28/page
| rina shukor
relation between the two. It is a meeting ground of of both the inner and outer worlds.
Art as therapy is a form of treatment which could be traced back to ancient times. It played a role in health and symbolic expression. From Egyptian hieroglyphics, it was discovered that people often use objects and visuals of animals and birds as intervention in mental health. Another example are scripts from the Sumerians and the Mayan cultures, called logograms, were primitive elements for magical, spiritual, protection purposes and as a daily journal.
A recent scientific research officially declared how images influenced emotions, thoughts and well-being. This is a process of how the brain and body reacts through drawings and paintings. Science has found connections between emotions and health, stress, disease and the immune system. Therefore, art therapy is to discover the use of imagery and art expression in treatment. In the field of education, art therapy is a way to express emotion through creativity in expressing inner feelings and emotion. Art therapists were to help in analyzing factors such as attitudes, emotion,
My current project, which uses the art therapy approach is aimed towards adult hardcore drug abusers and addiction to help them change to a new lifestyle that does not include compulsive abuse of chemicals and the change of behavior requires both time and commitment. The purpose of the treatment is not to push the addicts into de-escalation but rather to bring about a profound shift in beliefs and behavior in which the addiction loses its power.
Through contemporary cultures and societies, art has been used symbolically to cure illness, which brought physical and psychological relief. For example, as evidenced in the culture of the Navajo Indian inthe United States, who combined songs, dance, and sand paintings in some specific element of patterns. Further, sand painting in the form of Mandalas act as a focus of prayers that were used by the Tibetans intended for healing and relief from suffering. Art therapy was been inspired by Sigmund Freud a psychologist & philosopher, who claimed that psychological disorders are the results of conflicts in early childhood which the individual is unaware of. Impulses and emotions involved that have been repressed unconsciously results in conflicts between the aggressive and sexual impulses. The techniques of psychoanalysis were modified into more flexible and less stressful to reconstruct the patient’s childhood experiences during therapeutic process. Freud clarified that psychoanalysis is a form of psychotherapy-which combines other theories and techniques that now are now widely used by the group therapists, counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists- acts as a bridge to access deeper levels of understanding in manipulating between mind and body. Carl Jung,a former follower of Freud and founder of Analytical Psychology said : “Expressive therapy is a form of therapy which uses artistic expression and divided into different discipline and approaches such as dance therapy, drama therapy, art therapy and music therapy” Therapy is a process designed to help changes in personality or in daily life while art is a means to discovering both the self and world in establishing a
Each group that I’ve worked with have developed an intervention towards mind – body and brain co-ordination through the art process. Clients are able to create their own images, ideas and problem- solving in their art production. Working with autistic children using art is a long-term process due to their lack of eye coordination and motor skills. However, autistic children are more creatively expressive than normal children in making their art pieces. Working with the disabled using art often stretches one’s creativity and imagination because one has to think of how to make the end results achievable. In art therapy sessions with autistic children, one must pay particular attention to the art making process in order to address deficits in communication and imagination. This helps the children collaborate with the art therapist in making symbols, icons and visual arts. Children with HIV, psychologically abused, social withdrawal, refusing to go to schools, anxiety disorders, social phobias are even more challenging. They are capable of communicating through drawing and storytelling. As demonstrated with case materials, children with these disorders frequently reveal themes of death, destruction and rebirth.
environment, behaviors and social relationships. Zeki (1999) has used new method in brain imaging, the process of forming memories from motor, visual and “somatosensory” information whose relationship is created between the process of art expression and brain function using art media through stimulation. According to Barbara Granim, “When we use art to express our pain, we are accessing that through body – mind’s inner language of imagery instead of using words”. (2004) In lighter terms, art therapy can be described as a process of therapeutic and diagnostic means of understanding people’s emotion through art activities instead of words. These days, art therapy is a new media to detect social skills, motor skills, expression, inner self-emotion and artistic skills through art making activities towards a variety groups of people namely people with disorders, physical disabilities, cancer patients, hardcore drug abusers, severe mental disorders, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), sexually abused children and etc.
Art making may stimulate a similar experience and provide experiences that soothes and heals the self. The process of “art therapy has a unique and specific potential relative to self-healing of the way art affects the brain.” (Tinnin, 1994). As an addition, researches in neuroscience continues to provide an ever-widening understanding of how the brain and body reacts to stress, illness and other events. The ability to capture through visual imagery the internal world of feelings, sensations, perceptions, and cognition makes the art therapy approach a unique, creative and effective way to work with clients of all ages.