Date of Award

Spring 5-5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Expressive Therapies

Major

Clinical Mental Health Counselling

First Advisor

Racquel Stephenson, Ph.D., ATR-BC, LCAT

Abstract

This paper seeks to research the usefulness of art therapy with veterans and service members with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Theoretically, art therapy is thought to work by allowing access to non-verbal memories to be expressed and transformed into a trauma narrative, to be stored in memory in a way that does not interfere with daily life the way PTSD symptoms do. The method used is a literature review, which studied research articles about art therapy being used to treat veterans and service members with PTSD. Other included topics are the history of PTSD, current theories about PTSD and the brain, the wide array of formats and protocols for treatment in use when applying art therapy to military populations, and barriers to treatment. Learnings from this experience include the discovery of common themes identified among the research articles. These themes consist of containment and safety of the group, non-verbal expression, symbols, externalization, and pleasure. Through these themes, this literature review reveals a set of important components of effective treatment for PTSD in military veterans and service members through the use of art therapy.

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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