Re:Credibility

Dear Terry,

I think your question is an excellent one. To date, there are very few outcome studies in art therapy; I believe that music probably has more and I am not aware of dance or the other modalities' research results. As an art therapist I can recall that 20 years ago there was a call for outcome studies in the field; today that same call continues. Much of the research that is published has to do with evaluating drawings or other art expressions for characteristics with the intent of diagnosis or assessment. This is not really art therapy per se, but art-based assessment; as a field art therapy seems to have a hard time developing and conducting studies that evaluate the outcome of various forms of art therapy treatment and intervention.

I actually find more studies of this nature in related disciplines, and not coming from art therapists. For the last 8 years I have been part of research group evaluating the usefulness of drawings in trauma debriefing of school shootings, violence, and traumatic loss. We have some good results to indicate that using drawings facilitates debriefing efforts and with trauma specific questions, reduces PTSD over the short and long term. Without getting into pages of description, what we are concluding is drawing is a sensory activity that may help in connecting explicit and implicit memory of trauma. Well, that's it in a nutshell! :-)

Back to your question-- the lack of outcome research does make credibility difficult, especially with other mental health professionals who look to outcome studies for information on the value of a particular treatment. Same with insurance providers. I am hopeful that as the knowledge and recognition of the creative arts therapies increases, more researchers in counseling, psych, social work, medicine, and the arts therapies will address the need for outcome studies.

Cathy

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