Art Therapy: Helping the Mind and Body :: Health, Treatment

Can art imitate livelihood and healing? The use of art therapy began in the early 20th Century, utilise 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 indisposition from mental issues, including sexual insult and schizophrenia, to physical disease like human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS and fertility in women.Used in association with congregationing talk therapy, art therapy has been proven to be effective with sexually abuse 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 Gestalts client-centered and abus e-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 draft copy 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 headstone a happy box and an unhappybox 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 tending(p) 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, 2 010). The results showed that the girls in the experimental group had lower levels of belief and anxiety than those girls who were in the control groups. Self-esteem seemed straight off for all groups, according to Pfeifer. The findings of the present study suggest that the programme does non 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.