Project Title: CathARTic: How Effective is Art Therapy as a Treatment of Trauma?
BASIS Advisor: John Hight
Internship Location: BASIS Independent McLean and American Art Therapy Association
Onsite Mentor: Ms. Fors and Dr. McFarland
Cathartic- the psychological relief through the expression of strong emotions; causing catharsis. What better way to express emotion than through art? Research has shown that art therapy can aid in the vital life skills in managing anxiety, reacting to stress, and improving the quality of life. However, there is still a large amount of research since some variables have shown no conclusions in certain trials, such as the reduction of anxiety symptoms in adults. My project is attempting to uncover the effectiveness of art therapy based on differences such as art mediums and age groups. I will be working at BASIS Independent McLean with our guidance counselor, Ms. Fors, to design a series of art therapy assessments and work with different grades. The purpose of this study is to analyze and discover the effects of art therapy, specifically analyzing how it helps people deal with stress and anxiety, which is important for improving quality of life.
My Posts
Week Ten: The End!
May 20, 2021
It’s the final week of our senior projects! It’s exciting to see the end products come together for the projects that we’ve been working on for a while. I have been continuing my analysis of data, but still did not have luck in determining a specific reason for the effectiveness of art therapy. However, I […]
Week Nine: Final Paper
May 10, 2021
This week I have been continuing the finalization of my senior project. I have drafted my paper and continued analysis on my data. The set up for my paper is: Title Page (name of my report, name, advisors, Senior Project) Introduction (What interested me in this topic, how I chose it, why it is important) […]
Week 8: Beginning of the End
May 04, 2021
Now that my art therapy experiment has concluded, I have been spending the week deciding what I want my end product to look like. Since each student from 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th grade wrote down a number 1-5 correlating to their mood before and after the activity, I will be able to analyze the […]
Week Seven: A Taste of Teaching
Apr 26, 2021
This week I am grateful to say that I was able to work with all the grades I planned to for my experiment! There were some bumps with the scheduling, but nothing that couldn’t be figured out. As a reminder, I worked with the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th graders at BASIS Independent McLean. Experiment […]
Week Six: Experiment Preparation
Apr 18, 2021
The exciting part begins! This week I have been finalizing my ideas for my art therapy experiment and lesson plan. using surveys and mandalas. I finalized the design for the worksheet packet with the survey and the mandalas. There will be two varieties of mandalas in the packets. One is a full mandala that I […]
Week Five: Art Activity and Making Mandalas
Apr 11, 2021
Hello everyone! It is my luck that I forgot to write my blog post earlier this week. As I have previously mentioned in a blog post, I have been attending the Art Therapy Open Studio at Edinboro University to gain some experience with how art therapy works. Although these sessions are through Edinboro University, they […]
Week Three: Mandalas?
Mar 30, 2021
It’s really great to see everyone’s progress on their senior project and how they are evolving! This week I have continued my search for an art activity that fits the scope of my art therapy experiment. I met with Dr. McFarland from the American Art Therapy Association over Zoom to further discuss her idea of […]
Week 2: Expanding my Art Therapy Scope
Mar 18, 2021
This week I have been focused on learning more about the field of art therapy and brainstorming an art activity that I can use with the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th grade students at BASIS Independent Mclean. So far with my journey of designing my own project I have also been planning what I hope […]
Week One: The Intro
Mar 12, 2021
Hey, my name is Maria! Creativity has been such an important aspect in my life because it can be a unique way to relax especially after a busy week of studying for BASIS tests. The way I see it, art is basically a method of free therapy through creativity because it’s an opportunity to let […]