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Sensory art therapy is a type of treatment that uses all kinds of art (including music, visual art, and dance) to explore emotions, work through psychological conflicts and reduce anxiety, and even control physical pain in patients. The creative and nonconventional process of sensory art therapy often allows for better results, and has been used as a complimentary intervention to normal medicine.
History of Sensory Art Therapy Early Years Margaret Namburg, Edith Kramer, Hanna Kwiatkowska and Elinor Ulman have been credited with being the pioneers of the field of sensory art therapy. While all of these scientists made significant contributions, Margaret Namburg has been hailed the "Mother of Art Therapy". Her work focused on the use of art, mainly as a psychoanalytic diagnostic tool. It followed closely other psychoanalytic practices of the time, and was viewed as the communication of unconscious ideas and emotions that were being expressed by the patient.
Sensory Art Therapy Approaches Today Today's art therapy is broken down into 3 different approaches: Psychodynamic, Humanistic, Learning and Developmental.
Psychodynamic Terms used today include "transference" and "defense mechanism" to describe why these images from the unconscious are expressed. Humanistic This view is more of a positive psychology approach, and is defined by an optimistic view of humans, and how expression through their art allows them to take control over these emotions. Learning and Developmental This type of art therapy is more often used to assist children who have emotional and developmental disabilities. Types of Sensory Art Therapy Many different types of art therapy have been developed over the years in order to combat different types of pain, anxiety or stressors in the lives of patients. Different techniques have also been developed to ensure that art therapy can help as many diverse people as possible.
Dance/ Movement Therapy For over 75 years, this type of therapy has been used because many therapists view movement as the most important way to elicit therapeutic transformation.This therapy has been primarily used to explore and deal with early childhood relationships that may have been negative, and work to repair these relationships, as well as the negative effects they have had on the individual. Movement analyses such as the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) and the Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) have been used as a way to measure development and therapeutic success. The KMP looks at tension-flow and shape flow rhythms, and has been used to explore mother-infant interactions The LMA focuses on effort, direction, space and force. Because of its ability to incorporate both motor and cognitive functions, dance has been hailed as one of the more useful and holistic approaches
Music Therapy There are 4 types of musical therapy that are used: Improvisation, re-creative, composition and receptive music experience. The first three (improvisation, re-creative and composition) require the patient to perform or play music. The last one (receptive music experience) involves a patient or client listening to music. Music therapy has also been used to help patients with neurological developmental disorders. These have been effect methods because of music's ability to evoke emotions, and researchers have found that music regulates emotions (Irhp.org). For instance, many songs elicit specific and strong emotions, and if the song is tied with a particularly traumatic memory, it helps the psychologist reach those memories and explore them with the patient. It is a valuable tool when verbal communication isn't possible, for example with infants, patients with dementia, or severe developmental disorders
Acting Therapy Because acting forces an individual to impersonate a character, it forces a person to control not only their bodies, but their personality as well. This approach is seen as the most holistic type of sensory art therapy.
Writing Therapy Writing therapy has been shown to reduce stress and improve health. Smyth (1998) did a case study on 13 writing therapy studies and found that overall, there was a 23% health advantage for writing groups in the study. One drawback with this technique is that participants reported higher anxiety and negative mood after writing, and some have stated that they think this negative effect can diminish the benefits of the therapy.
Benefits of Sensory Art Therapy Self-discovery This discovery often leads to a relief of emotional tension caused by past events, and can be used as a coping mechanism.
Empowerment Art Therapy gives individuals the ability to articulate their fears and stresses in a non-conventional way, and often leads to sense of control over these emotions.
Stress Relief Effective for stress relief by itself, but can provide even better results if paired with other relaxation devices such as guided imagery.
Physical Pain Relief and Rehabilitation Art therapy has been shown to help decrease pain in patients who are recovering from illness and injury. It has also been used in patents who are chronically or terminally ill, to provide relief and pain control.
Empirical Evidence for the Use of Sensory Art Therapy Ball (2002) Ball conducted long-term research on five children who were considered to be severely emotionally disturbed. These children participated in 50 art therapy sessions, and the results suggested that the art therapy was successful, and the children showed marked progress in their treatment over the course of the 50 sessions.
Pifalo (2006) In this study, 41 girls or young women who had been sexually abused were given structured group art therapy for 8 weeks, and were measured before treatment using the Briere's Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC). They were given the test again after the treatment, and for 9 out of 10 of the girls, a statistically significant reduction in scores on the test were observed.
Bar-Sela, Atid, Danos, Gabay & Epelbaum (2007) This study worked with 60 adults who had cancer. These adults attended weekly individual art therapy, in addition to watercolor painting classes. After just 4 sessions, the experimental group saw marked and significant improvement in depression and fatigue, as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and a brief fatigue inventory. While they showed a decrease in depression, there was no significant difference in the levels of anxiety of the patients.
Gusak (2006) In this study, the researcher worked with 29 incarcerated men. The men attended 8 sessions of group art therapy, and were tested before and after the treatment using the Beck Depression Inventory Short Form. After the 8 sessions, all of the men showed significant improvement in the symptoms of depression and their score on the Beck Depression Inventory reflected these improvements.
Bulfone et al. (2009) In this study, 60 women who had been diagnosed with stage 1 or 2 breast cancer were randomly assigned to a control or experimental group. The control group received standard assistance before chemotherapy, while the experimental group had the chance to listen to music before the chemotherapy began. The results showed that the anxiety levels of the experimental group were signficantly lower than those of the control group, and also showed a significantly lower level of depression.
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