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Art Therapy Research Paper

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My senior project is going to be on art therapy and how art can be calming. Art therapy is a type of expression therapy in the mental health profession. Expressive therapists use art and the creative process to explore emotional conflicts within a person. Art therapy is commonly performed in mental health, rehabilitation, medical, educational, forensic, wellness, private practice and community settings with diverse client populations in individual, couples, family, and group therapy formats (American Art Therapy Association 1) The focus of my research paper is how art therapy can be helpful and why it will be. I believe it will be helpful to people with low self esteem, anxiety and depression. When a person has depression they are usually told to start a journal on how they’re feeling. Journaling is a type of expressive therapy, but it doesn’t always work for creative minds. Although, journalling is a type of creative therapy some people have a hard time showing how they feel with just a pen and paper. However, in art therapy you can use different colors to express how you’re feeling and various art …show more content…

According to American Art Therapy Association usually the ones who benefit from art therapy include those who have experienced trauma from combat, abuse, and natural disaster; People with different physical health conditions such as cancer, traumatic brain injury, and other health disability benefit greatly from art therapy. Also people with autism, dementia, depression, and mental disorders benefit from art therapy. People with mental disorders have a harder time expressing how they are feeling, in result they use art therapy to express what they are thinking or feeling. Art therapy helps people resolve conflicts, improve personal skills, are more able to manage problematic behaviors, reduce negative stress, and achieve personal insight. Art therapy also provides an opportunity to enjoy making art and developing a new

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