Art therapy in dealing with childhood trauma

Art therapy creates an opportunity both for immersion in painful experiences, and for the activation of recurrent states, as well as for the transformation and integration of experience. Many authors emphasize the great value of using art therapy (especially in work with children and adolescents) who have suffered from violence, in particular, sexual violence. A. Kopytin in his work “Art Therapy of Victims and Violence” considers the method of art therapy, using it in a complex psychotherapy practice, in particular when working with people, victims from all forms of violence: from physical trauma in childhood to sexual abuse. Art therapy, thanks to it, helps the child regain a sense of self-worth (Franklin, 1992; Stember, 1980) and realize a wider repertoire of protective supportive reactions. Some authors also note the greater value of the physical contact of the victims of violence with various materials, which allows not only to activate and respond to the traumatic experience t (Sagar, 1990), but also to revitalize the realm of physical sensation blocked as a result of trauma (Carozza & Hierstiener, 1982).

What characterizes persons with a manifested injury? They are described in the article by D. Murphy (2001):
• creating a mess (the cabinet is stained with paints, PBA glue);
• mixing colors;
• abundant use of water;
• applying paint to your skin;
• use of clay, soap;
•aggressive actions, symbolically manifested in destructive manipulations with objects and visual production.

Artistic materials and images are an object for projection of the client’s experiences, on the one hand, and projective identification of the psychotherapist with the client’s experiences, on the other hand us. They are also able to contain in themselves the feelings associated with transference and countertransference, gradually making them more accessible for processing and integration. As S. Langer notes, “the projection of feelings onto external objects is the first step towards the symbolization and recognition of these feelings” (Langer, 1953, p. 390).

Art therapy is a wide access to the materials of the unconscious, unobtrusively, smoothly and timely extracted and integrated into consciousness. Art therapy creates an opportunity both for immersion in painful experiences, and for the activation of recurrent states, as well as for the transformation and integration of experience. Thanks to this, the symbolic image becomes “a means of embodying affects” and acquires a special power of influencing the client, forcing him to perform certain actions with him. “meaningful manipulation” (1992, p. 39). Such manipulations can sometimes take on a ritual character.
Thanks to the transfer to pictorial production, the symbolic image can act as a “receptacle” of negative emotions – fear, irritation, anger, pain, guilt and others. By then acting on the created image – trying to destroy or change it – the client can achieve a certain control over the negative effects.

Symbolic communication is of fundamental importance in the context of art therapy. Symbols also act as a bridge that connects the conscious and unconscious client, due to which he can not only recognize the previously unknown reasons for his of Denmark, but also, relying on their internal resources, to discover new qualities in themselves.