Art and poetry in brief therapy of hospitalized adolescents

Author(s): Smith, Philippe, Sessoms, Lydia

Journal/Book: Arts in Psychotherapy. 1992; 19: 279-283.

Abstract: Argues that art therapy and therapeutic education can work in tandem with supportive brief therapy. Adolescents who are unable to articulate their conflicts in verbal dialog are often able to do so in written verse or plastic art productions. Four clinical vignettes and accompanying artistic productions illustrate how art can contribute to brief therapy with hospitalized adolescents. All 4 Ss were able to symbolize their concerns in a consensually validated or validating way, thus demonstrating a reintegration of psychological experience. Working within an ego psychological vs a depth-psychoanalytic framework, the therapists used artistic production as a vehicle of self-expression rather than interpreting it as expressing unconscious wishes or unresolved conflict.

Note: use of poetry & art therapy in supportive brief therapy; adolescents in acute psychiatric unit

Keyword(s): Art therapy; poetry ; psychiatric hospitalization; brief psychotherapy; adolescence

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