Art Therapy for Abused Children
Art therapy is a psychotherapeutic discipline using plastic and graphic art expression as a means of expressing thoughts and feelings that an individual may be unable or unwilling to verbalize (Di Maria pp). Each client's diagnosis, needs, interests, and capabilities are formulated in the goals of the therapy (Di Maria pp). Art therapists encourage their clients to express personal concerns through the creation of art, and the work can be viewed as a tangible record of progress, as well as an indication of where further therapeutic interventions should take place (Di Maria pp). This art may server as a springboard for verbal communication and also a source of pride of accomplishment for the client (Di Maria pp). Audrey Di Maria says that children often come to their first art therapy session expecting to fail because they are afraid of messing up or that their work will be compared unfavorably to work by other children (Di Maria pp). As an art therapist it is important to help children see how special and extraordinary their own ideas are (Di Maria pp). The goal of art therapy is to celebrate the diversity of each child's unique crease and help raise his or hers sense of self-esteem (Di Maria pp).
Children's drawings may provide information about perceptual-motor abilities and developmental level of the child, however children's drawings are also used to assess possible sexual abuse (Drawings pp). Since emotionally disturbed children are believed to reflect their problems in art work, the drawings of abused children is assumed to differ from those of non-abused children (Drawings pp). Any number of approaches, whether free drawing, house-tree-person, draw-a-person, and kinetic family drawings, are used and qualitative features of the drawings, such as colors, size and detail of body parts, as well as the shape of the figures may be interpreted in terms of the presence or absence of sexual abuse (Drawings pp). According to one 1981 study, drawings in which a child exhibits a shift from age-appropriate figures to more disorganizes objects or drawings with "repeated stylized, sexualized figures indicate...
Children need special attention when dealing with traumas they might not fully understand. Thus art therapy has been proven to benefit the increasing number of children dealing with PTSD and other trauma related disorders creating fear and anxiety within the innocent child. Another major benefit of art therapy is that of the informal nature of the expression. Unlike language which is complicated through strict grammatical rules, artistic expression has
It is perhaps for this reason that Natalie Rogers' person-centered approach to art therapy is the preferred approach, as it allows for artistic expression in a multitude of ways -- art, dance, drama, etc. -- and it is the patient or "client" who decides what works best for them. Said Carl Rogers of his person-centered techniques, and also his relationship with his clients: the relationship with I have found helpful
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Child sexual abuse is a topic that has attracted must attention in the current years. Studies estimate that up to 33% of women and at least 20% of men are victims of child sexual abuse (Misurell & Springer, 2013). Sexual abuses excluding touch are often not reported. This suggests that the number of individuals who could be sexually abused in their childhood may even be greater. As a high percentage
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