Art Therapy With Traumatized Children

Art therapy is a form of counseling used with people of all ages. In an art therapy session, a patient will use art-making as a way of identifying feelings and expressing the things that are foremost in their minds. Children who have experienced a traumatic event can use art therapy as a way of sorting through their feelings and coping with the trauma.

Types of Trauma

• Art therapy can be beneficial for children facing all types of traumatic situations. They may be experiencing a terminal illness (either their own or that of a family member), recovering from the loss of a loved one, or dealing with abuse. They may have experienced a natural disaster or a difficult family situation (such as poverty or homelessness). Art therapy can help children work through the difficult feelings associated with traumatic events such as these, and eventually move beyond the trauma to live positive lives again.

The Process

• The therapist will begin by asking the child to draw a picture of something related to his trauma. For example, it may be that the child is dealing with a terminal illness, so the therapist will ask him how he feels about that. The child then begins to draw his picture without any further guidance from the therapist; this encourages him to express himself freely and openly without suggestions from anyone else. Then the therapist will examine the picture and ask the child questions about what he drew. Sometimes the picture may be fairly straight-forward, and other times it will be more symbolic in nature. The therapist can use the picture as a starting point to get the child to talk about his trauma and work through his feelings toward the situation.

The Results

• When the therapist discusses the child's pictures with her, it opens up opportunities to discuss the trauma as well. Sometimes, the child will be able to open up about her traumatic experience once her picture is completed; in other cases, the child is reluctant to talk about the trauma so the therapist will probably restrict conversation to the picture itself. For example, according to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center's website, one child with cancer drew her feelings as a house that was floating. She had been told very little about her illness and felt that she was sort of floating in the air, unsure of what was happening to her. The house she drew was also all alone, which expressed the loneliness she felt as a result of her illness. Once she realized that she had made the house to represent herself, she was able to talk about her cancer and work through her fears of what was happening to her.