Page 146 - ART FORM AND MENTAL HEALTH - Ingrid Pénzes

art therapists with diverse art therapy backgrounds and perspectives participated in this research project. Even though these different perspectives seem to be engaged in an ongoing discussion regarding how to observe and interpret the art form in terms of mental health in art therapy literature, our findings indicate agreement between these perspectives at a deeper level. Whereas the existing debate in art therapy literature seemed to be stagnated by the question of whether to observe the art- making process, art product, or both, our findings indicated that there was agreement among art therapists regarding simplification of the complexity of the assumed relationship between the art form and adult mental health. Our empirical studies explicated the tacit knowledge of art therapists regarding the relationship between the art form and mental health and may contribute to the clinical art therapy practice.
Our findings indicated that the combination of the formal elements ‘movement,’ ‘dynamic’ and ‘contour’ mostly reveal aspects of clients’ mental health, i.e. resiliency and experiential acceptance. These findings may indicate what to observe and how to interpret the art product in art therapy assessment. As the art product is the tangible and visible result of the art-making process, it can be observed from a distance and over time. Observing the formal elements allows reflection, which may be individual or a joint reflection between the client and therapist. Reflection may contribute to gaining an insight into the clients’ balance and adaptability in the context of art therapy and in daily life functioning. In addition, the findings of this study may direct art therapists to systematically apply the art materials’ properties to evoke specific experiences to enhance and/or restore clients’ balance, adaptability, resiliency, and psychological flexibility. Systematic application of specific art materials’ properties is assumed to evoke diverse experiences. Art therapists in this research project assumed that fluid, less controllable, materials evoke more “affective” experiences and resistive, more controllable, materials more “cognitive” experiences. These findings are consistent with the perspective of other authors (Hinz, 2009, 2015; Hyland Moon, 2010; Snir & Regev, 2013). The use of art materials in further art therapy treatment has, however, been beyond the scope of this dissertation. Moreover, observing the art form may support art therapists to estimate the client’s potential to change toward health and decide whether clients may benefit from art therapy, to estimate the prognosis and treatment duration, to formulate treatment goals, and to choose specific art interventions, i.e., art materials and instructions, that
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