Date of Award
Spring 5-19-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
MAE - Master of Arts in Expressive Therapies
Department
Expressive Therapies
Advisor
Jennifer Tantia
Abstract
This Capstone explores the use of art therapy with a geriatric population on a psychiatric unit of a small, rural southern hospital. Most of the patients experience symptoms of dementia and are over the age of 55. Many patients presented with resistance to creative pursuits and this researcher utilized the person-centered approach to counter this “creative resistance”. In other words, the patients were met where they were at and accepted unconditionally, through empathy and congruence. The materials that were offered to this population were explored through the creative resistance as well, and a simple number two pencil produced successful results in breaking down the creative resistance. Utilizing the Kinetic House Tree Person art assessment also aided in seeing a drop in the resistance of the geriatric patient. The success of breaking down the creative resistance through a person-centered therapy approach, and careful, thoughtful selection of materials, suggests that these offerings would do well to be studied further for other populations in other areas of our United States.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Nelson, Kimberly, "Art Therapy and the Person-Centered Approach: A Method for Breaking Down Creative Resistance with Dementia Patients" (2018). Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses. 9.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_theses/9
Included in
Art Therapy Commons, Clinical Psychology Commons, Counseling Commons
Rights
The author owns the copyright to this work.
