Presents an ethnographic model of art therapy results. The model requires the researcher to approach informants who are in art therapy as an anthropologist entering another culture. Describes basic principles of the ethnographic model. Introduces the concept of disability culture and concludes with recommendations for art therapists wishing to use…

Described are the development, evolution, and creative art activities of a summer camp for handicapped, learning disabled children--Learning through Creative Arts With Handicapped Children--in Ashville, New York. (KC)

Through art therapy, children express symbolically what they will not or cannot express emotionally to those close to them, and some children have the added stress of family problems that are magnified due to the situation. Presents the case history of a nine-year-old girl in the terminal stages of leukemia whose artwork symbolized family unity.…

Reports on therapeutic outcomes resulting from use of idiomatic expression in group art therapy with children with Attention Deficit Disorder or Hyperactivity and related disorders who are in the latency stage. Major issues emerged related to self-concept, peer socialization, and family relations. Idioms were shown to stimulate affective-laden…

A clay therapy program, tested and evaluated with children (mostly with emotional or behavioral disorders) across seven settings, is described. Affective goals of the program, required materials and equipment, and lesson plan topics are briefly considered. (DB)

Discusses the use of various art and play activities to help facilitate healing in immigrant refugee children who have experienced trauma and grief. Describes the work of the Center for Grieving Children and pilot projects with refugee and immigrant children that involved self-healing through puppetry, cultural and ethnic diversity in art, and…

According to Sue and Sue (1999), the invisible veil is a worldview which affects all individuals as products of cultural conditioning and which operates outside the level of conscious awareness. Further, they state that the "values, assumptions, beliefs, and practices of our society are structured in a manner as to serve only one narrow segment of…

The reflecting team has been a respected mode of therapeutic intervention since psychiatrist Tom Anderson first proposed the concept in 1985 (Anderson, 1991). The notion of a team observing the therapist conducting a session, the reflecting team reflecting on the session in the presence of the client (either behind a one-way mirror or in person),…

This article describes art therapy techniques grounded in a relational-cultural approach used in a middle school group for girls. Art from the Heart is an interactive preventive intervention designed to facilitate increased connections among group members. It is intended to bring together multiethnic groups of urban girls with complex relational…

In this article, the author shares her experience of being part of the creation of a memorial. mosaic dedicated to those who had died on September 11, 2001. Working with veterans at a long-term outpatient program within a Veterans Administration (VA) Mental Hygiene Clinic, she found that the physical process of constructing something from…

Reviews some of the literature on seriously ill children and the use of art in counseling these children. Discusses self-concept, spontaneous drawings, and counseling techniques. Presents and comments on artwork produced in the last 18 months of the life of a young girl with leukemia. (ABL)

The Silver Drawing Test (SDT) and Draw A Story (DAS) test were designed to reveal a person's cognitive and emotional conditions. How these tests were developed and some of the research concerning their efficacy are detailed in this report. It opens with an overview of the SDT. The report then discusses recent studies on the test: "Sex and Age…

This paper presents therapeutic art practices carried out with 60 orphan children in the small town of Ugarchin in northern Bulgaria. In 1999, a group of artists and teachers developed a varied program of art activities for these children. These activities included two 1-week visits and the opening of five art workshops--Art History, Ceramics,…

This article describes a small group of preadolescent, psychiatric inpatients and their collaborative painting of a memorial mural about the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. Through an immersion in the group experience, the group members became increasingly introspective about their feelings of loss and their…

An investigation of art criticism was undertaken with studio artists, art therapists, college nonart majors, and clients receiving art therapy services. The method involved establishing aesthetic and expressive criteria taken from Kramer's (1971) concept of formed expression. Utilizing her concepts of "evocative feeling," "inner consistency," and…