Creative Arts Therapies

Creative Arts Therapies

Creative Arts Therapies

Overview

Arts (or creative) therapies involve using the arts in a therapeutic environment with a trained therapist.They use metaphor, image, movement and sound to explore a client’s inner world. Often this work is nonverbal; which can be particularly helpful to children and young people of school age, who may find talking about their problems more difficult. School counselors may include creative therapies in their work in schools.There are substantial differences between teaching a creative subject and being a creative therapist. The main difference is that of intention. Arts education aims towards aesthetic and artistic outcomes, while arts therapies have clear psychological intent (Karkou 2010).

The different types of regulated of arts therapies include:

  • dance movement therapy
  • drama-therapy
  • music therapy
  • art psychotherapy

Arts therapies can help manage and cope better with:

  • mental health problems
  • physical health problems
  • difficult emotions
  • difficult experiences, such as historical abuse or bereavement

Arts therapies can be particularly helpful if:

  • the client feels distanced from their feelings
  • find it too upsetting to talk about painful experiences, and find talkingtreatments difficult
  • Does not have the language to explain the difficulties.

Note: Government regulation

Arts therapies are regulated by the Health Care Professionals Council (HCPC).Music therapy, dance movement therapy, dramatherapy and art psychotherapy also all have recognised professional bodies which provide regulation and codes of practice for their members. Arts therapists are expected to maintain professional standards and Practitioners are trained to post-graduate level and must be State Registered in order to practice.

What do arts therapies look like in schools?

The creative arts help to build emotional intelligence, co-operation and understanding and improve psychological and emotional health and wellbeing of all pupils. Working alongside arts therapists can support staff in the classroom and help integrate the most vulnerable pupils with their peers.

Access to the arts enhances every school and pupils will engage in after school clubs, school productions and choirs etc which will develop their confidence and self esteem.

Creative ways of working in the classroom:

Teachers and support staff should be wary of trying to use the creative arts as a form of therapy in the classroom without the specialist training, as they may find themselves opening up areas in young people which they are unable to contain therapeutically. However, there are skills which can be used successfully to support children and young people.

Through dance and drama, drawing and music, young people can begin to express themselves. Telling stories is an important way of making sense of the world, and can be encouraged. Young people may choose to share their work or keep it private. It is important to remember that response to this work should not be critical or judgemental. The work produced is personal to the young person, and is different to work produced for exams or to complete targets.

Using puppets in the classroom:

-Making puppets:

Children can make puppets from socks, pegs or collage materials, and use them to perform plays or manufactured puppets can be used. Puppets may represent what they are feeling or be around a specific theme. It is important that the puppets are not expected to conform to a particular style and that they do not all look the same. This is an opportunity for the child to be creative and project something of themselves onto their creation.

Puppets can be used with primary and secondary students.

-Puppet’s got a problem:

Use a large puppet and give him or her a name. Introduce the puppet and outline the problem. This may reflect something that is going on in the classroom or for a group of children. Ask the children to make suggestions about what the puppet can do. Encourage a dialogue between puppet and child. Using a puppet helps to create a distance from the problems of the child/children, and puts them into the role of the expert. (This has worked well with children who have experienced domestic violence, as they are able to voice their worries on behalf of the puppet.)

Some of the suggestions can be enacted with puppets, as the children try out different resolutions.

-Puppet plays:

Give the children different scenarios based on key emotional themes they will experience in their lives:

  • A child feeling isolated and alone at playtimes
  • A child being bullied
  • Parents fighting
  • A child feeling anxious
  • Cyberbullying
  • Adolescent peer pressure.

Allow time for children to perform their plays and witness others as audience.

-Therapeutic stories:

There are many stories and extracts from literature which can be used to trigger discussion and encourage empathic responses. The teacher can ask the class to imagine how they would feel as the character, or ask them to draw or make something which reflects the character.

The teacher can feed back the emotional themes raised and demonstrate an empathic response, before widening the discussion to include further facts and information about the emotional themes. Acknowledging what has been said and empathising with it helps to develop the reflexive process.(Empathy is listening, trying to imagine yourself in that position and how you might feel and reflecting it back.)

-Drama improvisations:

Most children enjoy creating scenes about a variety of issues,especially if they have props to hand. These may include hats, pieces of materials and simple items.

-Creative colouring books:

There are many colouring books for children and adults on the market, which can be used in the classroom. Although they provide a readymade picture, they can be a stimulus for further work. They are also very helpful for young people with anxiety, who may not know where to start on a blank sheet of paper. They can also promote relaxation and mindfulness.

-Group work:

Group work can be run with an arts therapist and member of school staff, who know the children. This can help to develop social skills, friendships and target specific difficulties such as anxiety.

-1:1 work:

Refer individual children to the school counselor through Guidance and Support or Mindmate Spa. Counseling sessions will be confidential.