Art Therapy and Trauma
It’s always a pleasure to host one of my student’s articles on the website. Thank you to Donna Carr for sharing this essay as part of her coursework for the Art Therapy Diploma Course.
Robert Gray
Director and Senior Lecturer at CECATRegistered Art Therapist and Psychologist
MA A. Th., AThR; B. Soc. Sc. (Psych.) (Hons.), MAPS.; BA. Theol. (Hons), MA Theol.
I chose the subject of trauma for this CECAT assignment due to my previous employment of working directly with children that were removed from families due to abuse and neglect. Within this role I observed the ongoing impact of these trauma experiences on the wellbeing of the child.
Within all my employment opportunities I have been passionate about finding methods that support children within a safe environment to be able to process, gain understanding of and recover from their adverse experiences. Within my current employment I have found myself drawn to the inclusion of art into the therapeutic space (art in therapy). I was able to see firsthand how this can help create a safe, non-threatening environment to allow people to explore and process previous experiences and gain ease from the symptoms felt. The study of art therapy has allowed me to grow from this space to provide art therapy to current clients.
Although traditional treatment for trauma usually involves psychotherapy treatments such as a CBT or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) process, this may not be successful with every client as these processes rely on a verbal history taking and explanation of symptoms, which may be too difficult to verbalise in therapy due to potential self-protection strategies. Cleary (2019) notes that the avoidance of facing and processing difficult feelings and memories associated with trauma serve as a safeguarding technique for the traumatised individual, in turn sustaining and increasing negative symptoms” pp. 6.
Art Therapy can provide an alternative treatment of PTSD and can support a reframing process by allowing the client to process trauma memories that they may not have been able to verbalise previously; this can help people to gain an understanding of their own experiences. Art therapy can differ from other therapies due to its nonverbal character. Art therapy aims to support the process of change and acceptance of psychological problems through the making of art and through processing the traumatic events by accessing and integrating traumatic memories though meaning making processes (Schouten et al., 2015).
Several studies have found that Art therapy in conjunction with traditional psychotherapy treatment can support a decrease in trauma symptom severity (Schouten et al., Van Westrhenen, N.). Art therapy can enhance other treatments such as CBT or EMDR. The integration of activities that enhance relaxation can further support a reduction of physiological symptoms felt.
Art Therapy can help to engage clients with ongoing trauma symptoms through providing links to nonverbal memories through the artwork so that the dissociated memories may be organised and processed in a meaningful way. Malchiodi (2012) notes that “Art activities mobilise the expression of sensory memories in a way that verbal interviews and interventions cannot in tapping sensory memories as well as generating narratives that can be altered through cognitive reframing techniques to reduce long-term sequala of posttraumatic stress” (p.p. 20-21).
How Art Therapy can Help Clients with Symptoms of Trauma
Parr (2015) notes that ‘the inability to express oneself verbally and coherently can make one feel out of control and further threatened and confused (p.p. 139). As art is a form of non-verbal expression, art therapy may provide unique opportunities for people to be able to access previous traumatic and sensory memories through the image-making of art to process the previous events and ease physiological symptoms and distress.
Trauma can impact on various regions of the brain, and this can increase or continue the symptoms after the experience due to people not being able to process and verbalise the adverse events. Malchiodi & Duncan (2015) states that “in trauma intervention, externalisation of trauma memories and experiences is considered central to the process of relief and recovery” pp. 15. Art therapy can support the accessing and processing of traumatic memories through the art process, this can result in the integration of the traumatic experiences through the reexposure of traumatic memories through the use of symbols and the art expression.
The reexposure of trauma experiences within a safe environment through a drawing process, can provide opportunities to externalize the story into a visual representative of the events, this can allow the client to bring experiences into their consciousness to be then reordered into a narrative and order that is manageable for the person. This can allow the client a reduction in symptoms as it can result in a gain of control and a reduction of fear. (Steele, 2011).
The drawing process can support a client to restructure previous trauma events into a new meaningful narrative that places it in the place and time that the event occurred rather than within everyday experience through recurring trauma reactions. This can support an ease in previous triggered physiological and emotional reactions and allow the person to be able to gain a sense of control and understanding. Steele (2011) notes that “when trauma memories are not integrated into consciousness, the memories continue to trigger the trauma state” (p.p.142). Through the process of drawing people are able to explore and relive trauma memories, pulling it from the subconscious into the conscious level where it is able to be verbalised and processed (Steele, 2011).
The use of images and image formation within the art process in art therapy can be supportive of clients with trauma. Images can be utilised to bridge the conscious levels of information processing and the physiological changes in the body (Malchiodi, 2012). Images and image formation can be utilised to reframe trauma experiences through the drawing of the specific situations, drawing on the senses and emotions attached to these. By accessing these trauma events and narratives though the drawing process, people are able to gain an understanding of their experiences, identify emotions and gain information directly from themselves, this can help them to make an image in order to externalise the events that have occurred (Lee, 2018).
The drawing process can also provide a way to contain traumatic memories within the art form and create a distance from the event. This can support a sense of control over what has occurred and any intrusive memories. By describing the contents of drawing and voicing the facts and options and though calling on explicit memories, this can help people to associate meaning with experience and help to establish an inner sense of safety and security (Talwar 2007).
Art therapy may enhance or provide an alternative to traditional therapeutic trauma treatment due its non-verbal use of symbolisation and drawing which can allow the person to process the events through bringing them into a conscious state that then can be reframed and processed. This can be achieved through the externalisation of trauma memories through the art making which can allow a reexposure of the events in a safe environment. This can support a reframing of the events into a new narrative that allows the person to gain a sense of control over their experiences and helps to integrate and process their trauma experiences. Join Art Therapy Courses here today to get started!
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