Arts in Psychotherapy最新文献

Approximately 50% of UK dramatherapists deliver their work in schools. Despite this, little is currently known about the way in which school settings affect the dramatherapy that is delivered within them. This qualitative investigation utilised semi-structured interviews (N = 12) and reflexive thematic analysis to identify the facilitators and barriers of providing dramatherapy in school settings. In addition, the unique experiences of working as a dramatherapist in a school setting were also investigated. Amongst others, the facilitators identified included school as an accessible and safe place for therapy to occur. In addition, the structure provided by the school’s daily and annual timetable, and the support of other school-based professionals and organisations were also identified. The barriers identified related to funding challenges, inappropriate referrals, schools seeking quick results and a lack of access to suitable spaces for therapy to occur. Regarding their experiences of employment, many dramatherapists spoke of working in multiple schools and, whilst some enjoyed the flexibility this offered, many found it challenging to become part of the school community and experienced a sense of isolation whilst working. Feeling like they are lower paid than clinical counterparts, such as colleagues in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), was also raised by those interviewed. These findings suggest that resource investment and investment into teachers’ and other school-based professionals’ knowledge of dramatherapy is warranted. In addition, dramatherapists who work in schools may benefit from community building. Future research, which explores the experience of dramatherapists in other settings is also encouraged.

Experiencing the death of a loved one as a young person is challenging in its own right, and underlying trauma can complicate one’s bereavement. With little available research exploring the intersections of trauma and grief, this paper aims to provide a foundational understanding of how trauma contexts and histories manifest in music therapy bereavement support programming for young people. Theoretical models that are culturally grounded, resource-oriented, and adopting an ecological, multisystemic lens are presented. The impacts of interpersonal trauma, trauma from systemic oppression, collective trauma, and intergenerational trauma are explored within the context of bereavement support. Diverse music therapy approaches to support the various trauma and grief intersections are shared. Lastly, reflection questions to support a culturally humble practice are offered for those committed to providing meaningful and socially conscious support for youth who have experienced trauma and loss. Given the high prevalence of trauma and death experiences among young people, all music therapists, regardless of clinical setting, would benefit from being trauma- and bereavement-informed.

Drama improvisation is recognized for its benefits in the Western context, particularly in enhancing performers’ social awareness and interaction skills. However, there is a gap in evidence from diverse cultural backgrounds, and few studies have examined the dynamic shifts in individuals before and after brief drama improvisation training. In this study, first-year Chinese college students not majoring in arts underwent a semester-long training encompassing six modules related to drama improvisation. The participants’ social anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity, intentional self-regulation, and aesthetic experience were measured pre- and post-training. Notably, the training was observed to reduce students’ social anxiety and elevate their flow experience—a state marked by deep concentration, pleasure, and heightened focus. The change in the flow experience and the empathic concern, predicted one’s theory of mind. These findings suggest that drama improvisation training can potentially bolster mental well-being in young adults, alter their aesthetic experiences, and enhance their socio-communicative skills, fostering creative thinking within the Chinese cultural framework.

This article presents intersectional care ethics as a framework for inclusive, anti-oppressive organizational structures and practices. A brief literature review documents the increasing demand in the art therapy field for theory and practice that is politically engaged and rooted in social justice. Two frameworks for analyzing an organization’s alignment with justice and equity are discussed: intersectionality theory and care ethics. Barriers to creating and maintaining just, equitable, and ethical organizations are also described, and examples are provided for how these barriers have been enacted in one professional association. The article concludes with recommendations posed in the form of questions intended to inspire creative conceptualizations of how intersectional care ethics might become manifest within art therapy organizations.

Playback Theatre (PT) was created as an improvised form of theatre based on the sharing of personal narratives by members of an audience that, in turn, are reciprocated by playback actresses and actors (“playbackers”) in the form of theatre-like artistic performances. From the beginning, its characteristics as a group process and therapeutic potential have been discussed. As this increasingly more common approach to storytelling most often seeks to stimulate individual and/or communal emotional growth/healing, the literature on it is also increasing. However, a significant portion of said literature has been focused on anecdotal type of reporting. Given the latter, we put together a systematic review of the literature on PT, geared towards identifying the literature sources that report evaluations, either qualitative or quantitative, of PT applications. Hence, our aim was to produce a comprehensive summary of the effects that have been reported in evaluation-centered studies of PT applications of all scopes. We searched four major electronic databases (PsycINFO, Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus) for PT interventions between 1990 and June 2023. The quality of the studies gathered was evaluated by considering both the existence or absence of a control group and the reliability of the evaluation strategies employed, thus controlling for the risk of bias, consistent with the PRISMA protocol (Liberati et al. (2009)). The database search successfully identified 79 peer-reviewed articles on the subject of PT. Of these, 18 were English-written articles that reported on the use of evaluative measures concerning PT programs. The populations that benefited from these programs included children, adults, and older adults. Additionally, these articles included the application of PT in different contexts, from improving language skills to the promotion of mental health among individuals and/or communities. The results gathered lend support to the successful use of PT in enhancing cognitive, social, and emotional skills. Recommendations to increase and improve the reporting of PT effects are discussed.

Art-based parental training involves engaging the parents in creative processes and the observation of their art products. The current paper presents guidelines for art-based parental training, based on the assumption that the encounter between the world of art and the world of therapy creates a rich triangular relationship between therapist, parent, and artwork. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 art therapists who described their experiences and the interventions they have developed for parents. The findings show how these interventions can be applied in clinical settings and how these art therapists see the impact of these art-based interventions on the therapeutic process. Most therapists believe that encouraging parents to create spontaneously and authentically in a suitable environment that contains a range of art materials for painting and sculpture can support the initiation of emotional communication on the part of the parents with themselves, their partner, and their child. In this type of therapy, the parents’ responses and the creative product are primordial since they are considered to reflect the parents’ development, personal skills, fields of interest, concerns, and difficulties. The guidelines are derived from these findings.

This study explored the embodied graduate educational experiences of dance/movement therapy students who were Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Eight research participants who were between the ages of 22 to 45 years old were recruited from American Dance Therapy Association approved programs. Participants self-identified as Black/African American and Jamaican, Black/African American, Latinx/Brazilian, Asian/Chinese, Asian/Filipino, Asian/Chinese and Taiwanese American, and Asian/Chinese and White American. A qualitative research design based in phenomenology and arts-based methods grounded in anti-oppressive research were used. Two semistructured interviews and 1 week of embodied observation and journaling were part of data collection. Themes included four embodied states and eight embodied substates. The embodied state, wounded body, spoke to harm that occurred with peers, instructors, and course materials. The embodied state, critical body, included contemplation or action about injustices or inequities for marginalized groups. The embodied state, intersectional body, encompassed participants’ awareness, understanding, and choices around conformity to social norms of their own intersectional identities. The embodied state, flourishing body, were the conscious and unconscious efforts of resourcing through various interpersonal and intrapersonal supports. The findings, in combination with research in the literature, were used to suggest seven recommendations for an embodied anti-oppressive pedagogy in dance/movement therapy.

The goal of this study was to examine the effects of group art therapy on different measures of both therapeutic processes (group cohesion and art therapy-related emotional regulation) and therapeutic outcomes (self-esteem, social state self-esteem, and distress) in a clinically heterogenous sample. This is a pretest-posttest control group design with a random allocation of participants, i.e., randomized control trial. The sample consisted of 160 patients (68.75% female) aged 14 to 73 years (M = 43.19, SD = 14.06; n_ART = 87, n_TAU=73). Participants completed self-report measures of distress (depression, anxiety, and stress), self-esteem, social state self-esteem, group cohesion (GCQ), and self-expression and emotion regulation in art therapy (SERATS). The group art therapy lasted for six once-a-week sessions were 90 min long. GCQ and SERATS have unidimensional factor structures. The results showed that art therapy has statistically significant positive effects on group cohesion, self-esteem, and social state self-esteem, and lowering effects on anxiety as compared to active treatment-as-usual. Moreover, self-expression and emotional regulation during art therapy increased in the art therapy group. The measures of mental health outcomes and psychotherapeutic processes are meaningfully related in the art therapy group. In conclusion, this study presents some novel evidence for the benefits of art therapy.

There is evidence that dance/movement therapy (DMT) has positive outcomes for patients with various conditions when used either as a standalone therapy or when coupled with a gold standard modality such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This combined DMT/CBT has yet to be studied for patients struggling with alcohol and substance use disorders from a structured, manualized, implementation perspective. The current study outlines patient engagement and satisfaction with a 4-session DMT/CBT program at an inpatient addiction treatment facility. The 4-session manualized DMT/CBT protocol comprised “impulse inventory,” “studying impulses,” “subconscious movement,” and “body language.” Participants reported the most engagement in “studying impulses” and attended an average of 2.38 sessions during their time in treatment. Most patients reported receiving some (55%) or substantial (23%) benefit from the protocol. These findings lay the foundation to better optimize a DMT/CBT protocol for patients struggling with alcohol and substance use disorders. However, about a quarter of patients received no benefit from the group (23%), highlighting known barriers to DMT in general. Findings can help small inpatient facilities utilize information toward next steps of optimizing a DMT/CBT protocol.

Mental health problems, especially depression and anxiety, are becoming increasingly prominent among college students, which negatively affects academic achievement and physical and mental health. To address this issue, this study introduced dance movement therapy (DMT) to a group of Chinese university students - a group never addressed in DMT research. Addressing the gap, this randomized controlled trial evaluates DMT's effectiveness in reducing depressive and anxious symptoms in thirty-six students. Over a concise three-day program, participants engaged in 18 h of structured DMT, exploring twelve themes, while counterparts in the control group awaited treatment. Outcomes were promising:students undergoing DMT showed marked improvements in mental health measures immediately following therapy, and these benefits for intervention group were maintained after three months. Significantly, the treatment's positive effects were consistent across genders, showcasing DMT's broad potential. This initial investigation suggests DMT is a promising avenue for mental health management in Chinese undergraduates, calling for further trials with larger cohorts and longer observation to confirm and extend these findings.