Art therapy – what is it? Types of art therapy

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Nowadays, we know many unconventional methods of treatment, both physical and mental. Every now and then the medical world raves about a different type of treatment and discusses its benefits. In recent years, art therapy, i.e. a method based on broadly understood art and creativity, has been particularly popular. In what cases is art therapy used and what exactly is this method?

Art therapy – the history of the phenomenon

Many artists have almost always admitted to the therapeutic dimension of art. Already in antiquity, literature and theater were treated as a way of coping with the problems of everyday life. Art therapy is a type of therapy, the main tool of which is art. The greatest development in this field took place in the 70s and 80s and is still a dynamically developing field of psychotherapy.

The healing properties of art therapy are the subject of research by both psychiatrists, psychologists, educators, sociologists and medical doctors. The precursor of art therapy is Adrian Hill, a British educator, art therapist and artist. It was he who first used the term “art therapy”. The therapy gained popularity after World War II, when war veterans were the patients of psychiatric hospitals, and artists became doctors’ assistants.

Art therapy in Poland appeared at the turn of the 80s and 90s. One of its precursors was Zbigniew Hory. In Poland, art therapy began to be used both during the rehabilitation of the sick and disabled, and in the treatment of people with mental problems. Art therapy is also helpful in treating interpersonal problems, personality disorders, and problems with self-acceptance.

How to define art therapy?

The scope of art therapy includes many methods of work. The concept has a wide range of meaning and it is difficult to define it unequivocally. Nevertheless, it can be considered a therapy using various arts, aimed at improving the patient’s quality of life. Art therapy is designed to relieve the person participating in it and prevent them from focusing on everyday problems. Moreover, art therapy theorists also argue that it is also educational.

One of the definitions of art therapy includes music therapy, choreotherapy, bibliotherapy and plastic therapy. However, art therapy is not limited only to sick people and is often attended by healthy people who want to relieve excess stress. Moreover, some researchers treat art therapy as part of culture therapy.

There are many forms of creativity and therefore art therapy does not have to be limited only to those mentioned above. Nevertheless, its main types are: music therapy, bibliotherapy, choreotherapy, theater therapy and artistic expression. The form of therapy used depends on the therapeutic process.

Types of art therapy – music therapy

The term music therapy appeared in 1950. It comes from the words “music” (mousike Greek) and “therapy” (therapeuein Greek). It is an interdisciplinary field that combines elements of medicine as well as musical pedagogy and psychology. In Poland, it gained great popularity in the 70s, and the opening of the Institute of Music Therapy in Wrocław contributed to it. The precursors of music therapy in Poland are prof. Tadeusz Natanson and Dr. Andrzej Janicki.

You can read about the beneficial effect of music on the well-being in the Bible, and more precisely in the First Book of Samuel – King David played the harp in order to chase away the evil spirits that attacked Saul. Music has always played an important role in tribal ceremonies and was used to treat somatic and mental disorders. In the nineteenth century, Canon Howard was the first to turn on soft music to his patients to make their stay in hospital pleasant and relieve stress.

Over the years, the great potential of music as a therapeutic agent has been recognized. So they started training musicians to work in hospitals – this way music therapy became another profession. The first music therapy studies were established in 1994 at Michigan State University. The use of music in the treatment of diseases was described by A. Demianowski. Nowadays, music has found application in many fields of medicine and complements traditional methods of treatment.

Music as a therapeutic method

Music shapes the emotional sphere and influences the development of proper communication between people. It also shapes the patient’s personality and influences psychomotor arousal and emotional tension. What’s more, it has a beneficial effect on the psychophysical state of the patient and supports diagnostic methods. It also evokes certain physiological reactions and influences the biochemical changes taking place in the body.

According to researchers, music affects the psychosomatic, psychological, psychomotor and pedagogical areas. Music therapy may increase the perception of certain states, trigger visual images and induce body reactions such as: warmth, cold, thrill, crying – each of the reactions can then be discussed and analyzed. Music also stimulates emotions and at the same time releases blocked emotional energy.

Types of art therapy – perceptual, active, individual and group music therapy

There are 4 forms of music therapy, which are used depending on the type of disease the patient suffers from. These are:

1. perceptual music therapy – during therapy, patients listen to both whole pieces and their fragments. The choice of music is the therapist’s task, but he does not direct patients to a specific perception of musical works. An important element of the treatment, however, is the discussion about the feelings caused by the sound. Thanks to this, patients can tell what they are experiencing and what emotions accompany them while listening to music.
2. Active music therapy – during the therapy, patients take an active part in creating music. Thanks to singing, playing instruments and moving to the rhythm of the music and all related vocal and instrumental improvisations, they can express their emotions. The therapist can thus better understand the personality of the patients. Interestingly, he gets a lot of information about them, even taking into account which instruments they want to use.
3. Individual music therapy – this type of art therapy focuses on treating each participant individually. The time needed for this activity is also adjusted individually to the patient’s needs. Creative methods develop creative thinking and help you deal with fears, help you get to know yourself better and increase your self-esteem. This type of art therapy can combine, for example, listening to music with drawing.
4. Group music therapy – during therapy, patients cooperate with each other. Thanks to this, they can develop sensitivity, empathy and the ability to function in a group. Making music together helps the participants to relieve stress, tames them to new forms of behavior and enables them to master skills that may have been beyond their interest so far.
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Music therapy and other fields of medicine

Music therapy is a type of art therapy that has been used, among others, in in psychiatry, neurology, oncology, geriatrics, obstetrics, cardiology and surgery. The effectiveness of the method is scientifically proven and therefore it is included in complex therapy. Nevertheless, it does not exhaust the possibilities of using classes of this type. According to specialists, music therapy will be used wherever the chronicity of the disease is more pronounced.

However, music is not considered a drug substitute. This is due to the fact that it works weaker than pharmacological agents. Among the fields of medicine mentioned, music therapy has found particular application in psychiatry, as sounds have a significant impact on the psyche and may contribute to the improvement of disturbed functions and stimulate development when the patient does not have access to the necessary stimuli. What’s more, music also removes psychophysical tension.

Healing properties of music

Music can affect the entire body. However, it especially affects emotions. Often, the result of not only participation in art therapy, but also listening to music at home, is an improvement in well-being. Sounds help to remove certain fears, stimulate the imagination, and in the case of music therapy participants also improve relations with group members. In the treatment of mental disorders, its aim is to help the patient to adjust to the surrounding reality.

Music used as a therapeutic agent encourages patients to work independently. What’s more, thanks to it, they are able to learn to take initiative faster and better prepare themselves to function independently in society. Music also evokes reactions that the mentally ill patient is unable to control and thus behaves truly – this in turn makes it easier for the therapist to make a diagnosis.

Music therapy has a beneficial effect on people suffering from schizophrenia. It turned out that after 8 such sessions, their well-being improves due to the reduction of the negative symptoms of the disease. Music therapy also has a positive effect on the treatment of schizophrenia and enables patients to communicate more efficiently with other people.

Treatment with music is also helpful for people with nervous disorders. These disorders arise, inter alia, as a result of long-term experience of anxiety. Thanks to music therapy, a sick person can better express their own opinion and convey emotions. In the case of people with neurosis, listening to music, playing instruments and additional integration exercises during therapy are helpful.

Music therapy is gaining more and more popularity in cardiac rehabilitation. Music therapy programs are also developed for this group of patients. An experiment was carried out in Poland, during which patients participated in cardiological procedures, but without anesthesia, with local anesthesia, and in the operating room, both before and after the procedure, music was heard in accordance with the patient’s preferences, but containing adequate sounds.

Oncologists also benefit from music therapy. Sounds relieve stress, anxiety, nausea and depression and make cancer patients happier as music is also fun. Music also helps cancer patients by reducing anxiety levels and improving mood. It is also worth mentioning that music therapy also lowers pain in women who have undergone a severe mastectomy.

Types of art therapy – bibliotherapy

The word “bibliotherapy” comes from the Greek biblion (book) and therapeuo (I cure). The term was used for the first time in 1916, but healing by means of literature was known in ancient Greece. Initially, bibliotherapy was used only in hospitals, sanatoriums and preventors. The aim of bibliotherapy is to support the patient in the process of self-realization and compensation. Reading a properly selected book can have a huge impact on your well-being and, for example, reduce anxiety, calm down and reduce fear.

Reading phenomena, which in retrospect can be considered the first bibliotherapeutic attempts, appeared in antiquity. Above the entrance to the library of Ramses II there was an inscription: “healing for the soul.” In one of Cairo’s hospitals in the XNUMXth century AD, the Koran was read to patients for therapeutic / therapeutic purposes. In Europe, in the XNUMXth century, mentally ill patients were treated with the works of Christian authors.

In Poland, the therapeutic function of the book was discovered in the XNUMXth century – then it began to be considered the main tool of science. In the XNUMXth century, patients were treated with secular texts in the USA, England and Scotland. At that time, the principle of moral treatment was in force in psychiatry, so patients were advised to read books that were impeccable from the moral perspective. During World War I, patients in military hospitals were given Christian literature to read.

There are many popular opinions about bibliotherapy. Due to the wide access to courses in its scope and great interest in the issue, it may seemingly seem like a therapeutic activity in the light field. However, bibliotherapy is a complex method. To use it successfully, you need thorough pedagogical education and many years of professional practice.

Types of bibliotherapy

Institutional librarianship – this type of art therapy is carried out by medical, social rehabilitation and educational institutions. Its task is to support the process of rehabilitation, rehabilitation and recreation as well as provide information. All activities in its scope are aimed at hospitalized patients. Classes are conducted by teams consisting of doctors, psychologists and educators.

Clinical librotherapy – is a type of art therapy addressed to both physically and mentally ill people. These classes are conducted by doctors and bibliotherapists not only in hospitals, but also in patients’ homes. The aim of clinical bibliotherapy is psychological support of the patient, stimulating him to be active, accepting the disease or, on the contrary, to greater involvement in the fight for recovery.

Educational librotherapy is a classic model of bibliotherapy. It is aimed at people who do not have emotional and somatic problems. Books offered to patients are to help in solving their developmental problems – the target audience is both teenagers and adults with personal problems. Bibliotherapeutic activities support the process of personal development.

Fairy-tale therapy – is a bibliotherapeutic method aimed at children between 4 and 9 years of age. The topics discussed in the teaching materials in this area concern the phenomena important to the youngest. Many fairy tales concern situations similar to those experienced by a toddler on a daily basis. The fairy tales do not suggest specific solutions to the toddler, but according to they support researchers in overcoming weaknesses and provide entertainment.

What group of people is bibliotherapy addressed to?

Therapy helps counteract emotions that have a negative impact on well-being, health and emotional states that hinder functioning in society. Both mentally healthy people and those with emotional disorders can participate in bibliotherapy, but this type of therapy is primarily directed to the latter group. In some cases, the therapy may have a stimulating function.

Literary texts can evoke positive emotions, thus counteracting despondency and depression. In bibliotherapy, humor is what helps participants to clear their psyche of negative emotions. Reading comedy, satirical and witty texts can help to relieve tension. The cheerfulness and humor reduce the intensity of aggressive tendencies.

Children have the most problems with emotional disorders. It is the youngest who are potentially the main target group of bibliotherapy. Emotional disorders often occur in children suffering from various diseases, physically disabled and mentally retarded. The youngest are often unable to control difficult emotional states.

Socially maladjusted people often take part in the discussed type of art therapy. The reasons for this may be problems at home, school and peer environment. Social maladjustment results, for example, from a lack of emotional contact with parents, siblings and colleagues. Adults and adolescents can be socially maladjusted for the same reasons.

Another target group of bibliotherapy are people with low self-esteem. Librotherapists often treat this group of people using individual psychology, one of the fields of depth psychology. This model assumes that human action depends on the processes taking place in the subconscious. According to their assumptions, low self-esteem is coded in the subconscious as a result of, inter alia, illnesses and congenital malformations.

Participation in bibliotherapeutic classes by people with low self-esteem is aimed at activating a compensation mechanism in them, which, according to bibliotherapists, may have a positive regulating function. This contributes to the appreciation of the participant of the therapy, especially when it turns out that his creativity evokes admiration from the environment.

People who feel psychological discomfort caused by isolation and inactivity can also participate in bibliotherapy. This group includes retirees, people on a disability pension, but also people suffering from chronic diseases and the disabled. According to the theory of activity, which is used by many bibliotherapists, every human being is an active being and the lack of space for action caused by forced inactivity is conducive to thinking about the disease.

The last group to which bibliotherapy is directed are people with mild mental retardation. Although mental retardation makes it difficult to learn the text in many stages, it does not mean that the role of the book in the revalidation process is small. Participation in a therapy such as this means that mental, emotional, and cognitive processes are involved.

What is the bibliotherapeutic process?

The bibliotherapeutic process consists of five stages. The participant first reads, watches or listens to a given piece first. Then, thanks to identification with the literary hero, he may experience certain emotional states and, as a result, experience purification (catharsis), understood as a relief, enabling the release of tension. In this way, he gains a better insight into himself and, thanks to the subsequent consultation with the therapist, can take action to change his attitude.

Types of art therapy – choreotherapy

Choreotherapy is a form of dance therapy, established in the United States in the 40s. However, the ancient Greeks already knew about the therapeutic properties of dance. It was there that dance art was treated as a tool to help improve one’s personality. However, the dancers of that time also had to have knowledge of other arts and scientific knowledge. Dancers in ancient Greece also studied geometry and philosophy.

Choreotherapy is a type of art therapy based on dance and music and movement exercises. It is used during the rehabilitation of both physically and mentally ill people. According to choreotherapists, its potential lies in influencing emotions, the muscular system and motor skills. Choreotherapy is a multidimensional therapy due to its influence on the emotional, motor, aesthetic and erotic spheres.

Types of choreotherapy

1. music and movement exercises (kinesiotherapy) – this type of art therapy is also part of physiotherapy. The combination of kinesiotherapy and movement is called clinical choreotherapy. The goal of kinesiotherapy is to help the patient regain fitness – fully or partially. Exercises are selected in terms of the patient’s diseases, e.g. cardiovascular diseases, nervous system, lateral curvature of the spine, degenerative disease.
2. Movement improvisation – this is a way of expressing yourself with the use of body movements. People participating in this type of art therapy can reveal various emotional states, both pleasant and difficult. Musical improvisation is also a form of entertainment, giving the participants the opportunity to express themselves. In addition, it educates auditory and motor memory.
3. Dance exercises – the therapeutic potential of this type of choreotherapy draws a lot from ballroom dancing. These exercises help to increase self-esteem and foster bonding between participants. The healing element of dance exercises is touch itself.

Healing properties of dance

According to a group of psychotherapists, choreotherapy helps to free oneself from suppressed emotions. It is also attended by people who want to understand themselves better. Dance therapies can be helpful for shy, neurotic people who experience stress and emotional difficulties. They are helpful for both men and women who are unable to meet the needs of closeness and have a disturbed body image.

The classes help people participating in them to open up to another person. Thanks to dance improvisation, you can learn to move in harmony with your own body, and the result is sometimes the discovery of previously unknown emotional resources in yourself. Performing various choreotherapeutic exercises develops the imagination and teaches how to synchronize the movements. Many of them are designed to open up to other people.

Choreotherapy is also a form of entertainment and a way to relax. Dancing, like other physical exercises, relieves tension in the muscles and relieves stress. What’s more, it improves blood circulation, breathing and requires full concentration. All this means that people participating in the therapy learn to keep their attention divided, better control the body and maintain the rhythm. Dancing to the beat of fast music improves blood circulation.

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What are the choreotherapy classes like?

When the participants of the classes are young people, then the classes last one and a half hours. The first stage, however, is not to warm up, but to get to know the participants of the therapy – they have to touch each other, get to know each other and like each other best. Only then does the warm-up take place, also with the accompaniment of music. The composers whose music most often sounds in choreotherapy classes are, among others Kitaro, Vangelis and Jean Michalle-Jare.

The main part of the classes is to perform various dance exercises. The program is designed to ensure the well-being of both inhibited and hyperactive people. The therapist’s task is to constantly observe the pupils – observe the movements of their heads, hands, the arrangement of their feet, but also the interactions between participants.

Choreotherapy exercises for the elderly last no more than 45 minutes. Their pattern is similar to the exercises for young people, i.e. first warming up, then main exercises, and then relaxing and breathing exercises. In the case of seniors, warming up and exercises should not be physically burdened – these are often exercises for finger and hand movements, clapping and stomping. Seniors eagerly use utensils such as balls, rings and sandbags.

An indispensable element of choreotherapy classes, regardless of whether they are young people or seniors, are relaxing and breathing exercises – this is how therapy sessions always end. It is also extremely important to choose the musical material that must have a rhythm and pace adapted to the time of the exercises.

Types of art therapy – plastic therapy

Plastic therapy is a form of therapy, the tools of which are plastic arts, including painting, graphics, sculpture, architecture, arts and crafts, photography and multimedia. A common mistake is to equate art therapy with plastic therapy and use it as a synonym for the word art therapy. Plastic therapy does not include the previously discussed forms of art therapy.

The methods used in plastic therapy depend on the fine arts. The tools used in painting therapy may be: watercolors, oil paints, acrylic paints, gouache and aerosol paints; in graphic therapy, participants can use charcoal, chalk and other border techniques, e.g. linocut; in sculpture therapy, participants use a variety of sculpture techniques. Nevertheless, in these and other cases, they do not have to be limited to traditional tools.

There are many divisions of plastic therapy, which include, among others:

1. pajdoplastykoterapia – plastic therapy for children,
2. hebaplasticotherapy – plastic therapy of adolescents,
3. androplastykoterapia – plastic therapy for adults,
4. geriaplastykoterapia – plastic therapy for seniors.

Plastic therapy for people with disabilities includes the following specializations:

1. oligophrenoplasty – plastic therapy for people with intellectual disabilities and the mentally retarded,
2. tyfloplastykoterapia – plastic therapy for the blind, visually impaired and blind,
3. surdoplastykoterapia – plastic therapy for the deaf, deaf and hard of hearing.
4. tyflosurdoplastykoterapia – plastic therapy for both visually impaired and deaf people,
5. psychoplastykoterapia – plastic therapy for people with mental disorders and the mentally ill.

What are the therapeutic benefits of plastic therapy?

This type of art therapy, unlike the previous ones, improves the participants manually. It also develops creativity, lowers nervous tension, stimulates and develops imagination and activates the sphere of non-verbal communication. Plastic therapy participants can express their experiences and learn to perceive the world in a multi-sensory way. In addition, they learn to concentrate on carrying out one task over a period of time, and this, as a result, makes them more effective in other areas of life.

Who can become an art therapist?

There is considerable interest in various types of art therapy. On the course market, you can find many training courses in this field intended for various groups of recipients, e.g. educators, students, parents, psychologists and even seniors. Almost anyone can become an art therapist, which in turn raises many critical opinions among people working in this profession. In 2014, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy introduced a regulation, thanks to which art therapists were classified to the group of people using unconventional methods of therapy.