Date of Award

Spring 4-22-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA - Master of Arts

Department

Expressive Therapies

Advisor

Tim Reagan

Abstract

Art therapy is a beneficial service for adolescents who face obstacles connecting emotionally, behaviorally, and academically. Creative techniques and therapeutic rapport can facilitate connection with the self, focus, and emotional regulation. Teens, especially struggling with mental health, often have difficulty functioning in the average public-school setting. Research supports a positive correlation to art therapy services and effectiveness in a school setting. The intention of this capstone was to test the effectiveness of the expressive therapies continuum (ETC) in supporting emotional regulation with two high school girls in a therapeutic day school. The method of research includes a pre-, post-, and emotional connection survey partnered with art making for five 30-minute sessions over five weeks. The students rated their current emotion and choose a material with the research that may be helpful.

Due to COVID-19, the study was terminated prematurely, and further research must be done to examine findings. All participants declared that these sessions were helpful, displaying a unanimous agreement. Six out of eight sessions were described by the participants as resulting in emotional change resulting in a 75% accuracy. Two sessions did not result in emotional change, but response was shared to be helpful to keep the participants mind off anxiety.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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