This article presents an introduction to cross-cultural psychotherapy, with reference to historical theories of art, symbols and myth, and to the therapist working with the client--both individual and groups. Cross-cultural dimensions of art therapy are delineated with a support for further research and cooperation between cultures, with attention…

From a systems perspective, the role of the art therapist as social activist at a time of deep and crucial change for our clients, mental health systems, our country, and the world is discussed. Despite the fact that art therapists, through our artists' identities, are natural agents of change, our education and strivings for professional…

This research project extends a previous study (Vick & Sexton-Radek, 1999) in examining the relationship between artmaking and pain among 127 migraine sufferers. A basic overview of migraine symptoms and treatment is presented along with a discussion of concepts relating to "migraine art" in order to provide a context for this project. Surveys…

The Formal Elements Art Therapy Scale (FEATS) is a measurement system for applying numbers to global variables in two-dimensional art (drawing and painting). While it was originally developed for use with the single-picture assessment ("Draw a person picking an apple from a tree" [PPAT]), researchers can also apply many of the 14 scales of the…

This article is a reprint of the viewpoint which originally appeared in 2004 (volume 21(3), 163-167). It is a memoir of a horrific experience, expressed through drawings. The author takes the readers with him on his very personal frightening journey of quintuple bypass surgery. He not only tells the readers, he shows them how making art became a…

This is the appropriate time in the evolution of the profession of art therapy to re-create its image and explore a new model of the profession responsive to the postmodern mental health climate. To that end, the author would like to take the reader on a fantasy trip and hypothesize what it would be like to move the birth of this profession…

This article examines the teaching approach of art educator Friedl Dicker-Brandeis as a historical antecedent to the art therapy profession. Dicker-Brandeis's philosophy and her specific methods of teaching art to children in the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia between 1942 and 1944 are described. The influence of the Bauhaus…

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…

This article reviews the history of dollmaking that is relevant to art therapy, and the application of dolls as therapeutic media in clinical and educational settings. The authors describe their experiences using dollmaking in the resolution of grief, in professional identity construction, and in community service. The article addresses the…

This paper reviews a body of research on the author's Silver Drawing Test (SDT) and Draw A Story (DAS) art-based assessments, which span 40 years of development. The original impetus for the assessment is described and studies are reviewed that examined relationships between depression, abuse, and aggression; cognitive skills; interrater and…

This study examined general features of Lego block creations produced by Japanese adolescents with no known mental health disorders. The block creations of 33 participants were assessed for form, content, and gender differences. Time spent on the task, amount of area covered, and quantity and types of blocks used were measured and correlated with…

Work with individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a growing area of significant interest for many art therapists. The purpose of this viewpoint is to outline the current impediments to the expansion of this specialty as well as to highlight the unique treatment advantages of art therapy from the author's perspectives as an…

This paper describes methodology, data analysis, and initial results of a research study with the long-term goal of establishing contemporary normative data on drawings from children living in the United States. The pool of participants was composed of 316 fourth graders (mean age 9.69 years) and 151 second graders (mean age 7.56 years) who each…

Disclosures of child sexual abuse create an immediate crisis within the child's family unit. Reactions of nonoffending caregivers in particular may prevent them from being emotionally available to respond immediately to the needs of the child victim. This article describes an art therapy intervention of visual mapping used in a support group of…

In this article, the author examines the use of transitional objects in a case study of a 12-year-old boy, documenting the role of art therapy in helping the boy cope with the trauma of his parents' recent separation and divorce. Transitional objects emerged spontaneously as the boy integrated the transition that the divorce of his parents…