Date of Award

Spring 5-21-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA - Master of Arts

Department

Expressive Therapies

Advisor

Donna C Owens

Abstract

Anxiety is a very common phenomenon in the world, whether it be diagnosed or not. With how detrimentally it can affect any given individual, it is important that the expressive arts therapies develop methods of aiding in reducing anxiety in people. This thesis explored the development of a method for reducing anxiety in individuals on an inpatient unit through writing and decorating a letter to their future self. The intervention was conducted four times, twice on two independent units, with between two to five participants in each group. Participants were instructed to write a letter to their future selves reminding them of what they’ve learned and what they want their future selves to remember. They then decorated to cover of their card to represent what was written inside. The results found that overall, writing a letter to your future self and decorating the cover helped to reduce anxiety within individuals on an inpatient unit. Further research on reducing anxiety in both groups and individuals using this method is recommended.

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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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