Exam 9: Play and Art Based Approaches in Counseling in School

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• Artistic activities provide another avenue for communicating painful experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Art provides another nonverbal modality that has been used to facilitate resolution of academic challenges, conflicting relationships, and developmental transitions. Interventions in this context can be educational as well as therapeutic . Techniques associated with art therapy can be facilitated with individuals, counseling groups, and classroom lessons.
• Artistic approaches are particularly advantageous for adolescents.
• Although art therapy is a relatively new concept, the connection between mental illness and art has attracted interest for some time. Various forms of art, primarily drawing, emerged as psychological assessments during the 20th Century. The term, art therapy, first appeared in professional literature and conversations during the 1940s. Four prominent art therapists -- Margaret Naumberg, Edith Kramer, Hanna Kwiatkowska, and Elinor Ulman -- wrote extensively and provided training during the next few decades, thereby contributing to the development of the field. Contemporary art therapists recognize Naumburg as the founder of art therapy, particularly in America.
• Early art therapists were strongly influenced by Freud. Contemporary art therapists practice from a variety of theoretical orientations, including traditional approaches such as Client Centered, Existential, and Cognitive Behavioral. They also use post-modern approaches such as solution-focused and narrative (e.g., Riley & Malchiodo, 2003).