretation of what some might seem as a couple of lines drawn on a paper. Art therapists look beyond what others might not see and actually give meaning to something that could help children become more psychologically healthy (Malchiodo, 2007). There is little awareness on what art therapy is actually about because of the lack of its usage outside of the clinical environment, but what individuals and institutions need to realize is that it could actually benefit all children, especially those who might seem troubled and not excelling much academically. Increasing the amount of awareness given to the benefits of art therapy will as a result guarantee the usage of it in academic settings to help all those children who will need it.

The benefits of art therapy can be already found in children who have behavioral or psychological disorders in form of conduct or inability to function properly in society. These children include children who have behavioral disorders as well as children who are mentally handicapped. The immense difference that art therapy has made on these children, could also be applied to everyday children, or children who are following standard academic curriculums to enhance their psychological and emotional functioning (Hughes, 2010). Goals in art therapy could be applied to any child and still produce some benefit. These goals could include improving self-esteem, empathy and sensitivity toward other children, and improving group dynamics and cohesiveness as a result of these sessions. When children work together in an environment that enables them to be themselves regardless, and fosters artistic growth, children learn to understand each other more, and they learn to relate more to one another (Rubin, 2005).

Art therapy has also become beneficial to not just the children or the academic setting in which it is taught, but it can also be beneficial to the entire community. Children who can potentially benefit from these programs do not necessarily have to be from a disadvantaged background, but they could be children from all types of upbringings. Art therapy teaches children how to cooperate and be in tune with themselves, and in return it provides more psychological balance for the child (americanarttherapyassociation.org). In this society where societal demands are growing more, and children have more responsibilities, art therapy could be an outlet for stressful emotions that they might not feel comfortable expressing verbally or directly to someone. Instead, this frustration could be let out in the form of art and can be analyzed by an art therapist who can suggest an alternative to children's feelings of possible inadequacy or low achievement.