Page 61 - ART FORM AND MENTAL HEALTH - Ingrid Pénzes

focus group. Three of them also participated in Study 2.
Procedure
The participants were asked to sequentially analyse three photographed art products of three clients. All products were made in one of the first art therapy assessment sessions. Table 2 shows case descriptions provided by the clients’ art therapists based on the descriptive diagnosis of the principal psychologist or psychiatrist.
Table 2: case-descriptions
Case 1
Descriptive diagnosis
The cliënt is a 37-year-old man with depressive complaints. He is a widower and father of
a six year old twin girls. He has a new partner since a year. Deppressive complaints start- ed after the pregnancy of his first partner. His childhood and yought were already marked by adjustment and perfectionism. After the birth of the twins, he worked part-time as his wife wanted to work full-time. Dur- ing this period there was a lot of tension in the relationship and eventually he wanted to divorce. At the same time, his wife got sick and died after a long sickbed in which he took care of her 24/7 with no or little support of friends and family. He seems very kind and friendly, but also tensed and in- secure. Beneath this kindness, there is underlying anger about the course of his life.
Case 2
The client is a 50-year- old female lawyer. She started treatment
with a psychotherapist after a burnout. The client had difficulties with trust and when she eventually opened up in the therapy, the therapist got sick and died. She was very shocked and had dif- ficulties dealing with this loss. This intense reaction was explained by the fact that she never learned to feel and express emotions. As a child she learned to be strong, work hard and avoid emotions. She could see clearly that the emotions triggered by the loss of this therapist had more to do with her difficulty to feel and express emotions.
Case 3
The client is a 26-year- old woman. She already had a long his- tory of psychological treatment in which she was diagnosed with Borderline Per- sonality Disorder, drug addiction and ADHD. As a child she was sex- ually abused at home. Relationships in her adult life, including a marriage at 19, were problematic and char- acterized by violence and abuse. She started working at an early age but is not able to keep jobs due to difficulties in her social contact. She is verbally aggres- sive and has bounda- ries issues.
table continues
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