Developing principles of best practice for art therapists working with children and families

Abstract

In 2010 the British Association of Art therapists asked art therapists working with specific client groups to produce clear guidelines about current views on best practice in the field. Using the Nominal Group Technique and a modified Delphi process, the special interest group Art Therapists working with Children Adolescents and Families (ATCAF) produced 18 Principles of Best Practice with a range of associated indicators. This paper presents the methods and the results of that process followed by a brief discussion.

Processes of change in school-based art therapy with children: A systematic qualitative study

“…The model produced in this study is largely consistent with the stated elements of practice and their purpose arising from Taylor Buck and Hendry's (2016) Delphi survey of art therapists working with children, but there was particular emphasis in our study on the importance of fun, playful, enjoyable sessions. It is likely that this may be just as important in change processes as the therapeutic relationship, and indeed that the relationship is of the kind that enables fun in addition to, or to help contain the more difficult elements of therapy.…”

“…Current practice within CYP-IAPT (Young Minds, 2011) and the National Institute of Clinical and Health Care Excellence (2015) recommends transparency and collaboration within referral processes and intervention provision. Taylor Buck and Hendry (2016) also emphasize the importance of enabling the child to understand the reason for art therapy. Ideally a prospective study would establish whether stated aims at the start were linked with reported benefits at completion.…”

“…Moore's (2011) Bristol Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Commissioners' evaluation of the local TaMHS Project described the collaborative working of art therapists and concluded that the interventions led to enhanced emotional wellbeing of the children involved, with noticeable improvements in social and academic areas. Deboys, Holttum & Wright, 2016 4 Children's Art Therapy Taylor Buck and Hendry (2016), in their description reached by consensus of UK art therapists experienced in work with children and families, cite one of the key processes of art therapy with children as assisting children in understanding their emotions through the artmaking and reflecting on the artwork. In the US context Malchiodi (2013) similarly describes art therapy as an encounter in which the therapist supports children's exploration of art materials and concurrent emotional processing, enabling them to experience themselves and their environments differently (Kramer, 1971;Malchiodi, 1999;Rubin, 2005).…”

“…Future quantitative research could use standardised measures to track children's communicating, confidence, mood and educational attainments, pre and post-art therapy and at follow-up, in a randomised trial. Potentially our model could be a starting point for specifying key components and testing treatment fidelity, alongside guidelines such as those of Taylor Buck and Hendry (2016). Therapy aims specified at the start could be mapped onto standardised measures to assess how well they have been addressed, in addition to gathering specific qualitative data from children, parents and teachers relating to them.…”