November/December 2004

Art therapy: The healing powers of imagery

By Ellen Mahoney

The term “art therapy” may conjure up images of actor Jack Nicholson reluctantly making pipe cleaner sculptures in the classic film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Not surprisingly, there’s a great deal more to this creative form of therapy.

Art therapy is a primary form of psychological treatment used in the mental health care profession today, and is no longer considered an adjunct to traditional methods such as talk therapy. It carefully weaves together psychotherapy with the creative art process, and can be a highly effective way to enable healing through the exploration of verbal and non-verbal expression.

Art therapy is used for people of all ages and backgrounds, regardless of their creative abilities. It may include working with art materials such as pencils, pens, chalk, pastels, ink, paint and clay, to create everything from simple line drawings, large wall mural paintings or intricate three-dimensional box sculptures.

Through the creation of art, the treatment strives to help with a wide range of emotional and psychiatric needs - such as people working to cope with mental and physical illnesses, people who have experienced life traumas and for those who are seeking personal development and awareness.

“Art therapy gives form to feelings that may otherwise be difficult or painful to express in words,” says Sue Wallingford, LPC, assistant coordinator of art therapy at Naropa University. “Feelings can be disguised in images, and therefore be less threatening.”

Another important element of art therapy is that it’s a primitive form of communication that often enables the therapist to better understand what the client is trying to convey. “We don’t always understand each other’s languages, but we do understand each other’s images,” Wallingford says.

Art therapy emerged in the 1930s, predominantly founded by artist/educator Margaret Naumburg. In the early 1900s, Naumburg lived in New York City and shared an elite circle of creative friends that included such luminaries as painter Georgia O'Keefe, poet John Marin and film star Charlie Chaplin. Naumburg opened a children’s school, which later became Walden School, and was a strong advocate for learning methods that used right-brain creative expression versus left-brain curriculum-based instruction. The young teacher believed in the value of personal therapy, and many of her beliefs were inspired by Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and American psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan.

Although the field of psychiatry in the ‘30s was strongly opposed to art therapy, Naumburg devoted her life to establishing this form of treatment as an effective technique to uncover and heal the unconscious. She later taught at New York University, where she began art therapy instruction at the undergraduate level.

Art therapists work in a vast array of environments, from private offices to meeting rooms, and in many different facilities, including medical and psychiatric hospitals, prisons, outpatient centers, residential treatment centers, hospice centers, schools and pain clinics. The therapy can be used to address conditions ranging from anxiety disorders and insomnia to cancer.

For example, art therapy can help cancer patients find encouragement and an understanding of their illness. “Cancer patients make art to express feelings about their diagnosis, find distraction from pain and express hope for healing,” says Laura Scott, director of General Cancer Services at QuaLife Wellness Center in Denver. “Art therapy can be a method to find some resolution, peace and come to terms with cancer.”

Janet Dreifus, who has stage four breast cancer, says art therapy dramatically changed her life. Dreifus admits she’s always had a sink-or-swim mentality, and when faced with cancer, she plunged into a nearly inescapable despair. Through her art therapy painting, she says, “I felt my own life force begging me to chose life over death.”

In art therapy sessions, clients are offered a wide variety of art materials and the client’s artwork, which can range from being chaotic and indiscernible to well-formed, intriguing, even beautiful, becomes an important springboard for therapeutic discussion. Wallingford says that all art is self-portrait, and there is never one formula that is used for all people. “You work with where the client is at,” she says.

Symbolic metaphor is common in art therapy and often used as a diagnostic tool. Images such as missing or distorted body parts, houses expelling smoke or fire, or volcanoes, can be important signals to therapists and indicate problems such as abuse, anger or depression. After seeing what the clients create, art therapists then follow through with helping clients revisit trauma, and work through their problems.

Art therapy is often referred to as “isomorphic” when art is a reflection of the psyche. We are reminded of expressionistic artist Vincent Van Gogh, whose brilliant colors, coarse brushwork and intense images in such paintings as The Starry Night seem to vividly reflect some of his inner turmoil and emotional anguish.

Wallingford remembers counseling a woman who had a paranoid schizophrenic disorder, and had been a dancer as a young girl. When she introduced the patient to art materials, the woman began to paint dancers. “It elicited a memory that was very satisfying to her,” Wallingford says, “and helped her connect to some reality of the past.”

Local businesswoman Katherine Skaggs found art therapy to be especially helpful with defusing anger and sadness revolving around issues of grief and loss. “Art therapy has helped me get out of my head, and move the stress, anger and depression through my body and out into the world, so it can be released,” Skaggs says.

Therapists who specialize in art therapy may open a private practice, or work in team settings with specialists such as doctors, nurses, social workers and teachers. Sessions typically last one hour and range in cost from about $75 to $100.

The American Art Therapy Association (AATA) regulates educational and professional art therapy standards. To become an art therapist, a minimum of 45 graduate semester credits is required for graduate level art therapy education, in addition to a clinical experience internship of about 700 hours. In some states and schools, such as Naropa (one of the leading art therapy schools in the United States), 60 graduate semester credits are required for licensure.

Art Therapy Resources, local and beyond

For more information on art therapy, see the following resources:

• The Art Therapy Sourcebook by Cathy Malchiodi (McGraw-Hill, 1998)
• The Soul’s Palette by Cathy Malchiodi (Shambhala Press, 2002)
• www.arttherapy-co.org (Art Therapy Association of Colorado)
• www.arttherapy.org (The American Art Therapy Association)
• www.naropa.edu (Naropa University)

The following art therapists are advertisers in Nexus:

• Lauri Benblatt, MA, LPC; 303-579-3004
• Sandra Laemmle, MA, ATR, LPAT; 303-772-1144
• Kim McMillin, RN, MA, MT-BC, LMFT; 303-666-9091, www.musicfamilytherapy.com
• Nora Swan-Foster, MA, ATR-BC; 303-440-4000, www.SwanFoster.com
• Tanya Vallianos, MA, LPC, Inner Sun Healing Arts Studio; 970-420-9504