Page 100 - ART FORM AND MENTAL HEALTH - Ingrid Pénzes

interventions. In general, the art therapists estimated that clients with a lot of cognitive control (i.e. thought) might benefit from more “affective” interventions, whereas clients with difficulties regulating their emotions mightbenefitfrommore“cognitive”interventions.Arttherapistsstressedthe importanceoftheobservationofclients’individualpositiononthecontinuum of balance to choose the art interventions specific to the client’s needs.
Art therapists found clients’ balance and adaptability indicative for treatment duration and prognosis. They were more optimistic about the treatment duration and prognosis of clients who were more balanced and adaptive. Art therapists were alert to clients’ lack of balance and adaptability. They emphasized the importance of clients’ capacity to deal with change; they stated that a clear lack of balance and adaptability might have a function in survival and daily functioning. Therefore, treatment might take longer and prognosis, i.e. the expected amount of change, might be more limited.
DISCUSSION
Based on art products made with acrylic paint and the instruction to either paint a landscape or create a painting without instruction, all the art therapists in this study focus on four primary (movement, dynamic, contour and repetition) and three secondary (mixture of color, figuration and color saturation) formal elements in art therapy observation. This implies that the art therapists in this study agree largely on the relevance of formal elements as well as their hierarchy. These seven formal elements show some resemblance to formal elements incorporated in existing studies on formal elements in art therapy e.g. “mixture of color” is also incorporated in the DDS, “color saturation” resembles “color intensity” of the DAPA, and “figuration” can be related to “color fit” of the FEATS. Some existing studies point out that individual elements mean nothing unless considered as a cluster (Gantt, 2001) or use a “profile” related to specific disorders, such as in the DDS. The findings of this study add to these studies by conceptualizing specific combinations of formal elements that construct the “structure” of the art product..
The art therapists in this study use the formal elements to estimate how clients make their art product. This is in line with existing studies in which it is theorized that formal elements reveal how the client makes the
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