ART GROUP THERPAY

Art Group Therpay With Chinese PTSD People

Introduction

A. General statement of area of interest

Art therapy can effectively treat people of all ages. (Anderson, 2001b) Anyone from groups or communities inclusing individuals & families in all sorts of relationships can use art as therapy.

Common uses of art therapy include the following:

People under lots of stress or pressure may use art as therapy.

Managers and/or staff members under stress may use art therapy.

Someone who has mental health problems may uses art therapy. (Bergland, 2009)

Someone with learning disabilities or difficulties can use art as therapy.

Children or young adults having problems in school can use art therapy.

Kids, teenagers, or adults with personal problems can benefit from using art therapy.

People with more serious issues can make use of art therapy. For example, people with autism, brain injuries, eating disorders, cancer, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, etc.

This paper proposes the art therapy program for the survival of Chinese people from the Wenzhou “723” train accident and currently suffering from PTSD.

B. Process by which you arrived at the area of interest

Art therapy has many benefits enhancing the recovery from mental health issues. The term 'Art Therapy' refers to psychological treatment involving the process of creating or observing art (Carolan, 2001). Bringing together an in-depth understanding of the process of creating art and psychotherapeutic techniques, art therapy has been known to bring about significant mental health benefits.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, psychiatrists became interested in the art work done by patients, and studied it to see if there was a link between the art and the illness of their patients. At this same time, art educators were discovering that the free and spontaneous art expression of children represented both emotional and symbolic communications. (Gantt, 2006) Since then, the profession of art therapy has grown into an effective and important method of communication, assessment, and treatment with many populations, including health care and mental illness.It has been noticed that the train accident event got buried in their subconscious where it affects them in the future. These types of things are not easy for these individuals to talk about, especially when there are deep-rooted emotional issues in play. Through art therapy these PTSD patients can help bring these suppressed emotions to the surface so the art therapist can then focus on healing the their respective issue(s).

C. Clear statement of the problem or need

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) involves a pattern of symptoms that some individuals develop after experiencing a traumatic event such as sexual assault. (Knapp, 2002) Symptoms of PTSD include repeated thoughts of the assault; memories and nightmares; avoidance of thoughts, feelings, and situations related to the assault; and increased arousal (e.g., difficulty sleeping and concentrating, jumpiness, irritability). One study that examined PTSD symptoms among women who were raped found that 94% of women experienced these symptoms during the two weeks immediately following the rape. (Malchiodi, 2007) Nine months later, about 30% of the women were still reporting this pattern of ...