High school students need Social Emotional learning integrated into classrooms, but what that looks like is not well defined for art educators. When one tries to look, most research points to art therapy strategies which leave art educators feeling ill-equipped to implement in their classrooms. This study explored the implementation of visual…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how nature-inspired art education might foster a sense of connectedness and collaboration in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (hereinafter knows as ASD) in a day program. While many studies have uncovered such beneficial art education for children with ASD, there has been little research attempted…

The purpose of this study was to determine how trauma-informed approaches in an urban elementary school art room can foster empowerment in students who have been exposed to trauma and have developed Emotional and/or Behavioral Disorders. I implemented a pedagogy focused on promoting empowerment through art making, then collected data on the…

The purpose of this study was to explore the anxiety and stress-reducing effects of drawing, using different drawing materials by promoting the development of student confidence. The drawing activities were designed to foster the exploration of identity, emotion, and sense of self, while encouraging the exploration of materials and mark making.…

This study was designed to understand the potential for gained Executive Functioning through an Art Education learning environment by students whom experience a Specific Learning Disability at the High School Level. The author actualizes a limited case study of three students to understand if students whom experience Specific Learning Disabilities…

This psychoeducational counselling group is designed to explore the many facets of the emerging female adolescent identity and foster a high level of self-esteem. According to Powell (2004) adolescence is a time, and even more so for females, which can be marked by many identity conflicts and low levels of self-esteem. As such, this 14 week…

For eight weeks, we ran an art-based program for social and emotional development in Grade 5 of primary school for children aged 11-12. We met once a week for 45 minutes and worked with 25 children on improving their skills in communication, cooperation, manifestation, and recognition of emotions and identity enforcement. Each skill was covered by…

The primary purpose of Del Giacco's Neuro-Art Therapy is to help the client regenerate the sensory system at a decoding/encoding (for our purposes we use the two words interchangeably) levels in the brain while using developmental visual spatial exercises or the Therapeutic Drawing Series (TDS). The specialty of Del Giacco Neuro Art Therapy (DAT)…

In this writing related to neuro-plasticity, we are shown that changes in the brain can occur with repeated use of sensory stimuli, with both visual and motor interventions. Keeping these important scientific contributions in mind, I will briefly summarize why the choice of the arts-based DAT method of psychotherapy over traditional verbally based…

The purpose of my paper is to identify the difference between psychotherapy and art therapy. Then to introduce a technique within the field of art therapy that is relevant to neuro-plasticity Del Giacco Neuro Art Therapy. The paper identifies the importance of the amygdala and the hippocampus within the role of art therapy. Supporting…

This thesis is an art-based research video demonstration of an alternate medium for art therapy. It postulates the value and validity of media arts as a therapeutic modality by way of adopting the major motion picture green screening technique for therapy with an at-risk youth population. Four male participants, raging from 16 to 19 years of age,…

Del Giacco Art Therapy is a cognitive art therapy process that focuses on stimulating the mental sensory systems and working to stabilize the nervous system and create new neural connections in the brain. This system was created by Maureen Del Giacco, Phd. after recovering from her own traumatic brain injury and is based on extensive research of…

Violent incidents occur frequently in schools and suicide ranks second to accidents as the leading cause of death among adolescents. The purpose of this presentation is to summarize the findings of six studies that used a stimulus-drawing task for access to fantasies, thoughts, and feelings. The studies were based on the theory that the task can…

The purpose of this paper is to explain how origami can be used to foster life and academic skills in struggling students in rural schools. At-risk students often lack the social, behavioral, study, self-management, academic and life skills to face their daily challenges. This paper describes: (1) benefits of origami and its integration into…

Having a body of literature on psychological sequelae of victims, assessments, and interventions following a trauma can help mental health workers to better understand the prior treatment responses and to plan for the future. In this article, we review the current status of published mental health research on children following September 11,…