Date of Award

Spring 5-2-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MCM - MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Department

Expressive Therapies

Advisor

Madoka Urhausen

Abstract

Anxiety disorders are prevalent across the globe and are more often diagnosed in women. Anxiety disorders are highly comorbid and can worsen the outcomes of other mental and medical health diagnoses. Research on treatment for anxiety disorders has spanned decades; however, the gold standard treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy and medication, leave many individuals without significant results. Art therapy has shown, in small scale studies, the ability to be applied with success to several populations but could benefit from further research. It is the hypothesis of this literature review that art therapy can be an appropriate alternative treatment for comorbid anxiety disorders in adult women when standard treatments fail. Art therapy research often falls short of research guidelines such as being conducted by non-art therapists and methodological issues. Art therapy studies have shown to be an effective treatment across age groups, nationality and gender. Strengths of art therapy treatment include a transdiagnostic approach, flexibility, and accessibility. The results of this literature review suggest that art therapy treatment is equally as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy in treating comorbid anxiety disorders and is an appropriate alternative treatment.

Creative Commons License

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

Download

Share

COinS
 

Rights

The author owns the copyright to this work.