NCJ Number
128272
Date Published
1990
Length
231 pages
Annotation
Art therapy is viewed as a tool for intervening with children from violent homes.
Abstract
Art therapy has proven to be an effective method of assisting traumatized children, allowing them to express their feelings of fear, guilt, and anger in a nonverbal and nonthreatening manner. Most children love to draw and they can reveal much to the trained therapist. Registered art therapists are trained to the master's degree level or its equivalent, with backgrounds in both art and psychology. Their education includes methods to assess, evaluate, and treat adults, children, and families. The author demonstrates how to use art therapy strategies to bring out the hidden feelings of children and details how to write art therapy evaluations. The author also examines how to conduct short-term art therapy in shelters where children may stay for only brief periods and how to effect a termination in what is basically a crisis intervention center. The drawings of sexually molested children reflect symbols of molestation that present themselves in art work. Featured throughout the book, the drawings clearly represent the extraordinary suffering that abused children experience and show that such children can be reached. The development and implementation of art therapy programs for children are described. A resource list is appended that contains suggested further readings in art therapy for children and families in violent settings. 109 references and 95 illustrations