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Drawn to art therapyRed, orange, black and white: colours splashed across a canvas that have little significance to the average person can have profound meaning to the creator. Art therapists help clients bridge the gap between creative expression and emotional well-being. NOREEN FAROOQUI |
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 [ 2005-11-16 ] |
Art Therapist
Widely practised in both the United States and Europe, art therapy is quickly gaining popularity in Canada. Traditionally applied to treat clients suffering from emotional trauma and other emotional difficulties, today, the therapy is used across populations to treat anything from death to identity crises to anxiety attacks.
Katherine Carney is an art therapist who in addition to having a private practice works with veteran clients at Sunnybrook Hospital.
"Art therapy is great for people who have trouble communicating verbally," Carney says.
Karen Freud, another art therapist, deals with a younger clientele: she works in a daycare centre for children with special needs.
Freud says art therapists tend to have a certain set of character traits. "You have to be very open, have a strong code of ethics, and you have to have the ability to understand the complexity of different personalities," she says.
Both Carney and Freud enrolled in art therapy school after completing their bachelor degree, a minimum requirement at most art therapy schools. Artistic talent is not a requirement. Education consists of both theory and realistic application.
"At the Toronto Art Therapy Institute, they integrate psychology and art," Freud says. "There's an internship involved where you need 700 hours of practical experience."
Art therapy explores emotions in a nurturing, supportive environment either one-to-one or in a group setting. Using traditional art tools such as clay and paint, clients express their emotions through visible representation.
Freud says art therapy is very client-directed, and employs a combination of verbal training with the creation of art.
"There are a lot of therapists who work with the elderly and work with children who have developmental delays," Carney says.
"Art therapy can also be great for adolescents because, as we know, adolescents don't really like to talk very much," Carney says. "You ask them how they are and they say 'fine' and nothing else. If you look at all the graffiti and doodling they do, that seems to be quite an outlet for a lot of adolescents, expressing themselves through art.
"I'm amazed how often people are really surprised with what comes out in the art, something that they weren't really expecting."
Because art therapy is effectively used to treat terminally ill patients, art therapists sometimes work in teams with doctors and nurses. Each member of the team is able to contribute specific information on the patient and together they come to a conclusion on the patient's overall health.
At Sunnybrook Hospital, Carney works with two standing groups: one group suffers from cognitive impairments and the other group consists of people who are experiencing some form of physical limitation due to such reasons as stroke or paralysis.
With the physical impairment group, Carney coaches clients to use functioning parts of their bodies to create art. With the cognitive group, Carney employs a different technique.
"Because they're dealing with Alzheimer's or memory impairments, the cognitive group cannot work on long-term projects. So with them, projects are much more immediate and in the moment, helping them to feel connected," Carney says.
"This group can get very agitated, and some of the work I do helps to reduce their agitation."
Rather than drawing conclusions on what the artwork represents, Carney helps clients with the process of self-discovery.
"My part is really to facilitate exploration; for example I could ask, 'It's great that you used red, what does red mean to you?'," Carney says.
"Art therapy provides a medium for people to communicate and express themselves in a different way and learn something about themselves," she says.
To learn more about art therapy, visit the Toronto Art Therapy Institute at http://www.tati.on.ca/about.html.
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