Finding the key: containing and processing traumatic sexual abuse

Creativity and Self-Exploration in Projective Drawings of Abused Women: Evaluating the Inside Me–Outside Me Workshop

“…Thus, the findings support art-making activities in programs with abused women (cf. Brooke, 1995;Lefevre, 2004;Lev-Wiesel, 1998). Whereas future studies are needed to affirm the efficacy of the technique, participant satisfaction and self-exploration are important indications that this modality may be very appropriate in a therapeutic setting.…”

“…In this way, drawings and writings can have an important communicative function by revealing makers' cognitive maps and implicit definitions of themselves and others. Thus, artistic activities can serve a meaning-making function for survivors of traumatic abuse or violence (Brooke, 1995;Lefevre, 2004;Lev-Wiesel, 1998). …”

A thematic synthesis of therapeutic actions in arts therapies and their perceived effects in the treatment of people with a diagnosis of Cluster B personality disorder

“…In terms of reflecting on relationships,) it is suggested that engaging in the arts enables relational patterns to be repeated (reenactments) (Strehlow & Piegler, 2007), establishing 'a new and reparatory relational model' (Cukier & Marmelszetjn, 1998), for example through enabling curiosity and interest in the patient (Springham, Findlay, et al, 2012), facilitating group curiosity and understanding interpersonal conflicts (Johns & Karterud, 2004). In terms of improving relationality, this is described as happening through facilitating 'accompaniments, enhancements or contrasts' (Strehlow & Lindner, 2016), 'mutual cooperation' (Levens, 2002), externalisation through the arts to reveal interpersonal intentionality (Johns & Karterud, 2004), for example to 'identify typical interaction patterns' (Hannibal, 2016) and confronting fixed ideas about self and other (Lefevre, 2004).…”

“…In terms of the number of extracts it is notable that there are two themes for emotionally focussed therapeutic actions: emotional responsiveness / regulation (52/732) and unconditional emotional attunement (80/732). The high number of extracts in this theme suggests this is particularly significant to the arts therapies process and includes a range of sub-themes such as 'embodied empathy' (Röhricht, 2015), 'emotional examination' (Strehlow & Piegler, 2007), 'sensitizing' (Cukier & Marmelszetjn, 1998) 'attunement' (Lefevre, 2004), responsiveness, warmth and genuiness' (Lefevre, 2004), being 'judgement free' (Pool & Odell-Miller, 2011) and having a 'therapeutic attitude of empathy' (Manford, 2014). However, (Gabbard, Miller, & Martinez, 2006) suggest that the emotional attention and quality of experience extends into psychobiological processes intimately bound to our sense of self and other and therefore, whilst many explicit statements refer to emotions, there is often a clear overlap with interpersonal experiences.…”

“…Haeyen et al (2015) highlight that patients, 'experience positive effects on self-acceptance, [and] higher self-esteem' all of which appear to emerge from the validation of self-experience from a 'deepening' (Pool & Odell-Miller, 2011) experience of self which leads to reformulation (S. Haeyen et al, 2015;Levens, 1990;Morgan et al, 2012;Strehlow & Lindner, 2016), self-control (Pool & Odell-Miller, 2011) and self-constancy (Johns & Karterud, 2004). There is also psychodynamic theory applied with reference to Winnicott (1971) for example, (Cukier & Marmelszetjn, 1998;Lefevre, 2004;Levens, 1990Levens, , 2002Manford, 2014;Moschini, 2005;Pool & Odell-Miller, 2011) suggest that developing agency does not exist independently of the other and the arts can have a transitional object function.…”