I first came across this when talking to my friend Ruth. This is a great way to counsel people and to help them through their troubles. Ruth was telling me that through art therapy, you use ideas like the colors, the thickness of the lines, the shapes to get people to talk about their emotions and what they are thinking. Art therapy is very low key and unknown but is used in many different settings including mental health patients and people with certain brain disorders.
Art therapy is defined as a technique that is both healing and also the creative process to surface information that would otherwise be disclosed. In art therapy, there are certain scenarios that are used in order to reveal the inner thoughts of the patients:
Art therapy is defined as a technique that is both healing and also the creative process to surface information that would otherwise be disclosed. In art therapy, there are certain scenarios that are used in order to reveal the inner thoughts of the patients:
1. House-Tree-Person: for this project, the patient is asked to draw a house, a tree and a person separate from each other. After this, the therapist would begin to ask questions like “How is the weather at the house?” and “How old is the person in this picture”. This process will give hints about the inner beliefs of the patient about himself.
( http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3299/3480945074_df1f8e11d8.jpg)
( http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3299/3480945074_df1f8e11d8.jpg)
2. Road Drawing: the patient is asked to draw a road. This road is representative of the their "road of life". Therefore the parallel for this entails the trials that the patient may be under and additionally what the present circumstances are like. The most important thing to recognize in this scenario is the roads and how the bumps and mountains are.
(http://www.kids.ct.gov/kids/cwp/view.asp?a=2577&q=385820)
(http://www.kids.ct.gov/kids/cwp/view.asp?a=2577&q=385820)
3. Diagnostic Drawing Series: this is a series of three drawings as well but uses a different approach than the House-Tree-Person scenario. First the patient is asked draw with chalk pastels anything that they want, this will express their current state of affair with their mindset and inner emotions. Then the patient is asked to draw a tree in the picture. Finally, the patient is asked to use colors, lines and shapes to express how they are feeling. Using the colors and lines used in the picture, and the placement of certain objects in the picture, the therapist can assessed the patient and try assist them in their emotions.
(http://www.art-therapist.org/art_therapist_chicago05.jpg)
(http://www.art-therapist.org/art_therapist_chicago05.jpg)
4. Mandala Assessment Research Instrument: this is a technique that stems from the Buddhist philosophy. The artist is asked to choose a card from a deck of cards. The cards have different mandalas drawn onto the cards. Then the patient is asked to choose a card from a deck of colored cards. Finally, the patient draws the mandala they have chosen using different colors with chalk pastels. The patient is then asked if there are any underlying meanings to the mandala they have drawn or the colors that they have chosen. Joan Kellogg uses the shapes, geometric patterns and colors from the mandala to assess the inner psyche of the patient.
(http://www.mandalaconsulting.com/lastscan6.jpg)
(http://www.mandalaconsulting.com/lastscan6.jpg)
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