Page 144 - ART FORM AND MENTAL HEALTH - Ingrid Pénzes

of the art product reflect clients dealing with challenges in general and more specifically with the specific context of making art and the potential space and ability to achieve or restore balance through the art form. If this is indeed the case, we become able to understand the prognostic value of the art product, i.e., its role in the process of treatment indication. The art product shows us how the client is dealing with the challenge of making art in a therapeutic context, i.e., the ability to explore emotions and thoughts, to experiment with other coping strategies, and to create new solutions to realize a new and less disturbing balance.
By simplifying the complexity of the art form and its relation to health and by focusing on the results obtained, a relatively simple framework of interpretation has emerged regarding the relationship between the art form, adult mental health, and even its use for treatment indication.
Methodological considerations
There are several methodological strengths and limitations we need to consider. These include the study design, client group involved, art materials used, and art therapy task that was given to the clients.
The use of a mixed methods design, i.e., integrating qualitative and quantitative data, enabled us to explore the complex relationship between the art form and mental health (Zhang & Creswell, 2013). There are multiple perspectives on this relationship, and the concepts ‘art form’ and ‘mental health’ are multidimensional. This research aimed to gain an understanding of this complexity from both the practitioners and a theoretical point of view. The qualitative findings were employed to formulate hypotheses, which were then tested through quantitative methods, i.e., using a sequential exploratory mixed methods design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). The researcher’s art therapy background added depth to the understanding of art therapists with different cultural, educational, theoretical and clinical perspectives. To restrict potential bias to a minimum, a number of strategies were applied in each study to meet the criteria of quality, such as member checking, peer debriefing, and expert panels, which included researchers from outside the field of art therapy.
Regarding the client samples, adult clients with diverse psychological complaints and diagnoses were included. The samples were heterogenic to represent the adult population in mental health. In Chapter 5, clients were diagnosed with a variety of complaints, such as personality disorders, mood
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