This article describes an expanded case study methodology that was used to explore the value that art therapy processes have in expression and understanding of the complications of immigration and acculturation. Data collected from two art therapy groups of Hispanic/Latino youth and immigrant women at an urban parish were analyzed to develop an…

Response art is artwork created by art therapists in response to material that arises in their therapy work. Art therapists use response art to contain difficult material, express and examine their experiences, and share their experiences with others. In this viewpoint, some of the varied uses of response art are discussed and illuminated with…

This article describes an art-based approach to supervision that combines clinical insights with archetypal awareness arising from painting on a single canvas throughout the internship semester. Supervision is comprised of three main components: (a) spontaneous painting, (b) complex reflective processing, and (c) aesthetically focused attention to…

The Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) provides a theoretical model for art-based assessments and applications of media in art therapy. The three levels of the ETC (Kinesthetic/Sensory, Perceptual/Affective, and Cognitive/Symbolic) appear to reflect different functions and structures in the brain that process visual and affective information.…

This paper examines the cultivation of artistic sensibility and its impact on the art therapy process and product in a community mental health center. Artistic sensibility embodies the sense of self as an artist through the integration of artistic and aesthetic attributes of self and other. The formation of a gallery to exhibit patient art was…

In this commentary, the author discusses the Open Studio Project, which he cofounded in 1995. The community studio, as perceived by the founders, is a place where anything can be expressed as a moment on life's continuum. Believing that meaning in art is renewed in the process of art itself, the project is not conceived at art therapy: there are…

This study sought to investigate the use of art therapy to assist a young person with mental illness making a transition from long-term inpatient care to a psychosocial residential rehabilitation setting. An art-based phenomenological case study method was used to investigate a lived experience of this transition. The participant attended 11 art…

Image making is a common component of art therapy supervision but its use has not yet been formally evaluated. This article describes formative evaluation research used to investigate student responses to art-based supervision in which response art was used as a primary method to contain, explore, or express clinical work. Art-based supervision,…

This article presents the art therapist's engagement in responsive art making as an effective approach in working with an adolescent survivor of developmental trauma. Through a case study illustration, the art therapist's response art was effective in two main areas. First, in-session response art helped facilitate treatment goals in accordance…

Men as a discrete subject group and the gender-based nuances of their visual expression is a relatively unexplored art therapy research topic. The author describes a study designed to investigate the lived experience of a male subject in communicating about an episode of major depression, through both verbal communication and associations to…

In this art therapy adaptation of the squiggle technique, the client draws eight colored squiggles on a paper folded into eight frames and then develops them into images utilizing a full range of color. The client is encouraged to write titles on each frame and use them to compose a story. This technique often stimulates emergence of meaningful…

This report describes an art-based intervention program with at-risk youth that was inspired by the Project Self-Discovery model (Milkman, Wanberg, & Robinson, 1996). Twelve middle-school students from a small city in a mid-Atlantic state participated in the program. The program goals included making art in order to empower the participants…

The current study focuses on data collected from children in the United States shortly after the Yugoslavia-NATO conflict. Fifty-six children in two Midwestern states were asked to draw a picture of peace and a picture of war. Two major themes, peace as interpersonal interactions and peace as negative peace, emerged from the qualitative analysis…

Although art therapists readily recognize the value of artmaking for their clients and for themselves, do they utilize its potentialities for professional self-processing? In the hope of encouraging art therapists to use this valuable resource, this paper presents examples of art expressions for professional processing by many art therapists…

After the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on 9/11/01, New York's art therapy community found itself faced with difficult political, professional, and emotional challenges. As volunteerism across this country responded to the need for assistance, many New York art therapists were on the front lines of a wounded and frightened city while…