Resources
Addiction & Recovery
Art therapy is an effective component of an addiction treatment program. It is particularly useful in identifying origins, triggers, and stressors, as well as addressing many issues including guilt, self-esteem, boundaries, communication, strengths, and healthy relationships.
Children & Trauma
Youth often find non-verbal expression the only outlet to their intense feelings of fear, isolation, sadness, anger, and loss. An art therapy program helps kids build resilience and move beyond life’s hurdles, promotes self-awareness, improves self-esteem and competence, develops coping and control skills, and leads to a stronger future.
Hospitals & Healthcare
Art therapy provides therapeutic, healing benefits for patients in hospitals and other medical settings, and is used with greater frequency to significantly reduce a broad spectrum of symptoms related to pain, anxiety, and discomfort. Art therapy helps individuals cope with complex health-related issues, lifestyle transition, end-of-life decisions, grief, expression and communication, and more. NOTE: The toolkit for hospital and medical settings will be available November 2011.
Judicial System
In forensic settings, art therapy takes place in custodial environments such as prisons, jails, juvenile detention centers, court-ordered school placements, and probationary programs. Art therapy helps inmates, despite their restrictive environment, to employ the image-making process as a means of adjusting to circumstances within the jail environment.
Military
Art therapy is a non-threatening way to help veterans with mental and physical health needs to experience their feelings and begin to recover. Trauma survivors are often challenged by the use of words in communication. The very nature of trauma and the inherent qualities of dissociation may leave the client struggling to articulate his or her experience. Reliance on a verbal language approach in treatment may, at times, generate even more frustration and distress. With art materials and the art process, it is possible to access the inner experience without reliance on words as the starting place.
Older Adults & Aging
Art therapy promotes wellbeing at every age. Active older adults relax, explore, share, and enjoy art therapy’s creative and social aspects . . . it is rewarding, appealing, and fun! For older adults, art therapy helps individuals cope with complex age-related issues including mental and physical illness or limitation, lifestyle transition, end-of-life decisions, grief, expression and communication.
Schools & K-12 Education
Art therapy is a creative and engaging way to address inappropriate behaviors such as bullying; identify an individual’s barriers to learning; increase student retention; support special needs students; enhance academic performance; provide gifted youth with a new skill; increase motor and sensory skills; and, excite kids’ learning experience.
Trauma & Abuse
In working with survivors of trauma and abuse, there are a number of important social and therapeutic benefits that are advanced through art therapy. Research and study clearly reveal art therapy’s positive impact with regard to improved mental health and resilience, social interaction, confidence, coping as well as stress and anxiety reduction.
Wellness
Art therapy provides a creative and enjoyable method to improve self-awareness, relieve stress and anxiety, and enhance coping skills. It is also helpful for people who seek personal development through creating art and reflecting on their artwork and the process of making art.
Top medical centers utilizing art therapy:
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/best-hospitals/articles/2010/07/14/best-hospitals-2010-11-the-honor-roll.html
Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University
1 Barnes-Jewish Hospital Plaza
Saint Louis, MO 63110-1003
(314) 747–3000
www.barnesjewish.org
Art therapy link
Brigham and Women's Hospital
75 Francis Street
Boston, MA 02115-6195
(617) 732–5500
www.brighamandwomens.org
Art Therapy Link
Cleveland Clinic
9500 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44195-5108
(216) 444–2200
www.clevelandclinic.org
Art Therapy Link
Duke University Medical Center
2301 Erwin Road
Durham, NC 27710-0001
(919) 684–8111
www.dukehealth.org
Art Therapy Link
Georgetown University Hospital Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
3800 Reservoir Road
Washington, DC 20057
(202) 444–4000
www.lombardi.georgetown.edu
Art Therapy Link
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
3400 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-4283
(215) 662–4000
www.pennmedicine.org
Art Therapy Link
Johns Hopkins Hospital
600 North Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21287-2182
(410) 955–5000
www.hopkinsmedicine.org
Art Therapy Link
Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation
1199 Pleasant Valley Way
West Orange, NJ 07052-1419
(973) 731–3600
www.kessler-rehab.com
Art Therapy Link
Massachusetts General Hospital
55 Fruit Street
Boston, MA 02114-2696
(617) 726–2000
www.massgeneral.org
Art Therapy Link
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
200 S.W. First Street
Rochester, MN 55905-0002
(507) 284–2511
www.mayoclinic.org
Art Therapy Link
McLean Hospital
115 Mill Street
Belmont, MA 02478-9106
(617) 855–2000
www.mclean.harvard.edu
Art Therapy Link
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
1275 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021-6094
(212) 639–2000
www.mskcc.org
Art Therapy Link
Mount Sinai Medical Center
One Gustave L Levy Place
New York, NY 10029-6574
(212) 241–6500
www.mountsinai.org
Art Therapy Link
National Jewish Health
1400 Jackson Street
Denver, CO 80206-2762
(303) 388–4461
www.nationaljewish.org
Art Therapy Link
New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell
525 East 68th Street
New York, NY 10021-4885
(212) 746–5454
www.nyp.org
Art Therapy Link
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
345 East Superior Street
Chicago, IL 60611-4496
(312) 238–1000
www.ric.org
Art Therapy Link
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
757 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095
(310) 825–9111
www.uclahealth.org
Art Therapy Link
University of California, San Francisco Medical Center
500 Parnassus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94143-0296
(415) 476–1000
www.ucsfhealth.org
Art Therapy Link
University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers
1500 East Medical Center Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
(734) 936–4000
www.med.umich.edu
Art Therapy Link
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
1515 Holcombe Boulevard
Houston, TX 77030-4095
(713) 792–2121
www.mdanderson.org
Art Therapy Link
University of Washington Medical Center
1959 NE Pacific St
Seattle, WA 98195-6151
(206) 598–3300
www.uwmedicine.org/Facilities/UWMedicalCenter/
Art Therapy Link
UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
200 Lothrop Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2585
(412) 647–2345
www.upmc.edu
Art Therapy Link
Top 20 medical information websites on art therapy:
http://medical.nettop20.com/
CNN Health
Everyday Health
HealthCentral.com
HealthLine
MayoClinic.com
National Institutes of Health
WebMD
Wrong Diagnosis
Yahoo! Health
