ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA

Running head: ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
Art Therapy and Trauma
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
Abstract
Art therapy has become quite popular since years as a clinical method for treating patients with
mental and emotional disturbances and instability. Art therapy is a process in which the
therapists make the patients express their problems or causes of their mental illness through any
art form, such as, coloring, drawing, painting, making collages or sculpting. In many cases,
children, women or elderly people become too vulnerable after having any type of traumatic
experience and they start suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They become
unable to express themselves and share their problems to the therapists and in such cases, art
therapy was found to be extremely beneficial. This paper provides an overview of effectiveness
of art therapy in healing the mental disorders and traumatic experiences of people through a
literature review. Theories as foundations of art therapies have been highlighted and with the
types of art therapies. It has been observed that art therapy has been majorly used to heal trauma-
induced mental and emotional disorders, while its effectiveness in treating the physical impacts
have not been studied extensively.

2ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Search strategy.................................................................................................................................4
Statement on the state of literature..................................................................................................4
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

3ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
Introduction
Art Therapy has been found to be extremely useful for improving mental health of
people. The foundation of Art Therapy revolves around the concept of the usefulness of creative
expression in treating the mental illness and stress and fostering the mental well-being of people.
Art, whether creating or viewing, is an efficient technique of exploring the emotions, developing
self-awareness, coping with stress, boosting self-esteem, and working on the social skills (King
2016). Thus, it is beneficial for improving the mental health of the people. The research studies
have shown that art therapy has helped people to improve their communication and social skills,
and discovering different aspects of their personalities. Hence, not only mental health, but
emotional and physical health of people also improves through art therapy. Mental illness
includes various types of illnesses, which are caused due to several reasons. Trauma is one type
of mental or psychological illness that affects the emotional, physical and mental wellbeing of
people in a very severe manner (Greenacre 2018). It is a phenomenon that causes deep distress
and disturbing experiences to people, who goes through some type of distressing event. Trauma
can have very deep and significant impact on people as it can hamper the ability of an individual
to cope and can cause feeling of loneliness, helplessness, lowers their confidence and self-
respect, and hampers their ability to express their emotions and experiences (Van der Kolk
2017). This essay will focus on exploring the art therapy and various aspects and its significance
in treating the traumatic disorders or effects of trauma among the patients. The paper will have a
comprehensive discussion on the research strategy, previous literatures describing the features,
types, and effectiveness of art therapy, causes and effects of trauma, and how art therapy can be
used to treat the traumatic experiences among the people.

4ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
Search strategy
Keywords: art therapy, trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mental health, wellbeing,
physical health, emotional health, psychiatric disorder, psychiatric treatment
Using these above mentioned keywords, literatures and research papers have been
searched in online databases, such as, Google Scholar, and other online libraries, such as, Sage,
Wiley etc. The university library was also explored to get relevant research papers on the topic of
this paper. Literatures no older than 2013 have been searched and consulted for this essay. Some
news articles were also explored from online publications to create and understand the context of
the study.
Statement on the state of literature
This literature review will explore the features of art therapy, its types, settings for using
and effectiveness in treating the overall mental health or different types of psychological
disorders. The paper will also highlight the features, probable causes, types and effects of
trauma. From the discussion, the effectiveness of art therapy in treating the traumatic impact or
PTSD will be suggested.
Discussion
Art therapy has become quite popular in treating various types of psychological
disorders. For thousands of years, art is used to express the feelings of people, it is treated as a
way of communication and socialization among the people. According to the American Art
Therapy Association, the purpose of art therapy is to implement and utilize the creating method
that can help people in exploring and expressing themselves, and finding new ways for gaining

5ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
in-depth personal insights and developing new interpersonal, communication, and coping skills.
Hence, art therapy is considered to be useful in overall personality development of an individual
(Case and Dalley 2014). As stated by Edwards (2014), in the art therapy, the psychotherapeutic
techniques are integrated with the creative processes to improve the mental, emotional and
physical health and well-being of the people. Art therapy includes application of various
techniques, such as, drawing, coloring, painting, sculpting, or making collages. The patients of
art therapy often explore their preferred type of art and they look for themes that would reflect or
conflict their emotions, thoughts and behavior. Van Lith (2016) stated that people or patients
need not to have artistic ability or any creative talent for participating in the art therapy and
individuals, including, the children, teenagers, adults and aged people can participate in the art
therapy. The author also mentioned that it has been observed that art helps people, suffering from
various types of mental illness, to express their feelings and emotions through different types of
art work and it has been found that art has a healing power. Some people can easily express their
emotions through art which they are not able to communicate through words. This ability has
been utilized by doctors and therapists to improve the mental and emotional wellbeing of the
people and enhance their confidence.
There are various types of art therapy and those are used in treating a variety range of
psychological distress and mental disorders. For example, art therapy heals anxiety, depression,
stress, cancer, PTSD, aging related problems among the elderly, emotional disorders, eating
disorders, substance use, like, drugs, cocaine, heroin, relationship or family problems,
psychological problems, various long term medical conditions, like, dementia, autism, or any
type of terminal illness and psychological impact of those medical issues. (Moon 2016)
highlighted that art therapy has been found useful in treating children having learning

6ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
disabilities, adults suffering from severe stress, children facing trouble from behavioral issues or
social problems in school or at home, individuals with mental health issues or brain injury, and
people and children suffering from various traumatic events and their effects. Various types of
settings can be used for art therapy, such as, wellness centers, hospitals, correctional facilities,
community centers, private therapy centers, art studios, women's shelters, homeless shelters,
elementary schools and high schools, colleges and universities, residential treatment centers, and
group homes (Case and Dalley 2014).
The major difference between the average art class and art therapy sessions lies in their
objectives and purposes. Kopytin and Lebedev (2015) pointed out that art class emphasizes on
teaching a particular technique of art and creating a specific final product of art, which can be a
painting or a sculpture. On the other hand, art therapy is a session of counseling that lets the
clients to focus on their inner feelings and experiences. Through the artwork, the clients are
encouraged in creating art, which expresses their inner world, their thoughts, experiences,
distress rather than making something that is an expression of the outer world.
Hogan (2015) summarizes the theories that work as foundation for the art therapy. The
behavioral theories often work as the basis of art therapies. The author highlighted that Cognitive
Behavioural Art Therapy, Psychoanalytical (Freudian) Art Therapy, Solution-Focused Brief
Therapy, Gestalt Art Therapy, Analytical (Jungian) Art Therapy, Mindfulness Art Therapy,
Person-Centred or ‘Rogerian’ Art Therapy, Feminist Art Therapy, Integrative Art Therapy (the
Group-Interactive Model), and Art Therapy as Social Action are some of the theories that are
non-judgmental, yet analytical in their approach and these are used to create programs in the art
therapy sessions. These theories are classified under psychodynamic approach, humanistic
approach, and psycho-educational approach (Van Lith 2016).

7ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
Approaches Theories
Psychodynamic Freudian Psychoanalysis Focuses on the insight, sublimation and defense
mechanisms
Jungian Analytic Therapy Symbolism and imagery, and archetypes
Humanistic Person-Centered Focuses on the empathy and positive regard for
the individual
Adlerian Efforts of the individuals towards their success,
their social connectivity and contributions to the
society are addressed.
Gestalt Addresses personal responsibility, momentous
experience of the individual and impact of
social environment on the person
Ericksonian Focuses on the psychosocial influences and
development of the individuals
Existential Emphasizes on the inner conflicts of people
being attributed to the perception of the
individual around the meaning of their existence
Phenomenological Focuses on the experience of the individuals in
each moment
Psycho-
educational
Behavioral Deals with measurable behaviors and process of
learning
Cognitive Focuses on the thought processes related to
maladaptive behaviors and feelings

8ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
Developmental Addresses the issue of human development
from childhood to adulthood
Adaptive Emphasizes on achievement of specific goals
leading to adaptive functioning.
Table 1: Theories and approaches of art therapy
Apart from these theories, there are some other approaches also, such as, the family art theory,
group art theory, art or image based approaches, spiritual approaches, and integrative approaches
(Van Lith 2016). The therapists often use multiple theories or approaches to provide effective
treatment to the patient.
Mental stress and disorder can arise from various factors and trauma is one of the major
factors. The American Psychological Association (APA) defined trauma as the emotional
response of a person due to the experience of extremely negative event in life (Putz-Anderson
2017). Mental trauma can be so severe that it can hamper the normal life of the individual, and
people often need professional help to treat the PTSD and restore the mental balance and health
to achieve emotional wellbeing. Events such as domestic violence, rape, death of a loved one,
severe and terminal illness or injury, natural disasters and witnessing acts of violence are some
factors that can cause extreme trauma to an individual (Caruth 2016). It has been observed that
trauma can be caused even from distance and young children are most vulnerable to the trauma
inducing events. The mental and emotional effects of trauma are often severe and can last short
term to long term, and at the same time, there are physical effects too. Moreover, not only the
people with traumatic experiences suffer, but the people surrounding them, that is, their friends

9ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
and families also face consequences of that and sometimes they also feel it difficult to deal with
these patients (Greenacre 2018).
Trauma can be treated in various ways, such as medication, clinical drugs, counselling,
physical exercise, and different types of therapies. Art therapy is one of the ways to treat the
trauma patients. Landgarten (2013) pointed out the benefits of the clinical art therapy in dealing
with the PTSD. The author stated that PTSD is experienced through emotion, body and
memories, and hence, it was observed that in many cases, the talk therapy, and the cognitive
behavioral theory (CBT) were not enough to heal the traumatized patients. In such cases, art
therapy was found to be quite useful. It provides a channel to the patients to vent out their
feelings and experiences, which are analyzed by the therapists and doctors to get the real source
of trauma and take measures to heal that and make the patients move forward.
Schouten et al. (2015) conducted a quantitative experimental study to explore the effects
of art therapy on treating the traumatized adults. They found in half of the six studies, that art
therapy had significantly reduced psychological trauma symptoms among the treatment groups
and in one of the studies, they observed that there was considerable decline in depression among
the patients. On the other hand, Naff (2014) performed a qualitative study on treating cumulative
trauma through art therapy practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by the author on
three art therapists and they reported that the key elements of art therapy practice include
addressing the variability of the symptom presentation, treatment through talks and art as
treatment modality. Understanding the subjective levels of trauma and distress throughout the
course of assessment and treatment of trauma among the patients is extremely important for the
art therapists to channelize the treatment in the proper direction.

10ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
Walker et al. (2016) examined the effectiveness of art therapy in treating the PTSD and
traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a senior military service member. The authors highlighted that the
military department is increasingly using art therapy as integrative and complementary care for
the veterans affected by trauma and injuries while on duty. The study found that application of
art therapy on the veteran with chronic PTSD and mild TBI led to a significantly positive
outcome in healing by managing his intrusive and traumatic memories and overcoming those to
lead a normal life. Traditional talking and counseling were not that much effective in this case as
art therapy has been. Lobban (2014) has showed in a similar study on the impact of art therapy
on the veterans that art therapy had been successful in reducing the PTSD among those
traumatized veterans.
Linesch (2013) pointed out in her book that adolescents are very complex and hence,
their trauma treatment needs to be highly complex as well as sensitive. Words can have a non-
effective outcome when dealing with a traumatized adolescent but as art does not involve
traditional talking, the author found that adolescents feel much safer and confident while
expressing their experiences and feelings through art. Art is also effective in healing the patients
by overcoming their resistance to the treatment (Wilkinson and Chilton 2013).
Rowe et al. (2017) examined the effectiveness of art therapy in treating the refugee youth
in Burma and the authors found through focus group discussions that the research participants
had faced one or more traumatic events and art therapy helped them to improve their self-
confidence and social relations by reducing depression and anxiety. However, they also
highlighted that symptom focused assessing tools were not adequate to measure the overall
growth of the traumatized patients even though it addresses some effects of the traumatic
experience.

11ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
Kuban (2015) pointed out in his study that children can portray their loss and traumas
through art in the best possible manner, as they are often unable to express their experiences
through proper words due to fear, lack of self-confidence, vocabulary and feeling of insecurity,
and hence, art is the medium which they could affectively use to express themselves. McMillan
et al. (2018) also reported similar findings on the effectiveness of art therapy as they found that
depression, anxiety and other PTSD symptoms were significantly reduced among the patients
after applying art therapy.
However, it can be said after the literature review, that all the above mentioned journal
papers, research papers and books had focused on the mental disorders and emotional impacts of
trauma, although trauma can also affect the victims physically. Hence, treatment of trauma also
includes the healing of physical wounds, which would also have a positive impact on the mental
health and wellbeing of the patients. Thus, the literature gap is identified as the lack of adequate
studies on the impact of trauma on the physical health and wellbeing of the people and
effectiveness of art therapy on healing those traumas.
Conclusion
From the above study, it can be concluded that art therapy has been found to be useful in
healing several types of mental health disorder and physical and emotional stress, and one of
which is trauma. It has been found from the previous research papers and literatures that trauma
can severely affect the mental and emotional balance and wellbeing of the victims and they
become unable to live a normal life. Talk sessions and counseling process along with
medications are used to treat the traumatized patients. However, in many cases, it has been
observed that the patients are unable to express themselves through words, and in such cases, art

12ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
therapy has been found to be quite beneficial to make them expressive, gain confidence, improve
communication skills and relationships, and respond to therapies. At the same time, it was also
found from the studies that trauma also create disturbances in physical wellbeing of the victims,
and effectiveness of art therapy should be studied in a more in-depth manner in the context of
achieving physical wellbeing of the trauma victims.

13ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
References
Caruth, C., 2016. Unclaimed experience: Trauma, narrative, and history. JHU Press.
Case, C. and Dalley, T., 2014. The handbook of art therapy. Routledge.
Edwards, D., 2014. Art therapy. Sage.
Greenacre, P., 2018. Trauma, growth and personality. Routledge.
Hogan, S., 2015. Art therapy theories: A critical introduction. Routledge.
King, J.L. ed., 2016. Art therapy, trauma, and neuroscience: Theoretical and practical
perspectives. Routledge.
Kopytin, A. and Lebedev, A., 2015. Therapeutic functions of humour in group art therapy with
war veterans. International Journal of Art Therapy, 20(2), pp.40-53.
Kuban, C., 2015. Healing trauma through art. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 24(2), p.18.
Landgarten, H.B., 2013. Clinical art therapy: A comprehensive guide. Routledge.
Linesch, D.G., 2013. Adolescent art therapy. Routledge.
Lobban, J., 2014. The invisible wound: Veterans' art therapy. International Journal of Art
Therapy, 19(1), pp.3-18.
McMillan, J., Moo, A., Arora, R. and Costa, B., 2018. The clinical effectiveness and current
practice of art therapy for trauma. Evidence Review, 212.

14ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA
Moon, B.L., 2016. Introduction to art therapy: Faith in the product. Charles C Thomas
Publisher.
Naff, K., 2014. A framework for treating cumulative trauma with art therapy. Art Therapy, 31(2),
pp.79-86.
Putz-Anderson, V., 2017. Cumulative trauma disorders. CRC Press.
Rowe, C., Watson-Ormond, R., English, L., Rubesin, H., Marshall, A., Linton, K., Amolegbe,
A., Agnew-Brune, C. and Eng, E., 2017. Evaluating art therapy to heal the effects of trauma
among refugee youth: The Burma art therapy program evaluation. Health promotion
practice, 18(1), pp.26-33.
Schouten, K.A., de Niet, G.J., Knipscheer, J.W., Kleber, R.J. and Hutschemaekers, G.J., 2015.
The effectiveness of art therapy in the treatment of traumatized adults: a systematic review on art
therapy and trauma. Trauma, violence, & abuse, 16(2), pp.220-228.
Van der Kolk, B.A., 2017. Developmental trauma disorder: toward a rational diagnosis for
children with complex trauma histories. Psychiatric annals, 35(5), pp.401-408.
Van Lith, T., 2016. Art therapy in mental health: A systematic review of approaches and
practices. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 47, pp.9-22.
Walker, M.S., Kaimal, G., Koffman, R. and DeGraba, T.J., 2016. Art therapy for PTSD and TBI:
A senior active duty military service member’s therapeutic journey. The Arts in
Psychotherapy, 49, pp.10-18.
Wilkinson, R.A. and Chilton, G., 2013. Positive art therapy: Linking positive psychology to art
therapy theory, practice, and research. Art Therapy, 30(1), pp.4-11.

15ART THERAPY AND TRAUMA