Date of Award

Spring 4-27-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Expressive Therapies

First Advisor

Raquel Stephenson

Abstract

Art therapy is an avenue of treatment for the eating disorder population. Altered books have made their way into treatment centers due to their compact nature and ability to review progress over time. Identity work is equally vital to the treatment of eating disorders in emerging or young adults as it is a time of identity exploration and commitment. Based on the literature and findings of this study, it is important for patients to be able to view their futures without the eating disorder, especially the pieces of themselves that they lost while being stuck in the illness. This study investigates altered books as a modality to explore the true identity without the eating disorder. To expand upon the findings, three reoccurring art therapy groups took place at a residential eating disorder treatment center for women and non-binary-identifying individuals. The groups focused on identity without the eating disorder and utilized altered book-making as the main modality. The present study demonstrated the positive impact upon giving eating disorder patients the space to explore identity work within art therapy and emphasized the need for further research on eating disorder treatment options.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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