Seven lived experience stories of making meaning using art therapy

ABSTRACT Background: Seven adults who attended six or more art psychotherapy sessions explore the role art psychotherapy played in their individual mental health recovery. Aims: For lived experience voices to speak to the value of art therapy, attending to what is useful to individuals at the time of therapy and beyond. Methods: A private practice art therapist shared information with service users regarding IJAT’s call for collaborative papers. The art therapist invited interested authors to focus on how one artwork from their time in therapy was useful to them in their personal journey. Authors used their artworks and personal writings to explore the unique ways they used creativity to express hidden and sometimes unspoken aspects of their experiences. Results: Authors drew a variety of conclusions regarding the impact of their art making. The authors explore using their art as a way of making meaning and gaining a greater understanding of themselves and their lived experiences of adversity. Conclusions: The impact of art making in the context of art psychotherapy is useful in supporting individuals to create meaning and self-awareness in relation to adverse experiences. Authors conclude that their art had positive impacts at the time of therapy and beyond, creating support and meaning over time. Implications: The value of follow-up research after a person has attended therapy is implied in the reflections shared by the authors. The relevance over time of a particular piece of artwork or imagery undertaken in art therapy is an area for further research. Plain-language summary The authors consist of seven people who attended art psychotherapy sessions and one therapist. The seven authors with lived experience of a range of adverse experiences have contributed personal written works and images; the therapist has contributed research and reflection. Authors have chosen a single piece of artwork undertaken at some point in the course of their art psychotherapy journey with the art therapist. The authors have written about what this artwork meant to them, both at the time of the therapy and upon reflection. The authors explore themes of: making meaning from visual expression, new understandings of life experiences and the long-term role imagery can play in recovery. The authors explore the ways that art making undertaken in art psychotherapy sessions impacted them as individuals and helped them to make meaning in mental health recovery. The therapist has chosen supportive literature from the field of fine art and art psychotherapy that highlights the observations and experiences made by the authors. The contributing art therapist adds discussion about the capacity for art psychotherapy processes to create meaning from adverse experiences. Video Abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group