art therapy education techniques

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The 6th International Conference on Interdisciplinarity in Education ICIE11

April 14-16, 2011, Karabuk/Safranbolu, Turkey

157

ART THERAPY EDUCATION TECHNIQUES

Mihaela Gorcea, Ioana Antoniu, Radu erban, Emil Dobriban, Adina Coma,

1Daniela Mihescu

University of Art and Design, Piaa Unirii 31, 400098 Cluj, Romania, [email protected]

1Visual Deficiences School, Cluj, [email protected]

Abstract

The article describes the impact new-

introduced art-therapy techniques have on theeducation process, so that the main focus of

the school experience is on the pupil (student),not only on the faculty or on gathering

information. In the United States of America

and some European countries, art in educationhas become a regulated priority for the

governmental policies that aim at improvingthe education system. There are many debates

on the contribution, value and purpose that artshave in building a secure education system,one that stimulates active citizenship of youngpeople and their active and direct involvementand awareness about society that can surely

prevent aggressive and anti-social behaviors.

Key Words: education, art education, art-therapy, communication, interferences.

1. Introduction

In todays society, education is not considered

a luxury and it represents a must. Still, whenanalysing the education system we notice thatwe dont offer to children and students morethan information. They learn to read and toaccumulate as much information as possible

that will enable them to obtain a job. Butwhere are the education and research that truly

deal with the personal development in order toprevent modern societys aggressive, anti-social, discriminatory, drug abuse behaviours?The artistic disciplines of the school curriculamay work as a personal developmentprogramme. Art therapy techniques, applied togroup therapy in order to develop emotionself-awareness and expression skills,

communication skills, empathy, can beadjusted in order to assist the pupil in facing

stress and life transitions, without weakeningthe academic rigor. Instead of being animprovement instrument for the alreadyappeared negative effects of maladjustmentand drug abuse, art therapy can be preventive

and proactive. Visual education courses shouldinclude emotional problem solving elements.Only then can the school experience trulyaddress the child, on a supported basis.

2. The relationship between art and art

therapy

The therapeutic valence of art are acknowledgesince antiquity, but art therapy as a specialtydeveloped only in the second half of the 20thcentury, strongly linked to psychiatry and

psychotherapy. The first art therapy workshopsappeared in 1950 in the United Kingdom andthe United States [1]. Since 1990, art therapyheaded towards the cultural, social,


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educational and socio-educational area,

leaving the psychiatry field [2].

Art therapy is nowadays considered a specialtyon its own, which takes into account andtherapeutically cultivates the effects artisticactivities produce. It has a wide practicabilityand its being especially used to rehabilitate,stimulate and develop children and adults withmental and physical disabilities, but also forthe purposes of personal development andeducation, respectively in prevention [3]. Arttherapy must follow a set of rules: to establish

therapeutical protocols, projects andobjectives, to put into practice various methods

and means that are in accordance with theestablished objectives, to use a professionaland approachable language, as well aspertinent evaluation methods [4].

The focus in art therapy is not on the aestheticvalues of the art-fact, like in the case of the

artistic process, nor on how the interpretationof the artistic product (like in psychotherapy)or on acquiring some artistic skills, but on the

aesthetic emotions that, together with thecognitive and moral emotions, may contributeto the recovery of ones mental balance.

Art therapy uses as work means various artistic

languages, taken from visual arts, music,theatre, dance, or poetry, but its purpose is notto create art, education or artistic performance.Not everyone that offers patients colors, paperand a working theme does art therapy, as well

as not all self-knowing workshop offers(though scarce), even if coordinated by art

therapists, must be perceived as therapy. Theprocess requires knowledge, experience and aspecialized behaviour from the art therapists,as well as a verbal and non-verbalcommunication pace that is adjusted to the

patients diagnose, to his/her needs andcreative skills. [5]

After using art-specific expression means inthe activity of human psycho-somato-socialdevelopment professionals, it has been noticedthat one of mans basic needs is to expresswhat he/she feels.

Regardless of the technique used in artistic

expression, art cannot be separated fromemotions. When mentioning mans emotionallevel, we have to include therapy. On theemotional level of the artistic creator we findthe same necessary ingredients forpsychotherapy. Each individual has his/her

own perceptions, emotions and culturalinfluences. Sensations originate in the contextof our socio-cultural condition. Placed in arelational framework, these become the resultof our mental projections. At this point, art

therapy becomes essential, because it indulgesin living some positive and valuable emotionsand it leads to the balance of the naturalcontractionexpansion cycle, inherent to thehuman being.

Joseph Beuys (1921-1986), the artist thatradically restructured the configuration of

contemporary arts scenery, insisted on thecreative capacities of each person and on the

necessity to conceive art as a socialsculpture[6], asserting the therapeutic role ofart through its self-reflexive and self-knowingqualities. Out of artistic expression products,various experience and existence possibilities

can emerge, that offer alternatives toobstructive life situations.

Through its access to the nature of self- andinter-human relationships transformation,through its positive values that stand at thecore of the human beings understanding,exploring and assistance, art therapy is a path

towards regaining and preserving the somato-psycho-social health and towards preventing

alienation.

Art therapy offers the necessary safety, thefreedom of displaying and expressing desires,opinions and attitudes, and it satisfies the

human need of belonging and identifying witha group.

After analysing the relationship between artand art therapy, artist Dana Fabini, who has arich experience in art therapy, considers thatthe common special feature of both art and arttherapy, beyond the used language and toolkit,

originates in the perception of the artistic


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creative process as a communication and

affective feeling exchange mean. A veryimportant aspect of both areas creativeprocess resides precisely in the fundamentalnecessity of the human nature to shape andengage self-expression needs.[5]

The creation process and the artefact,continues the author, act on its author like anidea-affective stimulus, triggeringintrospection resources and restructuring selfperception and the relationship with theenvironment.[5]

Trying to bring out gestures, intentions and

own possibilities, therefore allowingpersonality to express freely, one manages torevive the quality of its existential functionthrough the means of art therapy. Registeringin the mechanism of the artistic phenomenon,this function consolidates the meaning andflavour of life, allowing the troubled person to

find its human value.

2.1. Techniques of art therapy in education

The idea of using art therapy techniques ineducation causes fear in some cases anddelight in others. We do not deny the worrieson making art therapy too pedagogical or onmaking art too therapeutical, when its thecase of losing the features of each field [7].But arent our education and art therapypurposes focusing on integrating variousaspects of our life?

Since 1917, one of the most importanteducation visionary, Cadwell Cook, stated the

fundamental role that art can play in education,placing the spotlight on two notionsconsidered by Cook essential, namely self-understanding and empathy. Through role-playing and identity transfer, the childunderstands better his own problems scale andit can therefore resonate with others problems[8].

In the chapter entitled Lessons in images: arttherapy in creative education, from the

volume Art therapy. Theory and techniquecoordinated by the president of the American

Art Therapy Association, Judith Aron Rubin,

David Henley emphasizes on some of theadvantages of such an educational system. Hesuggests a therapeutic curriculum, that offersthe pupil the chance to learn by creativelyexperimenting the medias with whom he/she isin contact and the chance to use in his/her

daily life own resources to induce change. Thisway, the method of critically involving youngpeople in the surrounding social network isbeing developed. This kind of involvement is acivic growing up form, that education systems

should take into consideration [7].In the United States and England, after

countless violence acts inside schools, the roleof art in education became a priority supportedby governmental policies aimed at improvingthe education system. There are many debateson the contribution, value and purpose that arts

have in building a secure education system andtheir involvement and awareness about the

society they live in and that can be directlyacknowledged.

Fig. 1. Intervention in nature, Bourges, France

In French schools, art therapy is beingsuccessfully used; for example, to treatInternet syndrome pupils with land-arttechniques [9, 10]. Adolescents manifestingthis syndrome participate on a weekly basis inan artistic activity that takes place in nature,under the guidance of some artists or arttherapists. Pupils choose the place and thematerials they want to intervene in. Stone,

wood, seeds, sand, transparent plastic foil allare pieced together in installation


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compositions; all become companions that

transform, age and disappear every stage isbeing recorded and stored. These land-artinterventions restore the contact with nature,stimulate and develop childrens creativity,observation skills, attention, and therelationship with the other and the

environment [11, 12].

2.2. Art therapy in Romania

In Romania, there were some initiatives ofusing creative techniques in helping suffering

people since the 1980s. After 1990, the arttherapy movement spread and developed into

several professional levels: amateur andprofessional artists got involved in communityprojects with specific actions, whereasspecialists studied the usefulness of using arttechniques in their activity, opting for eitherthe therapeutic specialist-artist couple, or forthe post-graduate specialization under foreign

experts.

Since 2008, art therapy was introduced in theOccupations Code of Romania, which alloweda clear demarcation of the necessary

competences. Most of the persons that already

use specific art therapy techniques have BAdegrees in arts or psychosocial fields. Theofficial recognition of the art therapistoccupation, obtained after graduating a MA inart therapy, offers new insertion opportunitieson a constantly moving labour market.

2.3. Good practice examples

A very important step towards creatinginterference between art, education and art

therapy was made when the Department of ArtPedagogy inside the Art and Design Universityof Cluj introduced in its study programme anArt therapy techniques course. The programmestarted in 2004 and continues to develop bytackling new directions. In 2005, a graduate ofthe Art Education Department initiated an arttherapy techniques programme at a specialschool from Cluj, continued it in several other

normal high schools that had mix nationalitiesclasses, and still continues the programme atthe Visual Disabled High School from Cluj.

Fig. 2 A group method of working


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Most of the students of the Art Education

Department are either young women thatpursue a career in education, either women thatalready work in the teaching system and wantto specialize in arts. Students have to deal,even during their pedagogical practiceprogramme, with the rejection attitude and

carelessness pupils show towards the artisticdisciplines, as well as aggressive behaviours.

The creative teamwork methods, the use of asmany diverse plastic techniques as possible, artfilms viewing, used in the Art therapy

techniques course makes students tocommunicate their own experiences, to value

team creativity and fellowship and to activatethe social intervention behaviour, empathyand, maybe whats most important, it helpsthem to become influential voices in the spacethey represent, not only information

consumers.

Using art therapy techniques in the activitieswith the pupils, changing the classroomscenery with interactive visits to the Art

Museum of Cluj, attending the creativityworkshop organized inside the Art Museum,analysing art works at a visual-plastic leveland at an affective-emotional level, workingtogether in a group, organising periodicexhibitions with the works of children allthese represent a way of interaction withchildren, of using their own experience inorder to develop emotionally and to understandoneself and the surrounding world.

Observing the Art Pedagogy Department

students practice, who use art-therapytechniques in their work with pupils, it hasbeen noticed how aggressive behaviours anddestructive emotion-conducted actionsdiminished in recurrence. As an example, it

can be mentioned that identity can be regained(which is easily lost in an institution), that selfesteem and perception can be strengthened, orthat decision making and independence statingcan be encouraged; social isolation can becountered, communication and social skills canbe improved, emotions can be balanced, and

alternatives to unacceptable behaviours can beoffered. It seems that teaching children about

feelings, we do not just help them recognize

what happens inside themselves or others, butwe can also show them that, when talkingabout feelings, difficult life situations can beimproved and overcame.

For the students of the Art PedagogyDepartment, the initiative of introducing anArt therapy techniques course in the curriculahas immediate benefits on the personaldevelopment, and, on the long run, on theprofessional development for those who wantto pursue a teaching career. The official

recognition of the art therapist occupationoffers students that have skills in practicing art

therapy, after graduating the art-therapymaster, more knowledge about this field andhelps the develop new professional skills andattitudes, which represent new jobopportunities in a continuous moving labour

market.

3. Conclusion

The creation process is more correspondedwith the personal process of being, that relativeability to create links with the others, withones inner life. Artistic references also enablecommunication by expressing and connectingwith the other, using thus a supportcommunication technique. Art-therapy usesthe artistic creative processes, artistictechniques and also distinctive self-knowledge,communication and networking techniques, inorder to know and express oneself, to generatepersonal change and development.

Practical applications of using art-therapy

techniques in the learning process show theirbenefits for students and pupils. Students that

attended art therapy techniques coursescovered several exercises on emotions self-awareness, on empathy for the other and onhow developing and valorizing creativity andsolidarity inside a team can activate social

intervention behaviour. Observing the ArtPedagogy Department students practice, whouse art-therapy techniques in their work with

pupils, it has been noticed how aggressive


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behaviours and destructive emotion-conducted

actions diminished in recurrence.

Based on various field interferenceperformative pedagogy valorisescommunication and social involvement skillswhich become more relevant andacknowledged by the Romanian educationsystem. Art in education represents a space forresearching and exploring pupils potential,which could easily develop into a reflectionsystem on themselves and society. Theirintervention could therefore expand beyond

information gathering.

4. Acknowledgements

This work has been partially co-funded from the

contract Estia-Earth: 142418-2008-GR-Erasmus-

ENW, of the European Community, Direction

General Education and Culture, Education,

Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency and

National Technical University of Athens.

5. References

[1] Capdeville, J. P., Les bases delenseignement en art therapie, Publication

de lUniversite de Tours, 1990.

[2] Forestier, R., Tout savoir sur lart therapie,Favre, Lausanne, 2000.

[3] Preda, Vasile, Terapii prin mediere artistic,Presa Universitar Clujean, Cluj-Napoca,2003.

[4] Fabini, Dana, Receptarea n artele vizuale.Implicaii n terapia prin art, Casa Crii

de Stiin, Cluj-Napoca, 2006.

[5] Fabini, Dana, Creativitate artistic. Relaiintre artele vizuale i terapia prin art,

Presa Universitar Clujean, Cluj-Napoca,

2006.

[6] De Meredieu, Florence, Arta i noiletehnologii, Editura Rao, Bucureti, 2005.

[7] Rubin, Judith Aron, Art-Terapia. Teorie iTehnic, Editura Trei, Bucureti, 2009.

[8] Cook, Cadwell, The Play Way, London,Heinemann, 1917;

[9] Rodriguez, J., Troll, G., Lart therapie.Pratiques, techniques et concepts, Ellebore,

Paris, 2001.

[10] Boyer-Labrouche, A., Manuel darttherapie, Dunod, Paris, 2000;

[11] Broustra, J.,Lexpression, psycho-therapie etcreation, E.S.F., Paris, 1996;

[12] Fabini, Dana, Creativitatea artistic. Relaiintre artele vizuale i terapia prin art,

Presa Universitar Clujean, Cluj-Napoca,

2006;

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