The Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC): Interdisciplinary bases of the ETC

Lusebrink, Vija B.; Mārtinsone, Kristīne; Dzilna-Šilova, Ilze

doi:10.1080/17454832.2012.713370

Cited by 35 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The current study examined the effect of drawing with different art materials on HRV and emotional response. Leaning on the ETC model ( Kagin and Lusebrink, 1978 ) and the Bodymind model of art therapy ( Czamanski-Cohen and Weihs, 2016 ), we hypothesized that similar to the stages of visual information processing in the brain, art-making with fluid art materials would result in an increase in emotional response ( Lusebrink et al, 2013 ). This research is unique in its examination of the relationship between the use of different art materials and HRV.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ETC can be utilized to assess the predominance of sensory information processing based on the configuration of formal elements in the art work and the interaction of the art-maker with the materials. The ETC also accounts for the effect of the texture and fluidity of the art materials, which are postulated to differentially effect the level of sensory information processing as well as the potential to elicit emotion ( Kagin and Lusebrink, 1978 ; Lusebrink et al, 2013 ). For example, pencils and markers are highly structured, easy to control, and are assumed to promote limited emotional arousal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emotional Response and Changes in Heart Rate Variability Following Art-Making With Three Different Art Materials

2018

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Art therapy encourages the use of art materials to express feelings and thoughts in a supportive environment. Art materials differ in fluidity and are postulated to thus differentially enhance emotional response (the more fluid the material the more emotion elicited). Yet, to the best of our knowledge, this assumption has not been empirically tested. The current study aimed to examine the emotional and physiological responses to art-making with different art materials. We were particularly interested in vagal activity, indexed by heart rate variability (HRV), because of its association with numerous health related outcomes. In this study, 50 adults (mean age 33 ± 10.27 years, 52% males) participated in a repeated measures experiment, in which they were requested to draw with three art materials (order randomized) differing in their level of fluidity (pencil, oil-pastels, and gouache paint) intermittent with periods of music. We measured the emotional response to art-making with each material using a self-report measure and matrices of HRV using a wearable electrocardiogram device. We calculated two indices of HRV, one indicative of parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity, and one indicative of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity. Art-making with gouache paint and oil-pastels resulted in improved positive mood, while pencil did not. Art-making explained approximately 35% of the variability in parasympathetic reactivity, which may indicate changes in emotional regulation processes during the art-making task. Yet, fluidity was not sufficient to explain the reaction to art-making. Surprisingly, the largest suppression of PNS and augmentation of the SNS occurred during art-making with oil-pastels and not with Gouache. Moreover, PNS and SNS reactivity to oil-pastels were related to emotional valance, which may point to emotional engagement. We can conclude that art-making with oil-pastels, first created in Japan in 1924 to increase self-expression of students, results in a unique emotional and physiological responses. These findings might be explained by the enhanced tactile experience of art-making with oil-pastels along with their relative fluidity, triggering an arousal pattern. Further studies that take the format and presentation of the materials as well as the content of the artwork, into account, are needed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional Response and Changes in Heart Rate Variability Following Art-Making With Three Different Art Materials

2018

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“…Naumburg's (1966) emphasis on symbolic images primarily focused on retracing their origins to the individual's unresolved conflicts and thus seems to reflect the focus on Damasio's CDZ framework of abstract implicit neural patterns in the association cortices. In my work (Lusebrink, 1990(Lusebrink, , 2004(Lusebrink, , 2010Lusebrink, Martinsone, & Dzilna-Silova, 2012) I integrated the above art therapy approaches as three stepwise levels of expression in the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC). The ETC is conceptualized as a bottom-up sequence involving visual expression and the use of art media on the Kinesthetic/Sensory, Perceptual/Affective, and Cognitive/Symbolic levels.…”

Section: Art Therapy Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Art Therapy and the Neural Basis of Imagery: Another Possible View

Lusebrink

2014

Art Therapy

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“…One reason why art therapy has not been related to cognitive benefits may be the dominant use of unguided therapeutic methods. Guided approaches-as defined here-lie outside the tradition of art therapy, in which expression has been central [32]. For instance, Nise da Silveira (1905-1999)-who had a prominent role in the history of art therapy-drew upon Jungian concepts to implement therapeutic programs in patients with schizophrenia [33], and she did it by using totally unguided methods.…”

Section: Mental Acuity Physical Competence Calmness and Sociabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Effects of Guided vs. Unguided Art Therapy Methods

Costa

Alves

Castro

et al. 2020

Behavioral Sciences

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Art therapy has become known by its psychosocial and affective impact, but not so much by its effects on cognitive functioning. Based on a comparison between art therapy and music-making programs, we hypothesized that guided methods-dominant in music-making programs and characterized by an emphasis on execution (play the piece, produce the visual object) rather than ideation (conceive the visual object)-could boost the cognitive effects of art-making. We also hypothesized that removing ideation from the process with guided methods could decrease psychosocial/affective benefits. In order to test our hypotheses, we compared the effects of two art therapy methods on cognitive vs. psychosocial/affective domains. We implemented a short-term longitudinal study with patients with schizophrenia showing both psychosocial/affective and cognitive deficits. The sample was divided into two groups: unguided, instructed to ideate art pieces and execute them without external guidance, vs. guided, instructed to execute predefined art pieces following externally provided guidelines. There was no evidence that guided methods boost cognitive effects, since these were equivalent across groups. However, psychosocial/affective benefits were enhanced by unguided methods, suggesting that therapeutic methods can make a difference. Our study contributes to raising important new questions concerning the therapeutic mechanisms of art therapy.Behav. Sci. 2020, 10, 65 2 of 17 unguided methods could boost cognitive effects from art therapy. Please note that we do not assume that art making is necessarily a creative process. According to Schoop's definition [7], creation is an autonomous process of shaping in which all decisions are bound to the creating person, and this is not always so in artistic practice: for instance, a musician who plays a piece by following all indications from the score is not deciding anything, and the same goes for someone who copies a drawing-provided that s/he does not add anything to the drawing intentionally. Therefore, when comparing unguided with guided methods, we were contrasting creative practices (unguided method) with not-necessarily creative ones (guided).Since its beginnings, art therapy remained focused on psychosocial-e.g., improving well-being, quality of life and communication, as well as affective goals-e.g., reducing anxiety levels and enhancing positive mood [8]. Adrian Hill , the creator of the 'art therapy' designation, developed his first therapeutic experiments when trying to fight the affective and psychosocial consequences of tuberculosis [9]. Since then, empirical studies (see Table 1) have prioritized psychosocial and affective areas across various clinical and non-clinical groups [10]: In psychotic patients, case reports [11][12][13] and quantitative studies with control groups [14-18] reported decreased anxiety [11,16,17] and depression [17], reduction in negative symptoms such as apathy or anhedonia [14,17], as well as increased self-esteem [12,14,15], sense of self [12,13], socialization...

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The Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC): Interdisciplinary bases of the ETC

Cited by 35 publications

References 12 publications

Emotional Response and Changes in Heart Rate Variability Following Art-Making With Three Different Art Materials

Emotional Response and Changes in Heart Rate Variability Following Art-Making With Three Different Art Materials

Art Therapy and the Neural Basis of Imagery: Another Possible View

Exploring the Effects of Guided vs. Unguided Art Therapy Methods

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