Top 50 Blogs for Learning About Medical Art Therapy

Thanks to Rachel for including my blog on her article "Top 50 Blogs for Learning about Medical Art Therapy." Aside from having this blog included on there (#23), it is a great resource for those interested in finding out more about art therapy. Check it out!!

Top 50 Blogs for Learning About Medical Art Therapy

Traditional medicine cannot heal everyone, but this doesn’t mean that those it has not worked for should give up. There are plenty of unconventional paths to healing that work well, and medical art therapy is considered one of them. This practice uses art to heal people of all ages, and can improve the emotional, mental, and physical state of most people. If you want to know more about how medical art therapy can help you, read the free blogs listed below. They range from offering a basic understanding of the topic to discussing cases in which it has worked to heal people.

General Art Therapy Blogs

If you are cautious about going this route to recover, you should get the basics about the practice. The following blogs can offer general information about art therapy, as well as links to books and articles you can read to find out more.

1. Psychology Today: The Healing Arts :This blog is run by an art therapist who posts topics about advocacy days, art therapy intervention ideas, and more. If you are looking for the basics of this practice, this is a good blog to check out.
2. Medical Art Therapy : This blog is great to turn to in order to get an overall education on art therapy. Read stories about successful cases, find out unique ideas, and get helpful tips with this blog.
3. Art Therapy : If you want to find out the basics of this practice, as well as find books, ideas, and other resources, this is the blog to check out.
4. Art Therapy Reflections : Learn some musings on this practice, as well as the basic science behind it, when you check out this blog.
5. Art Therapy Guide : Find out what art therapy is, as well as information about relevant programs.
6. Arts in Health & Care : This blog serves as a spot to get basic information about this practice, and also discusses news related to art therapy.
7. Artandhealing’s Posterous : This blogger uses art and dance to heal, and can give you ideas on how to do it yourself. You can also get basic facts about this practice when you peruse this blog.
8. Art Therapy Los Angeles : Let this therapist share stories about interesting clients, inspiration, and ideas to give you a basic understanding of this practice.
9. Mullumbimby Art Therapy : This blog offers interesting thoughts, ideas, and resources for anyone who wants to find out more about art therapy.
10. Health Care Fine Art : This therapist offers an overview of art as therapy, as well as ideas regarding using art to heal.

Blogs That Offer Art Therapy Ideas

If you like to try doing things on your own before heading to a professional, you will be glad to know that there are some blogs offering tips to get started in art therapy. You can try out these ideas at home on your own, or perhaps incorporate them into a lesson plan for children or students. Eventually, you will likely need to consult a professional to continue this practice, but trying some simple exercises on your own first can be helpful.

11. Joyful Art Therapy : This blog offers plenty of ways to practice art therapy in your life. There are also links to helpful workshops and books.
12. Art Therapy Techniques from the Field : Find out about techniques that you can use in your life to feel a bit calmer and more content in general. They come straight from a practicing art therapist.
13. Self-Guided Art Therapy : If you are not yet sure whether you should consult a professional to get started in art therapy, you can check out these ways to try it out on your own.
14. Creative Juices Arts : Allow this blogger to inspire you to get creative. She explains that even those who do not think they are creative can use art therapy to relax and heal.
15. KinderArt : Whether you work with disabled children or are just curious about some of the best lesson plans for kids interested in art therapy, check out this blog.
16. Higher Art : This art therapist offers solutions that are especially tailored for children. Find out some ways to help your kids cope with art therapy.

Blogs from Organizations

Some professional organizations offer blogs on their website. These can provide you with links to resources, or even offer the opinion of professionals. Either way, you can be sure that these types of blogs are legitimate and offer plenty of information.

17. The Potomac Art Therapy Association: Drawing from Within : This blog keeps readers updated with news about art therapy, new opportunities, resources, and support. Whether you are quite advanced in this subject or want to get to know more, you should find this blog helpful.
18. Art Therapy Scholars Blog : The American Art Therapy Association, or AATA, has come together with the Florida State University Art Therapy Association, or FSU-ATA, to create this blog. The point is to help professionals and students alike to get in touch, get new ideas, and flourish in this industry. If you are considering getting involved in art therapy, this is a good place to start.
19. Fractured Atlas : This organization of artists provides support and ideas when it comes to healing through art.
20. National Center for Creative Aging : This organization encourages everyone to use art, music, and more everyday, especially as they age.

Blogs by Art Therapists

If you are interested in getting to know more about art therapy, let the experts themselves teach you. Blogs by art therapists often provide new ideas, unique perspectives, and educational videos, so give them a chance to share their information with you.

21. Malissa Morrell : This art therapist is also a marriage and family therapist, so if you are looking for help related to this area, consider her blog. You can find inspirational videos and tips here.
22. Elizabeth Beck : Let this therapist advise you about new treatment methods while offering interesting videos that can teach more about this subject.
23. Adventures in Art Therapy : This blog teaches readers the power of this method, and also tell stories about successful interventions. You can also find out a bit more about the practice by watching informative videos here.
24. The Butter Compartment : This art therapist is still new to the field, and writes about therapy in relation to diabetes. Check out her artistic creations with old diabetes trash, such as tubes and test strips.
25. Jen Berlingo, MA : This professional has experience with art therapy, Reiki healing, and psychotherapy, which means readers can learn a lot from her.
26. The Unfolding Moment : Many people like to check out another person’s take on certain works of art. If this describes you, read this blog by art therapist Tracy Hart.
27. Lani Puppetmaker’s Blogspot : Get some inspiration and ideas from this art therapist’s site. She often posts interesting art, explaining her take on it.
28. 365 Days of Being 30 : This therapist is not shy about sharing her works, including customized journals and magazines that she has been published in. Share in her excitement while learning a bit about what she does when you visit this site.
29. Creativity in Motion : Read this art therapist’s musings and ideas on art and this practice in general.
30. Knowing Imagination : If you want to check out some reflections on art therapy, as well as this therapist’s book recommendations, give this blog a chance.
31. Marketing Mindfulness : Poppy Terris is an art therapist with a few things to say about this practice, so be prepared to learn a little when you read her website.
32. Sadiejay’s Blog : Use this blog to find out about classes centering on art therapy, as well as reasons to work with an art therapist.
33. When We Were Made : Follow the journey of this recent graduate as she gets experience as an art therapist in the real world.
34. Neuroscience in Art Therapy : This therapist combines the ideas of art and science, so give this unique perspective a chance.
35. Denver Art Therapy & Counseling : This therapist focuses on issues related to divorce and separation, so check out art therapy in this context.

Blogs by Those in Recovery

If you want to find out firsthand how art therapy can help those who are trying to recover, reading a blog about it can help tremendously. Not only will you be able to read the stories of various bloggers, but you can also see the very artwork that expresses how they feel.

36. Modus Vivendi : This blog displays a large gallery of art created by those who are using art therapy to heal.
37. My Monster Has a Name : This blogger uses art therapy to heal from childhood abuse, so check out the musings posted here, as well as a gallery of art related to the healing process.
38. The People Behind My Eyes : This blogger is in the recovery process and often uses art therapy to help. Check out the artwork created during this process.
39. Crackers and Juiceboxes : This is another survivor in recovery who uses art therapy to get through life. Read her story and check out her art.
40. Survivors Can Thrive! : This blog has a separate category for art therapy, so check it out to see how this blogger uses it to recover from child abuse, PTSD, and other devastating experiences.
41. Mind Parts : Find out how an adult male uses art to cope with a past of being sexually abused as a child.
42. Art Constellation : This blog mainly consists of interesting drawings derived from art therapy sessions.
43. Beautiful Dreamer : This blogger mostly talks about the struggle with Dissociative Identity Disorder, but the blog does include a separate section for artwork.
44. Turning Turning : This blogger is an art therapist who writes about how the practice has helped her sort out her own issues. Rather than writing about the method from the perspective of an art therapist, she writes about it from the point of view of a survivor.
45. Soul Humming : Check out the various pictures created by this blogger, who is a breast cancer survivor.
46. The Survivor Mural Project : As you can expect from the name, this blog allows survivors to each create a piece of a large mural. Those invited to participate are people recovering from sexual violence.
47. Expressive Art : Find out a little about this blogger by looking at her art. She uses this practice to loosen up and relax in a fun way.
48. Sue Doodles : This fun blogger encourages others to doodle and sketch as she does to get out emotions.
49. Inspired : This breast cancer survivor uses art to help heal, and she is not shy in showing it off.
50. My (Getting Better) Story : Check out this abuse survivor’s drawings and poetry as she copes with the past.

Never a Dull Moment...

I am always surprised at what my clients come up with for their artistic creations. In a group I led this week using Model Magic clay, a couple of group members were done early with their individual sculptures and used the extra time and clay they had to come up with a collaborative sculpture....can you guess what it is?

Yep, it's the "money you could be saving with Geico." :)
(posted with permission)

Soldiers Use Different Kinds of Art to Cope...

I work with adolescents in military families, and have occasionally worked 1:1 with soldiers, but it seems that those in the military have been finding their own creative outlets to express themselves that are coming more to the forefront.

Here is a view of soldiers' expressions through their tattoo art:




Here is another way military are literally using their uniforms as art with the Combat Paper Project:

Drew Cameron: Combat Paper Project from Deb Ellis on Vimeo.

The Invisible Man Paintings

I found out about this from THE art therapy blog, and found this artist very interesting. I thought I'd share here also.

Top 12 Liu Bolin Invisible Man Paintings
March 8th

You may not have heard of Liu Bolin, and you probably haven’t seen him either. But it’s possible he’s standing right next to you. One of my favorite artists, Liu Bolin injects himself into everyday settings. Known as The Invisible Man, Liu takes a unique and creative approach to performance art. Check out a short video about Liu and then see what we’ve deemed are the Top 12 Liu Bolin Invisible Man Pictures/Paintings:

How Chinese Artist, Liu Bolin, Becomes The Invisible Man

“…my art is cultural. It represents the diminishing humanity in today’s society. I use my art to be retrospective on culture…the environment and fast economic development.”

Top 12 Liu Bolin Invisible Man Paintings/Pictures

We hand-picked 12 of our favorite Liu Bolin paintings and images. It’s pretty amazing and inspiring to see the result of what looks like quite the arduous process. Enjoy!
(Click here to see the pictures via PDF)

Read more: http://www.arttherapyblog.com/artwork/top-12-liu-bolin-invisible-man-artist-paintings/#ixzz0iIzwIofB

The Power of Art Therapy

This post came across my email recently on "The" Art Therapy Blog about testimonials from hospital patients engaging in art. Click here to read the post in its entirety. I have included the video below.

Coolest Top 10 Art Therapy Interventions

Cathy Malchiodi is doing a series with her "Healing Arts" blog on Psychology Today, and is listing the coolest Top 10 art therapy interventions. I wanted to repost it here for everyone's benefit.

The Ten Coolest Art Therapy Interventions
By Cathy Malchiodi
Created Feb 11 2010 - 1:42pm

For my next series of posts, I am taking a cue from PT colleague Ryan Howes who is just finishing up a fascinating series called The Ten Coolest Therapy Interventions. Howes' mission in his blog and his popular postings is to demystify the elements and process of psychotherapy for the public. Like Howes, I feel that when potential clients understand what therapy entails, they are more likely to find the internal courage to seek help from a qualified professional. They also become more educated consumers, capable of "co-creating" [no art therapy pun intended] the course of their therapy and more invested in the process of healing.

No doubt some colleagues will cringe at the idea of making public some of the more common techniques used in the field of art therapy. However, "what is art therapy" is one of the best-kept secrets in the field of mental health. You might be surprised that on some days I wake up wondering what the heck art therapy is because so much misinformation about it abounds on a Google search. Art therapy is the brunt of jokes by Dr. House and some embarrassing therapeutic moments on Dr. Drew's Celebrity Rehab; Tiger is apparently getting some art therapy, too and I can't wait to hear about that on the Joy Behar Show some night. To counteract the media, my intention is to both help you understand what art therapy is about and why it complements and enhances traditional verbal therapy approaches to treatment.

All helping professionals know that no one intervention can be applied to all clients; they know that the best interventions are those that are tailored to clients' needs and their presenting situations. As an art therapist, I can say from experience that this challenge is the "coolest" part of my work with clients--to invent a creative strategy to promote change, insight, and well-being. A good art therapist, like a good psychologist, counselor, or family therapist, is adept at innovation and creative adaptation. A good art therapist also knows that for many clients, no technique is needed if the client is capable of creative expression without a directive or gimmick.

My criteria for determining the "coolest" art therapy interventions include:

Historical Tradition: Interventions commonly taught to therapists-in-training in the field of art therapy and related mental health professions;
Innovation: Use of a specific art material or visual media to address clients' presenting problems or for the health and well-being of clients;
Adaptation: Development of a specific intervention based on a psychotherapeutic approach such as psychoanalysis, CBT, or other model;
Popularity: Consistent appearance in literature, conferences, or workshops, whether it's the actual intervention or a variation of the intervention.

For the most part, I'll be focusing on interventions used with adults, but some will also apply to work with children, groups, couples, or families. I'll try to give you a brief history of each intervention through the lens of art therapy and the influences of psychology, counseling, marriage and family therapy, art, and culture on that intervention. I'll will also be explaining a little bit of how an intervention might be adapted to suit individual needs and situations in the spirit of "one size does not fit all."

Like Howes, I am not going to talk about evidence-based approaches or outcomes. I am also not going talk about the use of art to evaluate or assess emotional or other disorders; that is a topic both fascinating and controversial and a subject for another blog series.

Finally, to paraphrase Howes, reading these brief posts is no substitute for the education it takes to understand how to effectively and ethically apply them to practice. Competent therapists always get adequate training before applying any intervention. And consumers or potential clients, if you have a mental health challenge or disorder, please contact a therapist with appropriate credentials and education rather than attempting to apply these interventions to yourself.

So here they are: The Ten Coolest Art Therapy Interventions.

Click the link to read each post [links will go live as each blog is posted]:

10.February 16th, 2010 - Magazine Photo Collage

9. February 23, 2010 - Family Sculpture

8. March 2, 2010 - Mask Making

7. March 9, 2010 - Creating Together

6. March 17, 2010 - Mandala Drawing

5. April 19, 2010 - Show Me How You Feel Today

4. June 15, 2010 - Visual Journaling

3. August 16, 2010 - It's All About the Metaphor

2. September 30, 2010 - Active Imagination

1. October 31, 2010 - The Art Therapist's Third Hand

PS: I don't expect that everyone who reads these posts will agree with my choices, but that is part of the rationale for this series, too. If you are an art therapist or a therapist who uses art or visually-based methods in your practice, let me know your thoughts; in fact I welcome your opinion right now [if you know me, you know it won't influence me in the least, but you also know I always love a good dialogue]. And thank you, Ryan, for the inspiration.

@ 2010 Cathy Malchiodi, PhD, LPAT, LPCC
www.cathymalchiodi.com

Join the growing community of art therapists from around the world at the International Art Therapy Organization [IATO]. One world, many visions...working together to create an inclusive and sustainable future for art therapy.

Subscribe to my Twitter and get the latest art therapy news at

http://twitter.com/arttherapynews.

Magazine Clipping Templates

Over the last couple of years or so, my interns and I have been culling our old magazines at work for the "gem" phrases that would be good for reuse in collaging and pasting them in templates by topic so that they can be reused more than just once. I thought this could be valuable to share with other art therapists out there, so feel free to download the scanned color PDF's that I have made of the words and phrases we have found. As we complete more pages, I will update the pertinent documents and keep the document links with the most recent copies that I have. I hope you find our efforts helpful for your practice!!

Academia/School

Addictions

Art

Beliefs & Faith

Conjunctions

Depression

Dream & Inspiration

Emotions

Encouragement

Family

Goodness

Letters

Life & Legacy

Mental Health

Military

Miscellaneous

Numbers

Possibilities & Opportunities

Relationships

Stress Relief

Technology

Transitions

Art Therapy Directives

If you're like me, I can't get enough resources and ideas to use as directives for my art therapy groups and individual sessions. Some ideas come from pure brainstorming, but I have found that idea sharing from mentors and colleagues has been an invaluable source of art therapy exercises. I am including some of mine here that (as far as I know) aren't already published or copyrighted, or they are a synopsis on a topic with the websites or credit given. I hope that you find them helpful, and if you have ones you'd like to share, please do!

Anger management exercise using sculpture

Autobiography

Bridge Drawing Exercise

Coat of Arms

Create your own comic strip

Deep Muscle Relaxation Script

Family Portrait as Animals

Create your own invention

Mandala Friday
(regular weekly group - thanks to Lauren Hayes-Yoder)

Self-Esteem Mini-Journal
(thanks to Lauren Hayes-Yoder)

Stress Management

Supports, Strengths, and Abilities Pyramid

Therapeutic Journey - Past/Present/Future

Three Wishes

Different colors describe happiness, depression

Study could help doctors gauge moods of patients with verbal challenges

By Stephanie Pappas

LiveScience

updated 8:17 p.m. ET, Mon., Feb. 8, 2010

Are you in a gray mood today? How about a blue funk? Maybe you're seeing red, because you're green with jealousy. The colors we use to describe emotions may be more useful than you think, according to new research.

The study found that people with depression or anxiety were more likely to associate their mood with the color gray, while happier people preferred yellow. The results, which are detailed today in the journal BMC Medical Research Methodology, could help doctors gauge the moods of children and other patients who have trouble communicating verbally.

"This is a way of measuring anxiety and depression which gets away from the use of language," study co-author and gastroenterologist Peter Whorwell of University Hospital South Manchester told LiveScience. "What is very interesting is that this might actually be a better way of capturing the patient's mood than questions."

Colors are often used as metaphors for moods, but no one had systematically researched color associations, Whorwell said. To investigate, he and his colleagues picked eight colors — red, orange, green, purple, blue, yellow, pink and brown — and split each into four shades. They then added white, black and four shades of gray for a total of 38 options. After meeting with focus groups, the researchers decided to display the colors in the form of a wheel.

Next, they recruited 105 healthy adults, 110 anxious adults and 108 depressed adults and mailed them printouts of the color wheel . Each person was asked to pick their favorite color, as well as the color they were most "drawn to." Finally, they were asked to pick a color that described their day-to-day mood over the last several months. Another group of 204 healthy volunteers classified each color as positive, negative or neutral.

Whether depressed, anxious or healthy, people liked blue and yellow. Blue 28 on the color wheel was the most popular favorite color among healthy people, while Blue 27 (which is a little darker than 28) got first place among people with anxiety and depression. Meanwhile, Yellow 14 was picked as the color most likely to catch the eye.

But when it came to mood, the groups diverged. Only 39 percent of healthy people associated their mood with a color at all. Of those who did, Yellow 14 was the most popular choice, with about 20 percent of the votes. Meanwhile, about 30 percent of people with anxiety picked a shade of gray, as did more than half of depressed volunteers. In comparison, healthy volunteers described their mood with a shade of gray only about 10 percent of the time.

The researchers also found that when assigning a mood to colors, saturation matters.

"A light blue is not associated with a poor mood, but a dark blue is," Whorwell said. "The shade of color is more important than the color itself."

Whorwell is now testing the wheel on patients with irritable bowel syndrome. He's hoping that color choices can reveal patients' attitudes and predict how well they will respond to treatments like hypnosis. Because people are embarrassed by gastroenterogical symptoms, Whorewell said, non-verbal methods of getting information are sometimes preferable to conversation. And, he said, with additional research, the wheel could be used in medical fields from pediatrics to surgery.

"You've got an instrument now," Whorwell said. "Now people have to play with it and find out the applications."

© 2010 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

About Art Therapy

Here is the promo to a DVD by art therapist Pamela Hayes. I've been to a couple of her trainings, and she is very good. Please look into it if you're interested in art therapy!

GWU Columbian School of Arts and Sciences Features the Art Therapy Program!

The Healing Power of Art Is Focus of Expanded Art Therapy M.A. Program

Dec 07 2009

Painting, drawing, and sculpting as means to express what may be verbally inexpressible are at the heart of the increasingly popular field of art therapy. At GW’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, the healing power of art is fully realized through an Art Therapy Program that boasts modern new studio spaces, a counseling center for hands-on immersion in therapeutic techniques, and an expanded 61-credit curriculum to facilitate professional licensure upon graduation. In sum, the graduate program—which was one of the first in the nation—adds up to an unparalleled learning opportunity for prospective art therapists.

“Our graduate program is, at its core, clinically-based art therapy in which students are trained to be professional clinicians, working with a range of diagnoses, ages, and diversities,” said Professor Heidi Bardot, MA ’99, the program’s director and a registered, board-certified art therapist whose past work includes helping hospice patients and their families deal with grief and loss. “Within this training, there is a strong emphasis on the artist identity, making a bright, airy workspace and gallery—in which students, faculty, and clients can express themselves artistically—an integral component of the work we do.”

The program’s new location at the Alexandria Graduate Education Center includes state-of the-art classrooms with "smart boards" and other multimedia equipment, an open art studio space for student and faculty collaboration, an extensive art therapy library and a gallery for student and juried exhibits. The facility is also home to the GW Art Therapy Center, where students work with clients under the direct supervision of licensed mental health professionals.

A Profession Born on the Battlefield

The outbreak of World War II marked the beginning of a profession first practiced in hospitals to treat soldiers dealing with “shell shock,” now clinically termed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Since then, practitioners have espoused the benefits of art therapy as an outlet for expression of feeling. Concurrently, evidence-based art therapy research focusing on the neurological implications of art-making to address trauma and loss, depression, and anxiety—as well as the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for cancer survivors—has become the trend and means to validate the profession. In 2007, art therapy was named one of the top 10 “hot” jobs by CareerBuilder.com, bearing out the need for such services during times of war and economic uncertainty.

The University’s Art Therapy Program, one of the first to be accredited by the American Art Therapy Association, was established in 1971 based on the teachings by the founders of art therapy—Edith Kramer, Hanna Yaxa Kwiatkowska, Bernard Levy and Elinor Ulman. All of the program’s current faculty are registered, board certified art therapists who bring with them professional expertise and the latest in clinical practice and research. Two new faculty members were added this year to mentor students on developing proposals to conduct original research from different paradigms as well as write grant proposals to implement program-related research.

Facilitating Professional Licensure

Thanks to the M.A. program’s recent expansion from 49 credits to 61, students now graduate prepared to seek professional licensure in counseling and art therapy. The traditional master’s program has been combined with additional coursework in trauma training—a huge growth area in the art therapy field to integrate the latest research on neurobiology and trauma treatment with expressive, art based approaches. Also offered are international opportunities, clinical training and a combined five-year bachelor’s and master’s degree option for exceptional students who are majoring in fine arts or psychology.

Students are required to participate in internships with children, adolescents and adults in a clinical setting for approximately eight to 20 hours per week. The intern program is one of the most extensive in the country, with more than 100 sites located throughout the Washington, D.C., area. These include the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Whitman-Walker Clinic, Children’s National Medical Center, Children’s Inn at NIH, Miriam’s Kitchen, and the D.C. and Fairfax County public school systems.

“Internships allow us to spread art therapy to new settings,” said Bardot. “And interns often become so invaluable they are offered a job after the internship is completed.”

The curriculum also offers courses on international social and cultural competency to prepare students for work with ethnically diverse populations. Last summer, art therapy students traveled to India as part of a three-week summer course called International Social and Cultural Art Therapy. A series of short internships with local organizations immersed students in the Indian culture so they could experience what it was like to be a minority. Students visited schools, a women’s shelter, a rehabilitation center and helped residents with disabilities, working on art projects at each site. The students received valuable training and needy populations in India were introduced to art therapy.

As director, Bardot’s goals include implementing trauma research within the art therapy center, creating additional collaborative research opportunities and continuing coursework in international and cultural diversity. And, of course, she remains committed to producing top students. “Many of our alumni have gone on to become leaders in the field, in the national association and in the educational sector,” Bardot said. “We are providing a breadth of experience, knowledge, and important connections within the field of art therapy, and I want to build upon our strong foundation.”

For more information about the Art Therapy Program at GW’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, click here.

Here is an article in the school newspaper (The Hatchet) of my alma mater, George Washington University. It features some of my GW colleagues and intern who went for the Muliticultural class the program took to India. Enjoy!

Connecting cultures, one art project at a time
by Matt Rist
Hatchet Staff Writer

Issue: 8/27/09 Life

Media Credit: Courtesy Heidi Bardot

GW graduate students and staff of a local Indian school stand around a piece of classic Indian art they created together using traditional methods.

In the midst of a bustling city in India, with streets full of cars, rickshaws and even cows, 15 GW graduate students washed away cultural and linguistic barriers this summer with little more than paint, brushes, chalk and a passion for the visual arts and psychology.

For the past two summers, GW's art therapy graduate program has distinguished itself as the only one of its kind in the country to send students abroad as part of a three-week summer course called "International Social and Cultural Art Therapy." This year, the program traveled to India.

"The focus of the program is psychology and fine arts," said Program Director Heidi Bardot. "The idea is that you use art to express yourself as opposed to just verbalization."

When Bardot sat down to plan this year's trip, she decided it was time to take the group even farther from the comforts of GW than they had ever gone before - to the far reaches of India.

After the students arrived in Chennai, a southeastern coastal city, they immersed themselves in everyday Indian life - interning at three schools, a psychiatric hospital, a shelter for the homeless and other locations across the city - all in an effort, Bardot said, to examine social and cultural diversity.

"The idea was to look at your own biases, stereotypes and feel what it is like to be a minority," Bardot said. "So often most of the clients we work with are minority populations, so I wanted the students to feel like they were in a situation where they didn't understand the language and were a minority in the country."

Some students shared their photographs and experiences on a blog created for the trip.

"This morning, after riding down the bumpy roads full of trees banging the roof of the van and enduring traffic jams greater than the 495, I realized that even worlds apart I can complete a mission so dear to my heart," wrote graduate student Lindsey Vance.

Bardot added that moments like that were what made the trip worthwhile.

"That was one of the most interesting experiences for the students, because [the people we worked with] couldn't speak much English and we didn't know their language, but we were able to interact through creating art together,"

While Bardot said students enjoyed their time at many of the job sites in India, others showed the harsh reality that many of the country's poor experience on a daily basis.

At one of the sites, Bardot said the students were shocked when they witnessed children being abused by facility staff members.

"It was very difficult for them to observe because the kids were being hit with sticks," Bardot said. "The people who were in charge of these kids had just not been trained yet; there are many things that were difficult for the students to observe with corporal punishment."

With the encouragement of her students, Bardot contacted a human rights lawyer in India and laid the foundation for affecting change at that particular job site.

"I think it was a really good learning process for the students, because they could actually witness what the situation was like and how we can go about changing that," Bardot said.

Lisa Garlock, assistant professor of art therapy and clinical placement coordinator for the program, reflected on what the students had accomplished in one of the last blog entries for the group.

"Art was able to reach deeper than words - art enabled the words to flow," she wrote.

The Power of Art Therapy Featured on CNN

Heartbreaking art helps kids with inmate parents

updated 6:02 p.m. EDT, Mon July 27, 2009
By Dana Rosenblatt
CNN

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- The drawings are macabre, especially because they're created by children: stick figures writhing in pain and confusion, a knife dripping with blood and a broken heart.

Next to the heart, the child artist has written: 'My heart is bleeding, my heart is a broken bleeding heart." Another child has drawn a red bubble, inside of which is written: "I want 2 die."

All of these young artists -- members of a program called No More Victims -- have at least one parent who has served time in prison.

The powerful drawings communicate their experiences with pain, hopelessness and confusion as clearly as a thousand spoken words.

Many of these at-risk children were raised in unstable environments, which could lead them to make the same mistakes as their parents, sending them to prison or worse.

But Marilyn Gambrell wants to break that cycle.

In 1993, she founded No More Victims Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping children of incarcerated parents.

A former Texas parole officer, Gambrell saw firsthand the need to help children and teens who were left behind by one or both parents serving time.

"My goal is for this child to feel healthy enough and healed that they didn't want to take their own life or someone else's. Just give them what they need, love them, support them, provide basic needs. They will fly," she says.

The statistics on prison parents are staggering. According to Justice Department estimates, 2.3 percent of children under 18 in the United States have at least one parent in prison.

Together, 52 percent of state prison inmates and 63 percent of federal prisoners reported an estimated total of 1,706,600 minor children, according to the Justice Department.

In 2000, Gambrell brought No More Victims to the classroom at a local high school where a large majority of students had experienced the effects of incarceration on their families. Sound off: How can we reverse the cycle of incarceration?

Soon after, she opened a community center where teens could take care of basic necessities such as getting food and diapers for their own kids, doing their laundry, and getting, from Gambrell, the love and support they never had.

Some of the teens had fallen victim to sexual assault as children and later received help from No More Victims.

For the program members, the community center feels like home and Gambrell is a lot like a mother. She makes herself available to the kids 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Her approach is simple but effective. Since the program's onset in 2000, only 22 of the 700 kids who've enrolled have ever gone to prison, says Gambrell, and many of those kids graduate high school.

Child counselors say that for getting young people to open up, art therapy can be more effective than traditional forms of therapy.

In the classroom, it could take months or years for her students to share what they've been through. But with art therapy, Gambrell has created a safe outlet for them to express their innermost thoughts.

"Kids reflect what's going on in their life in their artwork," said Mary Ellen Hluska, a child life specialist at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

"I think it's effective because it helps them have a safe place to express what they've been through without using words," said Hluska. "It becomes a tangible object. It's there, and they don't have to say it."

In class, Gambrell instructs the students to use red pencil to express pain and anger they felt, and blue to reflect calmness and peace.

"I knew it would be deep because ... I had red and blue pencils for them, and no child wanted a blue one," said Gambrell.

"In the first exercise, everybody requested red," Gambrell said. "And some children had four and five red pencils. They drew so much and colored so hard that they actually broke the lead."

Longtime program member Shante Weaver often used red pencil to illustrate the struggles of her life. Her mother has been in and out of prison most of Weaver's 20 years, and she's never really known her father.

Drawing delivered a key breakthrough at age 15, when a quiet and withdrawn Weaver finally revealed all that had happened to her.

Shortly after Weaver drew the picture, she found the courage to talk about her troubled childhood, inspiring other members of the class to join her in speaking about similar experiences.

With the support of her classmates and Gambrell, Weaver gathered the courage to press charges against a man who had abused her for many years. Today, Weaver lives with her grandmother and works two jobs to help support her family.

She also takes classes at a community college and plans to continue her studies to become a nurse.

Weaver is still an active member of No More Victims and is a role model to newer members, helping them get on the right track.

Looking back, Weaver said she feels like a different person from the traumatized 15-year-old girl who drew those red pictures five years ago.

Thanks to No More Victims, Weaver says, she can use a blue pencil to best illustrate her brighter future.



Children of Inmates
State inmates with minor children: 52 percent
Federal inmates with minor children: 63 percent
Estimated number of minor children of inmates: 1,706,600
Percentage of U.S. residents under age 18 with at least one inmate parent: 2.3 percent

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

Mandalas!

On the weekend of February 27-March 1, 2009, I attended an excellent training led by Carol Cox, MA, ATR-BC, LPAT and Alysa Muller, Psy.D., FAMI, covering the theory of the Great Round of Mandala created by Joan Kellogg. It was a very informative training with theory based on years of research and experience as they taught the 13 total stages in the Great Round. We drew our own mandalas for each stage, which I have included in a slide show below.





Our training was at Bon Secours Spiritual Center in Maryland, which is a very peaceful retreat center. Though we didn't have much time to explore, and it snowed on the last day so I drove home to beat the bigger storm, I saw some very nice views through the windows. I hope to go back in October to Part 2, and plan to explore more then!

Color Career Counselor

I came across this article and career testing based on color preferences, which as an art therapist intrigued me. Here is what it's all about:

Can Your Favorite Color Determine Your Perfect Job?

Rachel Zupek, CareerBuilder.com writer

Do you ever wish finding the perfect job could be as easy as 1, 2, 3? According to new research, it might be as easy as red, yellow or blue.

That's right; by determining which primary, secondary and achromatic colors you prefer most and least, you can figure out a successful career path based on how you approach work, the types of workplaces where you work best and how you handle work tasks.

The Color Career Counselor, powered by The Dewey Color System -- the world's only validated, non-language color-based career testing instrument -- uses color preferences to determine successful career paths. Dewey Sadka, author of "The Dewey Color System," says using colors instead of a questionnaire eliminates the chasm between self-perception and self-truth and reveals your core motivations.

"What if you misinterpret a [career assessment] question or the choices don't reflect your personality?" Sadka asks. "Color preference indicates your personality's best career fit. Preferred colors indicate passionate career pursuits; non-preferred choices establish workplace skills you least enjoy."

How it works
The Color Career Counselor is simple. First, you click your preferred primary color (red, yellow or blue). From there, you choose your preferred secondary (green, purple or orange) and achromatic (black, white or brown) colors.

"Your preferred colors determine how you attack each task. They indicate your talents -- what you prioritize first in order to be successful. They also highlight what you overdo, especially when you feel great," Sadka says.

For example, if you're partial to yellow, you're information-driven; blue preference people are idea-driven and people who prefer red are results-driven. If you favor green as your secondary color, you realistically evaluate situations; purple indicates you like fact-finding possibilities and orange signals that you scrutinize feasibility. Finally, if black is your choice from the achromatic colors, you consider value above all else; white shows that you like having options and brown confirms that you like implementation and accomplishing tasks.

On the other hand, your least preferred colors determine tasks and issues that you tend to forget.

For example, if your least favorite color is orange, sometimes you over-commit yourself by trying to do too much at once. If you dislike the color green, you try to fix everything for your colleagues rather than making them do it themselves. Or, if your least favorite is teal, you feel a deep need to prove you are competent and you don't care what other people think.

In managing these areas head-on, Sadka says you won't miss the incidentals that could impede your success.

Put to the test
To see for myself if this "scientific" test was for real, I took the test three different times and got the same results each time, affirming that I am, in fact, in the right career.

I'm a "creator," says the Color Career Counselor. I'm "nonconforming, impulsive, expressive, romantic, intuitive, sensitive and emotional." It says I enjoy working independently, being creative, using my imagination and constantly learning something new.

For my suggested "creator occupations," I was given an extensive list of careers that included jobs I've considered (architect, interior decorator, English teacher), jobs people told me I should pursue (author, creative director, public relations) and jobs that I currently hold or aspire to in the future (reporter and editor).

What about you?
So are you a researcher, creator, social manager, persuader, doer or organizer? To find out what career path you should be following based on your preferred colors, here are a few examples of what certain choices say about you, and the careers and skills that compliment them.

If you prefer: yellow, purple and white: You're the communicator.
You create profitable perspectives -- how to break into new accounts or be heard by other employees. By simply identifying a client's point of view, you develop strategies that open doors, even if they had already been shut. Your excellent communication skills can create problem-solving forums. Careers in corporate communications, marketing or religious occupations work best.

If you prefer: red, green and black: You're the investor.
You know the value of money and resources, as well as the intrinsic worth of each co-worker's contributions. Your supportive, yet analytical personality works best in finance, accounting, banking, manufacturing, property management, production analysis, investment, money management, consulting, product sales or teaching.

If you prefer: blue, orange and brown: You're the activist.
Your strong community beliefs and no-nonsense approach improves services for those around you. Occupations where you can improve existing specifications or impact social values work best for you. Consider careers in engineering, building, or developing new programs, companies or products. Also consider law enforcement, firefighting, social or government work.

These are only a few of hundreds of different color profiles. For your own free career evaluation, please visit: http://www.careerpath.com/career-tests/colorcareercounselor.aspx.

Rachel Zupek is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com. She researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues.

I took the test myself, and as an art therapist, I'm glad that the results came out the way they did! It's nice to know I'm in the right field.

BEST OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORY

You're a CREATOR
Key Words: Nonconforming, Impulsive, Expressive, Romantic, Intuitive, Sensitive, and Emotional

These original types place a high value on aesthetic qualities and have a great need for self-expression. They enjoy working independently, being creative, using their imagination, and constantly learning something new. Fields of interest are art, drama, music, and writing or places where they can express, assemble, or implement creative ideas.

CREATOR OCCUPATIONS

Suggested careers are Advertising Executive, Architect, Web Designer, Creative Director, Public Relations, Fine or Commercial Artist, Interior Decorator, Lawyer, Librarian, Musician, Reporter, Art Teacher, Broadcaster, Technical Writer, English Teacher, Architect, Photographer, Medical Illustrator, Corporate Trainer, Author, Editor, Landscape Architect, Exhibit Builder, and Package Designer.

CREATOR WORKPLACES

Consider workplaces where you can create and improve beauty and aesthetic qualities. Unstructured, flexible organizations that allow self-_expression work best with your free-spirited nature.

Suggested Creator workplaces are advertising, public relations, and interior decorating firms; artistic studios, theaters and concert halls; institutions that teach crafts, universities, music, and dance schools. Other workplaces to consider are art institutes, museums, libraries, and galleries.

2nd BEST OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORY

You're a PERSUADER
Key Words: Witty, Competitive, Sociable, Talkative, Ambitious, Argumentative, and Aggressive

These enterprising types sell, persuade, and lead others. Positions of leadership, power, and status are usually their ultimate goal. Persuasive people like to take financial and interpersonal risks and to participate in competitive activities. They enjoy working with others inside organizations to accomplish goals and achieve economic success.

Free Hugs!

Just as an example of the many things that can come out of art therapy, this piece was what one client created when given some Model Magic clay and allowed to make a sculpture of anything she wanted. She responded with creating one of the characters from a favorite cartoon of hers, Pon and Zi. [posted with permission] Hope it makes your day happy!

Using Art Therapy for Terrorist Rehabilitation?

I came across this article written by the well-known art therapist, Cathy Malchiodi, about art therapy being done in Saudi Arabia to assist in rehabilitating jihadists. The video that she references about the program is vastly interesting and a new approach in the field of art therapy. Take a look:

Jihad Rehab: Can Art Therapy Cure Terrorism?
Cathy Malchiodi
Created Dec 19 2008 - 7:38am

To some, the idea of art therapy as rehab in Riyadh sounds like a story that would headline The Onion. But art therapy is serious business at Saudi Arabia's experimental rehab center for former jihadists, some from the Guantanamo Bay detention center. From Jihad to Rehab, a PBS production featuring Canadian journalist Nancy Durham [1], offers a rare chance to see these detainees in treatment as they sit at long tables with pastels in hand, intensely engaged in the the art process.

My well-regarded colleague Dr. Awad Alyami is the detainees' art therapist and is one of the most passionate advocates for the transformative power of art in trauma recovery [2]that I know. Alyami, Director of Art Therapy at King Fahad Medical City, studied art therapy at Pennsylvania State University and has become a global voice for the use of art as therapy for what may be some of the most complex clients a therapist may see. In fact, initially he was reluctant and even a little frightened to undertake work with the detainees, even though he has extensive experience treating traumatic stress and mental illness. Once you see Alyami on film waving his arms in the air like an orchestra leader, motivating convicted jihadists to draw their feelings-- well, he is an intrepid and enthusiastic traveler into psychological terrain not often attempted.

Islamic law prohibits the depiction of people or animals in artwork so drawings are generally abstract, at times integrating text from the Koran or other sources. The calligraphy and depictions of sunrises and flowers do not really reflect the darker emotions confronted in treatment and are Jihad art therapyimages Western therapists might not expect to see. In fact, some might define the content of their artwork as being "in denial" of the crimes committed. With these individuals, it's the process of making art and Alyami's careful interventions to help these men examine the consequences of past actions and discussion of their art that are the core of their art therapy.

Interestingly, Dr. Alyami does not use the word "art" with his clients. He refers to what they're doing as "making things with your hands." The word "art" in Arabic doesn't mean only drawing or painting, it means dancing, singing, and other art forms and in many cases, "art" has a negative meaning in parts of Islamic society. In essence, these men are engaged in "making things with their hands" in order to put their anger out on paper rather than acting it out as terrorists.

Truth be told, there is more to this rehab program than just art therapy; there's religious instruction, psychological counseling, team sports, and other interventions. The goal is to help the detainees ultimately restart their lives, including marriage, new jobs, and buying a car. This is rehabilitation, Saudi style, and other countries are taking note of this model for addressing terrorism in therapy because the program addresses both theological issues as well as psychological needs of detainees. While long-term outcomes of the experiment remain to be seen, it's exciting to imagine that ultimately art may be, at least in part, a potent form of counterterrorism.

© 2008 Cathy Malchiodi

http://www.cathymalchiodi.com

Art Therapy in the Schools - Artistic License

This article was brought to my attention by a music teacher, which he saw in the National Education Association (NEA) magazine that highlighted the use of art therapy in the schools. When we were talking about our professions, he remembered reading this article and was kind enough to pass the magazine on to me (thanks, Russell!). Here is the article showing the growing importance of the use of art in schools with the ED/LD population. (click the link to download the PDF)

WikiHow: How to Use an Art Journal

I happened to see this WikiHow entry featured on the front of my Google search page and thought it was cool. I thought I'd have to share it here...for yourself or for your clients to use!

~~Click here to download PDF~~

Importance of Medical Art Therapy (and Arts in Health Care)

You Gotta Have Art
Patients Benefit From Creative Expression

By Carol Strickland
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, April 8, 2008; HE01

As health-care costs skyrocket, a down-to-earth approach to healing is emerging, complementing high-tech medicine with high-touch arts.

The approach is based on the assumption that incorporating music, visual art, writing and performance into clinical care can increase feelings of well-being and even improve health -- an assumption that medical researchers are beginning to recognize the need to test with evidence-based studies.

Growing belief in the healing value of the arts was on display last month at a symposium at New York's Museum of Modern Art titled "The Value and Importance of the Arts in Health Care." Participants -- physicians, hospital administrators and artists -- were as upbeat as if they were promoting a miracle drug: Integrating the arts into health care is in vogue, said Leonard Shlain, a laparoscopic surgeon in San Francisco, "because it works."

The Society for the Arts in Healthcare, which sponsored the symposium along with MoMA and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has seen its membership rise. As of 2006, the society estimated that more than half of 2,500 U.S. hospitals that were surveyed offer arts-based programs, said Anita Boles, the group's executive director.

Carol Herron coordinates an arts in medicine program at Texas Children's Cancer Center in Houston that involves visual artists, musicians, dancers, mimes, writers and puppeteers.

"We do children a disservice if all we do is treat the disease," she said. "We need to treat the whole child and the whole family."

And at New York University Medical Center, using art to reduce stress has become a priority, according to Marianne Hardart, director of creative arts therapies.

"There's not anyone it doesn't work with," she said, including adults, adolescents and younger children.

Not all institutions are willing to incorporate approaches of this kind, though, Hardart said. "In medical settings geared toward physical and chemical interventions, we're often considered an adjunct instead of an integrated piece."

That's partly because the research supporting these programs is slim.

Some of the documented benefits -- based largely on short-term appraisals of small numbers of patients -- include enhanced quality of life, patients' increased cooperation with painful procedures and helping staff understand a patient's point of view. Mounting evidence from the few early empirical studies also report reduced fatigue, depression, anxiety, pain and stress, which may boost the patient's immune system.

Letting Go of the Pain

Tracy Councill, who developed an art therapy program called Tracy's Kids at Georgetown University Medical Center's Lombardi Cancer Center, recalled an art project by an 11-year-old lymphoma patient who had been in isolation for months following painful bone marrow transplantation. When he came back as an outpatient, "he made a clay sculpture of a sarcophagus with a mummy-looking thing," she said, which he glazed "with a lot of red to look like blood." This grisly object, she explained, served as "a displaced way of putting that aggression for all the stuff he'd been through into art -- a good way for him to be finished and let go."

Artwork can help medical staff perceive fears that patients sometimes can't express verbally. Matthew Gerson, vice chairman of the board of the Prevent Cancer Foundation, which funds Tracy's Kids, described a 12-year-old patient awaiting bone marrow transplant who made a puppet he called Dr. Bones. In the course of dramatizing a story, the child revealed his terror that his own bones would be removed. The art therapist was able to correct the misconception.

As part of a rehab team at NYU, art therapist Alice Landry works with adults who have suffered brain or spinal cord injury. A project such as woodworking or jewelry, she says, "creates a metaphor for them rebuilding themselves." Her patients demonstrate not only emotional but functional gains. After four weeks, a multiple sclerosis patient who initially couldn't pick up a bead was stringing beads and adding clasps, she said.

Fabien Navidi-Kasmai, 15, diagnosed with a form of Hodgkin's lymphoma when he was 11, illustrated his five-day course of chemotherapy at Georgetown: "I drew a picture of me getting hit by a truck," he said in a phone interview, "then I'd get up and get hit by a train. I'd get up again and be hit by a plane. It really helps to get those feelings out on paper." The lure of the art studio made him drag himself out of bed. "Unless you've been through it," he said, "it's difficult to grasp the concept that art has the power to make having cancer a good experience."

Uplifted Spirits

Aziza Shad, medical director of the pediatric hematology oncology unit at Georgetown, said the facility was designed around its open art studio. "The focus of our clinic is the art therapy program."

As soon as they sign in and before blood is drawn, children race to the art table. They forget they've come for examination, as they laugh, chat, draw or do clay work. Shad believes strongly in the program's benefits: "Those children who participate in the art therapy program do so much better physically."

Karen Robinson, who lives in Washington and whose son Max was 5 when he received a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, found the Georgetown clinic welcoming: "We knew that this was home," she said. "It helped us mind, body and soul."

Another Tracy's Kids program has opened at the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children's National Medical Center. Max Coppes, executive director of the center, said that once the art studio was installed, children began grabbing their IV poles and rushing over to work on their projects. "My prediction is, this will become a huge success," he said.

Besides providing feel-good activity, the arts can enhance a hospital's physical environment. Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston spent more than $1 million to spruce up a 200-foot-long hallway its patients used when going to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute for treatment.

Estrellita Karsh, who originated the project (she is a former medical writer and the widow of the famed photographer Yousuf Karsh), said the passage used to be "traversed by very depressed-looking people, hunched over with their shoulders down." After installing a mural of 149 birds carrying medicinal sprigs, the corridor was renamed "the Bridge of Hope." "Nobody," Karsh said, "goes through with their head down now." One 3-year-old girl, bald from chemotherapy, used to be prodded along to her treatments. Now, the girl points to "her" bird, a scarlet ibis, and talks to it: "Are you a good girl?"

"There's no question there are numerous facets to caring and healing, and the physical environment is a critical one," said psychiatrist Gary Gottlieb, Brigham's president. "It has been shown that people's optimism, their mental outlook and their mood affect outcome in the treatment of chronic diseases and a number of cancers."

Anecdotes and Evidence

Some educators are schooling medical students not only in the art of medicine but also in the broader arts: drawing, art history and poetry. Edith Langner, faculty director of the Arts in Medicine Project at Columbia University Medical Center, takes second-year med students to MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she hones their observational skills. Looking at portraits trains the students to examine patients' faces, she says.

Yet resistance persists. Many doubt the humanities belong in medical education, and when they are included they're often marginalized rather than fully embraced. The field of art and health care, as William J. Ivey, former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, put it, is "anecdote-rich and evidence-poor."

"If, on scientific examination," Ivey said, "our anecdotes and intuitions turn out to be correct, we can then -- with the evidence required -- move forward in policy areas."

Even a physician such as Coppes, who is convinced of the value of art therapy, explains, "I'm an academic, so if something is not demonstrated in a double-blind, randomized study, it doesn't exist."

Karsh, the medical writer, remains adamant in her faith: "Anecdotal accounts always seem to precede scientific corroboration," she said. ·

Carol Strickland is an art critic and medical writer based in New York. Comments:health@washpost.com.

Art Therapy Outcome Studies

Here is a great resource to help undergird the importance of art therapy. This listing provides information of art therapy outcome and single subject studies that can help with research, grants, effects, and support for art therapy. Some topics included are ADD/ADHD, Asperger's, Geriatrics, Grief, Chemical Dependence, PTSD, Abuse, School, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and Developmental Delay.

Art Therapy: Tree Drawings

I came across this video of a person who video blogged their art journal of tree drawings over a period of time. I found this particularly interesting, especially since my art therapy master's thesis was about self-identity and self-concept as shown through tree drawings.

Art Therapy in the Netherlands

Speaking of global art therapy, here is a nice clip of several interviews with Dutch art therapists sharing about their passion about the profession: