Art Therapy Argumentative Essay

I grew up alongside the wild Rocky Mountain Columbines, where the air is crisp and the winters are long. I spent my time engaging in the arts such as acting, writing, and creating. From a young age I was drawn to the world of imagination and found happiness through producing art. We all face and over come challenges within our lives and whenever I am faced with hardship I find comfort in visually expressing myself.

As a psychology student with an extensive background in Fine Arts, I bring a unique perspective to the mental health field. My interest in psychology began with the curiosity regarding the relationship between art and mental health. South Korea, my birthplace, has some of the longest working hours of any country. While working in Korea, I witnessed the results of work-related stress such as depressive mood and anxiety. However, there existed stigma related to mental disorders due to cultural expectations. Rather than visiting professionals in the mental health industry, many ascribed mental instabilities to their lack of willpower. This phenomenon spurred me to consider artistic activities in dealing mental distress. Eventually, I was motivated to study Psychology at Ryerson University; I hope to keep my path toward Art Therapy at Concordia University.

Art therapy is a Multi-Functional Psychological therapy that helps the mental mind in connecting things that are disconnected like a patient with alzheimer's where the patient's medial temporal lobe that’s the part of the brain that controls memory. The medial temporal lobe is vital in the brain because that is where the brain recollects the memories and stores them. When you get older the lobe gets weaker in which causes it to disconnect thus causing “memory loss” or dementia. In art therapy we like to cause a visual reconnection of that nerve so in which a patient then can remember more but in a visual stance as in some people like to look at photographs to visually which allows memories to reconnect. These programs are put into place to help anyone with mental issues they are put in place just to help.

According to the test I took, the top 3 careers I would be great at based on my personality was Art Therapist, Area, ethnic, and cultural studies teacher, postsecondary, also Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses.

Fard, Farah Joan. "The expanding reach of art therapy: though it's a relatively new approach to mental health treatment, art therapy is gaining traction and making a difference in people's lives." Art Business News, Winter 2015, p. 34+. Fine Arts and Music Collection, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=PPFA&sw=w&u=hillsbor&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA436797590&it=r&asid=1bc151430b53c85d758e9329f6ecf46a. Accessed 22 Nov. 2017.

Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is a fairly new treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that is being geared mainly towards combat veterans whom have experienced some sort of psychological trauma. Accelerated Resolution Therapy is delivered in 2-5 sessions and does not require the use of medications. By using rapid eye motions, similar to what occurs during dreaming, Accelerated Resolution Therapy works directly to change the way in which distressing memories are stored in the brain so that they no longer create strong physical and emotional reactions.

Dynamic, motivated, highly organised individual with a career track record of dispensing personalised attention, maintaining composure under pressure, and juggling multiple job tasks and challenges with skilled discretion and concern. Over a decade of corporate sector experience in fast-paced customer-care environments has been broadened and strengthened by coaching experiences in roles requiring the ability to design and deliver customized training modules and program to diverse audience.

Art has been my passion since childhood. Spending three years within the teaching environment was where I thought I belonged. Before receiving my Bachelor of Fine Art in painting from Metropolitan State University of Denver a personal experience that connects to my reservation and adoption into the Clinical Mental Health program was one of tragic loss. On January 9, 2002, my son’s life abruptly ended and during the grieving process I started expressing myself through painting. In searching for serenity, individual counseling became enhance. Finding a therapist with a background in marriage and family/art therapy became a visual depiction, a self-portrait symbolizing my external realities and internal emotions immediately following his suicide. Driven to face an extremely irritating and stressful paradox to the best of my ability while trying to keep the constitutional need to endure my life as fully as possible.

The era of accountability has heavily swayed public schools towards narrowing the curriculum across content and disciplines. Student test scores have become the measure in which states, districts, schools, classrooms, and teachers are deemed “excellent.” Also, many schools have been confronted with budget cuts that determine the content offered in schools. Unfortunately, arts programming across the United States’ K-12 public education has been minimized and/or not given the proper attention it deserves. To strengthen the argument for arts education, researchers have developed the integration of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to curriculum and lesson planning. I argue that the integration of the arts in classroom curriculum with early childhoods students can provide benefits not only for students but teachers. Arts education centers on allowing both students and teachers to engage in creativity and bring out their multiple intelligence. I recognize four reasons why arts education is a valuable tool with young children: (1) arts can be used across subjects and context (interdisciplinary), (2) it touches on the needs of different learners (multiple intelligence), (3) flexibility that allows creativity in the classroom, and (4) shifts away from traditional methods of rote learning.

I believe that the art of psychotherapy is more important than empirically validated treatments (EVT). I feel that the art of psychotherapy lies in the common factors, which include the therapeutic relationship, client and therapist factors (e.g., personality), helping clients deal with problems, and hope or expectancy factors (Reisner, 2005). Although I do believe that empirically validated treatments may enhance the therapeutic process, the treatments themselves are by no means the most important or fundamental aspects of therapy. There appears, at least to me, to be much more of an art involved in developing the relationship with the client and understanding the client’s perspective. It takes art and skill of a therapist to examine,

Not much has been written about the use of expressive arts in existential practice. “Pat Allen, one of the founders of the open studio approach to art therapy… decided to experiment with having people make art alongside each other and be of service to each other during the process, hence the Open Studio Approach” (Story, 2007). This approach is based upon three elements; intention, attention and witness (Story, 2007).

Most forms of therapy are centered on verbal communication. Art therapy, however, breaks that mold and introduces a more creative means of both communicating ideas and learning to grow. The American Art Therapy Association defines art therapy as:

Schools that offer fine arts classes have lower dropout rates and raised attendance. The fine arts positively impact students of lower socioeconomic status more those of a higher  status. The fine arts have no barriers for race, religion, and culture when it comes to being involved in the arts. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to be involved (Katy Independent School District). Without the arts these students have no outlet for creative capabilities and no way to express their talents. Students who need this way of expressing themselves are overlooked and they are the ones who need it the most (Dickson). When viewing the participation of arts in the eyes of a ten-year old, “It cools kids down after all the other hard stuff they have to think about” (Arts and Smarts: Test Scores and Cognitive Development).

Expressive arts therapy is the use of art modalities, creative process, and aesthetic experience in a therapeutic context. It is a therapy of the imagination (McNiff, 1992). Effective communication is an essential element in therapeutic relationships and, although verbal language is the most conventional means of conveying information, other forms can convey just as much as words. The arts are an alternative form of communication that has recently received recognition for their value in therapeutic settings. There is a long well-established connection between the arts and psychology. Expressive arts therapy builds on a natural, complimentary relationship between the two disciplines. As a formal therapy, this form is relatively new with its

Before we can understand what expressive art therapy is, however, an understanding of terms, like imagination and creativity, is necessary. There is a lack of consensus about how imagination and creativity are defined and who is capable of it. In therapeutic contexts, the essence of imagination is the substance of dreams. Dreams, however, are not just images. In dreams, sounds, rhythms, acts, etc. can be perceived in a sensory or experiential way (Levine & Levine, 2004). Creativity springs from imagination and is understood in terms of its qualities and characteristics: spontaneity, playfulness, motivation, originality, self-expression, inventiveness, divergent thinking, and intuition. Creativity pushes limits, breaks down barriers, and