Publication Date

Spring 2022

School

School of Behavioral Sciences

Major

Psychology

Keywords

creative art therapy, CAT, trauma, PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, neuropsychology, age, gender, therapy, qualitative, inductive, narrative analysis

Disciplines

Psychology

Abstract

When confronted with a traumatic situation, individuals’ brains often face difficulty in storing and/or processing such experiences. Unfortunately, this presents challenges for accessing those memories later in life, especially if the individuals are solely using speech-based techniques to do so. This fact has spurred research on whether various other therapeutic techniques, such as Creative Art Therapy (CAT), can produce better results in improving the mental health of a trauma victim suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This study attempts to uncover whether age, gender, and/or type of therapy play a significant role in the improvement of CAT clients’ mental health by questioning licensed therapists experienced in using CAT with traumatized clients on the above-mentioned factors’ effects. Participants were interviewed virtually, and audio recordings and transcriptions were created from these interviews. The interviews were analyzed using an inductive approach while following a narrative analysis methodology. The results of this study will aid therapists in having a better prediction of which specific type of clients will benefit most significantly from CAT based on their demographics.

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Psychology Commons

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