Tactile art therapy is important

When most people think of therapy they think of sitting, or lying down in a futon while they talk to a person who most likely has glasses on across the room. They tell this person their struggles for the week and the person at the other end of the room usually has some type of solution or fix to their problems. Art therapy is different to this, it uses art along with a care plan a therapist has made for their client. There are several ways to misinterpret art therapy from believing that unqualified therapists who believe that the mere creation of art is art therapy is able to effectively give a wholesome experience for their client ;to believing that art therapy can be done using Ai. If a therapist is unqualified to help their patient or gives advice that is counterintuitive to modern therapeutic doctrines such as the modern self help genre then this can not be considered therapy.  Art therapy is intended to use therapy to deconstruct either past trauma or emotions, and using a computer program to bypass this would not result in progress but further confusion as the emotion displayed in the piece is a hollow representation of that person’s true expression.

Art therapy: A creative and Expressive process created by the Indian Journal of Positive Psychology in 2014, describes the beginnings of art therapy in the mid 20th century in both the UK and United States. In Britain there are two conflicting ideas for how art therapy started, one pertains to the calming aspects of creating art in general and the other is attributed to the speedy recovery from tuberculosis. Though both definitions are significantly outdated.

Art therapy as defined by the National Library of Medicine, explains that art therapy is most commonly used with those that have mental illnesses and cognitive decline for its ability to assist with “quality of life”. And through that it was found that artistic expression would be helpful to explore as a supplement to traditional therapy. This can be helpful as it allows for someone to put their complicated feelings into the real world and to have someone help them understand their abstract feelings better. Trying to explain systemic racism and how it affects those it seeks to demonize may be hard to understand if the person has never fully realized that’s what they’ve been experiencing their whole lives. Though it may be a bit easier through either an image or another art form, as this could allow for the patient to perhaps sculpt a piece about how they view their body, and their therapist could help to break down the harmful stereotypes that may negatively affect their body image. It’s a more tangible form of expression and takes the abstract concept of hurting someone emotionally and puts it into a realistic context. It puts that emotion or feeling into something someone might be able to more readily understand and come to terms with. They can hold it in their hands, they can feel it as their piece is being made, this process is not the same in digital. 

Though these two definitions may differ from one spoken by Abbie Kasoff in , the director of Say It with Clay via a telephone interview. She describes art therapy as Therapy with a specific treatment plan that involves art. She goes on to state that “art with a therapeutic approach” isn’t art therapy. That art therapy must involve someone with a master’s degree in art therapy, though this requirement is different  in all 50 states. Art with a therapeutic approach such as coloring with an adult coloring book isn’t exactly what counts as art therapy(Abbie Kasoff). 

Though there are several types of art therapy some not even falling in the traditional definition of art therapy.  Abbie Kasoff The current Chief Executive director of the organization says it with clay describes art therapy as Therapy with a specific treatment plan that involves art. She goes on to state that “art with a therapeutic approach” isn’t art therapy. That art therapy must involve someone with a master’s degree in art therapy, though this requirement is different  in all 50 states. Art with a therapeutic approach such as coloring with an adult coloring book isn’t exactly what counts as art therapy. Art with a therapeutic approach or AWTA is what most people think of when they hear about art therapy because it fits the idea of what art is for people who may not care about it. That art is something only used to relax, that it’s always fun, or that it’s easy. But art can be used in several different ways and can invoke feelings of grief, pain and understanding. And when exploring these complex emotions it is important to have someone who is equipped to help get through the feelings, a sentiment that Kasoff also strongly expressed.  If such a person is not there with the patient then they may have trouble navigating their emotions and the patient suffers because the person they trusted with healthy exploring their emotions has been ineffective it may create a new problem. It could leave the patient worse off as they may refrain from exploring their emotions with therapy again. 

For art to work there must be some type of meaning attached to it. Art has this meaning attached to it because art is important, take ancient peoples, they used their art to depict gods, even more ancient people used art to document surroundings. If a certain way of life is important to a civilization then we should see some representation of that in the forms of art. If someone is looking to improve their life through art therapy then isn’t it important to gather a baseline look into their life? To have a sort of jumping off point.

So we have to account for what modern life values. A recent example of what the average American values is seen in the craze of the stanley cup. A cup, a resource used to ensure people get their proper intake of water, can turn into such a craze that there are now ways to decorate a cup. And some people have multiple of these cups that are also intended to reduce waste. This example speaks to a modern way people express themselves, that Americans live in a culture that is so deeply rooted in individualism that we can get lost in it.

This in itself could be grounds to receive art therapy. The ever constant task of trying to live a life both dependent and independent of social pressures, and feeling like failing to live up to this unrealistic standard is a moral failing. This is not to say that everyone who was swept up in the stanley cup wave needs art therapy, this example is just one aspect of modern life that may bleed into culture and behaviors that could be beneficial to work through in art therapy. Perhaps creating a mug with the feelings of individualism with an art therapist could be a small victory in a young person’s overall therapy journey. A small hurdle in deconstructing how negative social pressure has affected how a person interacts with the people around them. 

Digital media has risen rapidly in the 21st century and this may be due to it’s affordability.Art supplies cost money and depending on the specific supplies this could put a significant dent in someone’s pockets. So evaluating whether digital media would be a viable option for Art therapy is important. 

Another idea that may clash with the central thesis of this paper is the idea that digital media can be introduced into art therapy and have no real drawbacks. This idea may be true for some people but may also leave others behind. For people who have trouble with anxiety when talking with people, it would actually do more harm than good. 

A study conducted by Frontiers in Psychology ,discussed the use of digital media in art therapy in the future. Concluding with the sentiment that digital art therapy would be helpful as it would be used to reach more people. While this sentiment is true in practice, a core component of therapy and especially art therapy is the human connection to both the art and to the therapist and part of that would be lost with creating and talking through a screen. If art therapy is used for those with communication issues, and let’s say that one of those people were to use digital art therapy it wouldn’t be as effective. They can simply hang up the phone if they get overwhelmed instead of having the therapist being in the same room as them and helping to get to the root of their emotions. The core part of their therapy is messed up and may put them off track.

Even someone who is used to routine may be affected by digital therapy in a negative way, of course with traditional art therapy it exists in a specific location and that patient may have trouble getting to that particular location due to weather or a natural disaster, this would still be the case with digital media. It breaks the idea that digital art therapy can be done anywhere through video calls. Even if the video aspect is not there and the patient is in the room with the therapist the app the art is done on may crash or perhaps the therapist or the patient forgot to charge the device, this could cause more frustration because the patient paid the therapist for art therapy for part of the day and due to circumstances out of their control they are unable to get their treatment. This type of therapy isn’t accessible if the person lives in an area with trees or forgets to charge their device. And while yes, charging their device would also be an effective way to build a routine, it may enforce a negative routine as increased screen time and exposure to blue light from computer and phone screens puts one’s eyes at risk. 

If the accessibility of this type of therapy is offset by the effectiveness of the particular method of art where a core component is to make it more effective then is it worth it. Is it worth it to undercut the main focus of therapy? 

In another study done by Front Psychology, found under the National Library of Medicine, found that using digital media may be beneficial when the patient has special needs.  The results of the experiment, where special needs children in their sophomore year in high school, states “In particular, digital art therapy induces a holistic sensory experience by mobilizing visual images that could represent various expressions, emotions felt in music and tactile senses that made texts for people with intellectual disabilities with difficulty in verbal communication.” Though digital art was used for this experiment due to the availability and propensity of people using phones and computers, this does not mean that traditional art also couldn’t be used for the experiment. Teaching these special needs high schoolers how to express themselves with traditional media including clay and painting wouldn’t be all that difficult. Though there would potentially be a significant price involved. That is a small price to pay for tactile sensations and a better chance to immerse themselves in their feelings and potentially the feelings of others. Always being on one’s devices may lead to a lapse in reality and with the addition of a learning disability like the children in the experiment this could cause an even bigger lapse in development when doing art therapy. This study didn’t take people without learning disabilities into account, people that might have anxiety or ptsd might not have a positive experience with art therapy. The population size and demographic for this experiment is too small to really say whether or not the experiment works or not. It’s good to take a break from the constant screentime in daily life to pick up clay and discuss emotions with someone trained in dealing with those emotions. 

Another aspect of digital media is AI art and it’s potential applications in several creative fields, including art therapy. A study published in The International journal of Human-Computer Studies this year discusses the possibility of using Ai in art therapy:

“However, the potential of digital technologies has not been fully leveraged; especially, applying AI technologies in digital art therapy is still under-explored. In this paper, we propose an AI-infused art-making system, DeepThInk, to investigate the potential of introducing a human-AI co-creative process into art therapy, by collaborating with five experienced registered art therapists over ten months. DeepThInk offers a range of tools which can lower the expertise threshold for art-making while improving users’ creativity and expressivity.”

Claiming that AI can improve creativity and expressivity is impossible, the only way to improve in something is by doing it. The computer drawing the picture for you doesn’t count because the computer can’t feel the same emotions a human can. The whole point of art therapy is to create while feeling complex emotions, that can’t be fully achieved without making the piece one’s self. The art work doesn’t represent a person’s complex emotions, it represents what a computer may think are complex emotions. What a computer feels and what a person feels are two different thing, namely because a computer can only imitate human emotions. 

The desire to create without the skills needed can be circumvented with AI. This again touches on the paradox of individualism. AI was initially presented as a tool to help people, and while this still technically fits the definition of a tool it does not fit the already very loose definition of art. Thus it would not be helpful to art therapy as a core tenet is the creation of art by one’s own hand. 

There are several benefits to traditional art therapy, a great example of this comes from the act of finger painting as it has been proven to enhance feelings of mindfulness and attention, both of which would be highly beneficial for therapy (Kaczmarek). When a person is mindful of their process and decisions when creating it can push the piece to be a more genuine work of art, this translates to the work being a more accurate expression of a person’s experience.  As opposed to digital, where the only thing connecting the person to their art is a screen. Process of creating art will feel different and sort of wrong in a way, it feels better to hold that piece of art in one’s own hands, to see the pride in knowing they made it themselves. 

Digital media may be important for getting baseline ideas and information down, though a more holistic experience can be achieved through traditional art when dealing with art therapy. Traditional art media creates sensations that can encourage mindfulness and can immerse one deeper into the creative process and therapy experience. Also with the overabundance of digital experiences it can be a nice change of pace to be encouraged to take a step back and create with a licensed therapist.

Tactile therapy, or traditional art therapy, is very important to the growth of patients that perhaps have trouble expressing their emotions or have developmental issues. If a patient is in an environment that allows them to focus on another priority instead of only their emotions it can help them to allow their emotions to flow more freely. Thus the method is crucial to their recovery plan the therapist has compiled for them. Messing up this routine may worsen the effectiveness of treatment.

References

Bellaiche, Lucas, Rohin Shahi, Martin Harry Turpin, Anya Ragnhildstveit, Shawn Sprockett, Nathaniel Barr, Alexander Christensen, and Paul Seli. “Humans versus AI: Whether and Why We Prefer Human-Created Compared to AI-Created Artwork – Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications.” SpringerOpen, July 4, 2023. https://cognitiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41235-023-00499-6. 

Lin-Fisher, Betty, and Bailey Schulz. “What Is so Special about Stanley Cups? The Psychology behind the Year’s Thirstiest Obsession.” USA Today, January 31, 2024. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/shopping/2024/01/13/stanley-cup-obsession-explained/72176008007/. 

Raaina Mahevish, Khan, A., Mahmood, H., Qazi, S., Fakhoury, H., & Hani Tamim. (2023). The Impact of Social Media on the Physical and Mental Well-Being of Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44197-023-00164-7

Schukei, Abby. “Digital vs. Traditional Art: Is One Better than the Other?” The Art of Education University, March 27, 2023. https://theartofeducation.edu/2019/05/digital-vs-traditional-art-is-one-better-than-the-other/. Kim, J., & Chung, Y. J. (2023). A case study of group art therapy using digital media for adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, 1172079. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1172079

Shukla, A., Choudhari, S. G., Gaidhane, A. M., & Quazi Syed, Z. (2022). Role of Art Therapy in the Promotion of Mental Health: a Critical Review. Cureus, 14(8). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9472646/

Stanko-Kaczmarek, M., & Kaczmarek, L. D. (2016). Effects of Tactile Sensations during Finger Painting on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Scope of Attention. Creativity Research Journal, 28(3), 283–288. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2016.1189769

Xuejun Du, Pengcheng An, Justin Leung, April Li, Linda E. Chapman, Jian Zhao, DeepThInk: Designing and probing human-AI co-creation in digital art therapy, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies,Volume 181,2024,103139,ISSN 1071-5819, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2023.103139.

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1071581923001489)

Telephone interview with Abbie Kasoff