Art therapy

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From the course by The University of Sydney

Positive Psychiatry and Mental Health

109 оценки

The University of Sydney

Positive Psychiatry and Mental Health

109 оценки

In today’s world, mental illness and distress are common and these account for a significant burden of disability within our community. At the same time, there is a growing interest in understanding and enhancing positive mental health and wellbeing; particularly from developments in the fields of positive psychology and mental health promotion. Positive Psychiatry is a new term (Jeste et al 2016) that describes a dual approach to mental health, where we build strengths, supports and healthy lifestyles as well as treating illness and distress. In this course, we will explore different aspects of good mental health as well as provide an overview of the major kinds of mental disorders, their causes, treatments and how to seek help and support. The course will feature a large number of Australian experts in psychiatry, psychology and mental health research, and we will also hear from “lived experience experts”, people who have lived with mental illness, and share their personal stories of recovery. We take an evidence-based approach to a range of strategies that anyone can use to enhance their own mental health and that of others, from exercise and relaxation techniques through to the role of love, relationships and 'good' types of work. We cover topics from creativity and yoga through to psychiatric medications and psychotherapies.

From the lesson

Module 5 - Paths to Recovery

In this module, we will detail some of the many paths to recovery. From early intervention through the philosophy of personal recovery, consumer support networks, creative arts as therapy as well as spiritual and religious practices.

Music therapy6:44

Art therapy5:09

Meet the Instructors

Sonia Kumar
Psychiatry Course Coordinator
Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney

[MUSIC]

Good morning, Jade, thanks for coming and speaking with us today.

Can you tell us some of the benefits of art therapy for

your clients who have mental health issues?

>> Absolutely, so some of the benefits that I observe

in my practice with clients with mental health issues, a few, firstly,

art making can be very relaxing, very containing, very calming.

And that helps people enter into the therapeutic process.

Secondly, it helps build people's confidence

about their art making at home and as a self care tool.

And thirdly, the art making itself is a form of visual communication that helps

people speak about things that can be quite difficult for

them to verbalize in therapy.

And in that way, it can be a great material for

us to use in the therapeutic process.

>> What are some of the techniques and processes that you use in art therapy?

>> We use a lot of different techniques and a lot of different art materials.

And what we tend to do is design a process specifically around a particular

individual client or a particular group, depending on their needs and

the issues we'd like to explore.

So different materials work with different people more effectively or

less effectively.

And different processes are designed to really use metaphor as a way to look at

their situation and their issue.

So just to give some examples, some of the processes I love to use when I do group

work, I do a lot of group work with art therapy, we often begin with mandalas.

Mandalas, at their most simple form, although there's a rich

history of using them in different spiritual and religious practices.

Their most simple, it's really an image within a circle that has symbolism and

symbolic shapes, textures, colors that have deeper meaning.

So I like to use mandalas as a way of grounding and

holding clients when they first arrive, just to explore their current situation.

In that sense, it's open to their interpretation, and

they can express themselves freely within that safe container of the mandala.

When clients come, what I find is that they're often kind of estranged from

creativity or their own art making.

Sometimes they've had a negative experience of art making in childhood, or

someone's told them they're not artistic.

They can actually be very scared of the blank page.

So I like to use different materials over the weeks I work with them and

help build up their confidence.

We build up the complexity and

the complexity of the materials as their confidence builds.

So to begin with, I might use collage because it's very quick and very simple,

and you really don't need any technical skills to do it.

Most people don't feel daunted at the idea of cutting and pasting,

it's kind of child-like, and people can dive right in.

Then as the weeks progress, we introduce pencils,

we introduce oil pastels, drawing, we might use acrylic poster paints.

We might use water colors, we also do sculptural work.

We start to work with textiles and multimedia.

>> How do you integrate the psychotherapy into the process of art making or

vice-versa?

>> Art therapy is informed a lot by many different threads of psychology and

psychotherapy and

especially the kind of humanistic client centered counseling and psychology.

So a big part of our work as art therapists is to be empathetic and

to listen attentively.

And what we tend to do is use the artwork itself as almost like a third person in

the room.

A transitional object that we can speak about really takes the pressure off of

the clients speaking about themselves in their own experience,

to start looking at the artwork as a mirror and exploring it for symbols.

And so that's one of the ways we use the artwork in the process.

So one of the things that comes up a lot in art therapy is bringing

an awareness of the inner critic.

So that voice inside our own head that often tells us that we're no good,

that we don't know what we're doing, that our art making is stupid.

Even in groups, I've had every single person in the room tell me that

their piece is awful, and everyone else says it's fabulous.

Which when I explain that to them, we see the kind of almost humor in that.

That we all think we're uniquely somehow not good enough.

So, in art therapy, we really bring gentle focus

to our inner voices and the voice of the inner critic.

And as people build confidence in their art making,

they also build their skill in noticing that critical inner voice.

And that's an asset they take beyond the art therapy workshop or session.

[MUSIC]

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