Rape Crisis Research
Online resources
Journal articles
communication and
rape victims
Using both sides of the brain:
Experiences that integrate art and talk therapy through scribble drawings.
McNamee, Carole M.; Art Therapy, Vol 21(3), 2004. pp. 136-142. link
Neuroscience researchers identify
a cerebral cortex with two functioning hemispheres: a left hemisphere
associated with language and speech and a. right hemisphere associated
with visual-motor activities. Additionally, neuroscientists argue that
contemporary lifestyles favor the verbal, logical left brain and often
ignore the truths that present in the right brain. Psychotherapy techniques
range in their use of left-brain verbal discourse and right-brain nonverbal
discourse. In a case study, the author describes experiences integrating
both verbal and nonverbal therapy with a client with severe anxiety and
depression. Nonverbal therapy involved annotated scribble drawings. Images
in the drawings became the stimuli for verbal discourse with the client.
Other client responses to the annotated scribble drawings are described.
Use of drawing technique to encourage
verbalization in adult survivor of sexual abuse. Lev-Wiesel, Rachel; Arts
in Psychotherapy, Vol 25(4), 1998. pp. 257-262. link
Demonstrates the effectiveness
of drawings (art therapy) in encouraging an adult survivor of childhood
sexual abuse to speak about the past traumatic experiences. This ability
to speak up not only breaks the conspiracy of family members to keep the
secret, but also enables the victim to deal with negative feelings toward
himself/herself and his/her parents. The drawing technique is illustrated
in 4 therapeutic sessions (out of 24) with an adult female who was sexually
abused by her father in childhood.
Holistic Assessment of rape victims. By: Mayer, Rick A.; Ottens, Allen
J.. Guidance & Counseling, Mar94, Vol. 9 Issue 4, p24, 4p
This article describes a method
for the holistic assessment of rape victims. This method consists of assessing
the effect the rape has on the victims'affective, cognitive and behavioural
functioning. By assessing the severity of the trauma in these areas counsellors
are able to develop appropriate treatment strategies.
"The TAF permits counsellors to assess clients' level of impairment
with respect to affective, cognitive and behavioural reactions to a crisis.
Space is provided on the TAF for counsellors to make notation of any significant
clinical findings. Affective categories are: (a) anger/hostility (may
be present as agitation or a desire for possible retaliation); (b) fear/anxiety
(may be present as sense of disorientation or jittery tension); and (c)
sadness/melancholy (may be present as emotional and/or physical exhaustion
accompanied by a sense of hopelessness). Counsellors are asked to identify
clients' affective reaction to the crisis event using these categories
and also assess the level of impairment. Should more than one affect be
present, counsellors must judge which affect is primary, secondary and
tertiary."
Art speaks in healing survivors
of war: The use of art therapy in treating trauma survivors. Baker, Barbara
Ann; Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, Vol 12(1-2), 2006.
pp. 183-198.
Mental health clinics can use creative
art therapies as a means of reaching out to war refugees in their communities
who may not respond to traditional talk therapy. In this case, the use
of quilting and other artwork was utilized by the staff at Chicago Health
Outreach to assist displaced Bosnians to cope with their war-related trauma
and integration into their new environment in the United States. It can
be difficult to reach refugee populations within a community whose culture
and language are different from the majority, but finding other means
of communicating can make a real difference for these individuals as they
find safety and understanding by working on and sharing special creative
projects.
The healing art: The integration
of art therapy into the modern psychoanalytic approach. Sharon, Ruth Velikorsky;
Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering,
Vol 65(7-B), 2005. pp. 3724.
In this study I want to illustrate
how the production of drawings and written associations of a patient in
the psychoanalytic framework can be a springboard for progressive verbalization
and communication. It is helpful because it can facilitate the expression
of pre-verbal and non-verbal material. Experiences of the patient, before
the age of language acquisition, fall into this category. I will do this
using a case study approach, by presenting the case of Rachel, a preoedipal
patient whom I treated through the use of art in the psychoanalytic framework.
Her case will be presented, and the repetitive material which signalled
the presence of the resistance and the unconscious material in her art
work and written associations to it will be summarized and explored. I
will discuss the presence of the transference, countertransference, and
resistance in our therapeutic relationship-as present in her work, her
actions, and her behavior as treatment progressed. My purpose in doing
that is to explore the ways in which the use of art effected those elements.
I also hope to open this field for more research in this area.
A descriptive study: Selection and use of art mediums by sexually abused
adults: Implications in counseling and art psychotherapy. Clukey, Frances
Harlow; Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences
and Engineering, Vol 64(4-B), 2003. pp. 1679.
This research was designed to explore
what happens in the process of therapy when clients, having persisting
symptoms of sexual abuse and having disclosed that abuse, have access
to a wide variety of art materials to select and use in treatment. A blend
of qualitative and quantitative research in design, the study is an initial
step towards a greater understanding of the potentially transformative
experience of art making and the role of art mediums in the practice of
therapy. Treatment for abuse is a long, complex and arduous process. Persistent
aspects of abusive experience remain deeply buried within the body and
cause periodic, cyclical, somatic and psychological problems in an individual's
life. Clients often feel words are too immediate and too explicit to describe
the experience and the resulting emotional response generated by sexual
abuse. Created within the context of what psychiatrist Winnicott (1971)
described as the "good enough" therapeutic relationship, artwork
may be viewed as more concrete and symbolic, or less immediately explicit
and therefore safer than verbal communications. Sensory-based therapies
such as art therapy are, therefore, particularly useful in accessing traumatic
memories and transforming the experience to a less damaging state. For
this study, the author set up private practice to work as therapist with
eight individuals for eight fifty-five minute sessions in a traditional
art therapy studio. Each session was documented on videotape. Artwork
was photographed. Videotapes, artwork, intake histories and the researcher/therapist's
notes were analyzed. Brief case studies were developed. Data were considered
by frequencies and ordinal comparisons for immerging patterns. The data
described art mediums as accessing cognitive, symbolic, emotional, perceptual,
kinesthetic and sensory levels of understanding. A spiral model facilitated
understanding the process. The potential to pace the process of therapy
by direction and selection of more or less mediated, fluid and controllable
art mediums was shown to exist. Through the spatial and kinesthetic processes
of art making in art therapy, the individual controls recollection, comprehension,
integration and resolution of trauma. Art mediums are central in art therapy
as they safely provide the means of expression and reflection to transform
trauma in the bodymind.
Three art assessments: The Silver Drawing Test of cognition and emotion;
draw a story: Screening for depression; and stimulus drawings and techniques.
Silver, Rawley; New York, NY, US: Brunner-Routledge, 2002. xxiv, 315 pp.
(from the jacket) Art can be an
invaluable means of communication. It can bypass language and hearing
impairment and become a means of communicating thoughts or feelings too
difficult to express with words. This book uses three original art assessments
that use stimulus drawings to elicit response drawings that provide access
to a patient's emotions and attitudes toward themselves and others while
testing for the ability to solve problems and convey ideas. Each assessment
includes studies of reliability, validity, and normative data, drawing
on international research in the field and on the author's own body of
work spanning more than forty years. Stimulus drawings are provided as
well as drawing from imagination tasks, and rating scales to assess emotional
and cognitive content.
Arts as language: Access to thoughts
and feelings through stimulus drawings. Silver, Rawley; New York, NY,
US: Brunner-Routledge, 2001. xix, 187 pp.
from the cover) Discusses the use
of the visual medium as a linguistic parallel to verbal or written communication.
While recognizing that language expands and facilitates thought, the author
illustrates the existence of high-level thinking in its absence and demonstrates
the usefulness of drawing as an expressional tool for patients who are
unable, or unwilling, to express themselves through the conventional use
of language. Covering areas such as cognition, creativity, and emotion,
this book provides the reader with an introduction to and explanation
of stimulus drawing assessment. In this approach, drawings serve as the
principal channel for the exchange of ideas. Stimulus drawings are provided
to the patient to evoke a response drawing. These response drawings allow
patients to sketch their fantasies, thus allowing some sort of gratification.
The drawings may also serve as a means of acceptably expressing feelings
the patient deems inappropriate, such as fear or anger. Reviews of qualitative
and quantitative studies follow the introduction. By reviewing studies
of children, adolescents, and adults suffering form various impairments
and injuries, the author shows the broad applicability of stimulus drawing
assessments.
Mandala artwork by clients with
DID: Clinical observations based on two theoretical models. Cox, Carol
Thayer; Cohen, Barry M.; Art Therapy, Vol 17(3), 2000. pp. 195-201.
The authors have explored the compositional
patterns and thematic imagery in mandala drawings by a large group of
patients diagnosed with multiple personality/dissociative identity disorder
(MPD/DID). In approaching this work, they used both the Ten Category Model
(G. M. Cohen & C. T. Cox, 1995) and the Great Round of Mandala theory
(J. Kellogg, 1978, 1997) looking for parallels between the two systems
of analysis to help therapists better understand the nonverbal communications
of their clients. Although not a formal research study, the observations
based on the synthesis of these two unrelated models are nonetheless consistent
with the assessment and treatment literature on DID.
Art psychotherapy groups: Between pictures and words. Skaife, Sally; Huet,
Val; Florence, KY, US: Taylor & Frances/Routledge, 1998. x, 209 pp.
(from the cover) Presenting an
account of the challenges encountered in art psychotherapy practice, this
book explores new theoretical material arising from the merging of art
and group psychotherapy. The contributors present in-depth discussion
of case studies with client groups such as children, forensic patients,
patients on acute psychiatric wards, the cognitively impaired elderly,
institutionalized patients moving into the community, and drug and alcohol
abusers. A common theme which emerges from the book is that the physical
use of art materials and the space of the art room offer a possibility
for communication of feelings which is not possible in purely verbal groups.
This allows clients with severe mental health problems, and groups who
would not normally be considered for purely verbal group therapy, to benefit
from a psychodynamic group process.
The book is intended to be a resource for practising and trainee art therapists,
and all professionals working psychodynamically with clients who have
severe mental health problems.
Therapeutic presence: Bridging expression and form. Robbins, Arthur; Philadelphia,
PA, US: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Ltd., 1998. 280 pp.
(from the cover) In the therapeutic
workplace, the interaction between patient and therapist is built upon
cognitive, affective and expressive experiences. The contributors to this
book explore this interaction, examining the concept of therapeutic presence,
and the therapist's ability to maintain it. The theory integrates a creative
framework that synthesizes traditional and non-traditional approaches
to treatment, and will be of use to all mental health professionals.
The author suggests that, since therapeutic presence calls for an openness
and awareness of the intersubjective space between therapist and patient,
therapists who become receptive to the subtle cues of sensory perceptual
communication, as well as to the playful mirroring and meditative interaction,
will achieve more successful and meaningful interactions with patients.
Therapeutic presence requires a sensitivity to the temporal characteristics
of the therapeutic frame, and an experience of energy that may open, shut
down, or disrupt the field of therapeutic contact.
This stance can be applied to therapeutic modalities ranging from psychoanalysis
to creative arts therapy, in work with both short term and long term populations.
The author suggests that the full use of the therapist's creative energies
may provide the only solution to overwhelming therapeutic situations.
*Art Therapy; *Drawing; *Oral Communication; *Psychotherapeutic Techniques,
*Art Therapy; *Explicit Memory; *Life Experiences; *Psychotherapy; *Sexual
Abuse; Art; Counseling; Emotional Responses; Symptoms, *Art; *Art Therapy;
*Drawing; *Measurement; *Psychological Assessment; Attitudes; Cognitive
Processes; Communication; Emotions; Problem Solving; Projective Personality
Measures; Projective Techniques; Screening Tests
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