Problems We Address • 209Rehabilitation Unit of DC General Hospital in 1951, art therapy has been used extensively
with such patients. It seems to be appealing for many reasons, such as the fact that it is
both concrete and gratifying. Many forms of art therapy have been used in the effort to
help addicts—from individual, to family, to group, to the multifamily group art therapy
employed with mothers and children in a recovery program (Chickerneo, 1993; Linesch,
1993; Waller & Mahony, 1999).
The women I saw in one drug rehabilitation program were initially distrustful and wary,
skeptical that group art therapy could really help. Like children, they delighted in being
“fed” beautiful materials, “hungrily” but constructively using them to create personal state-
ments. They were surprised at their own creativity and enhanced self-esteem. You can hear
some of their comments on the DVD (G).
Art Therapy Helps a Recovering Addict: AMELIA (25)
Amelia, for example, created a series of pictures, paintings, and sculptures of graceful swans.
She spoke to the group with feeling about how she had discovered that she herself was not
an ugly duckling after all, but rather a swan—and that her little swans had grown as she had
grown. You can hear and see her, as well as her artwork, on the DVD (H). She planned to
study art after finishing the treatment program.
Survivors of Sexual Abuse
Whether the abuse happens in childhood or adulthood, it is often repressed and inaccessible
to both patient and therapist. Even if the memory is available, the victim has usually been
threatened with reprisal if they tell anyone what happened. So whether the traumatic events
are unconscious or suppressed out of fear, art is an excellent avenue for “telling without talk-
ing” (Cohen & Cox, 1995).
Art offers a way for a person of any age to utter “silent screams and hidden cries” (Wohl &
Kaufman, 1985). As society becomes more comfortable with the truth, art therapists are help-
ing more people of all ages in an ever-expanding array of settings, from shelters to hospitals.
It makes sense that art is helpful in accessing images that torment the mind (I) (Arrington,
2007; Brooke, 1997; Hagood, 2000; Klorer, 2000; Malchiodi, 1997; Murphy, 2001; Spencer,
1997; Spring, 1993, 2001; Tinnin & Gantt, 2000). It also makes sense that all of the arts are
helpful in working with wounds buried in the body as well (Brooke, 2007; Carey, 2005;
Gerity, 1999; Gil, 2006a, 2006b; Malchiodi, 2008; Simonds, 1994) (J).
Pioneer Clara Jo Stember literally carried art therapy to abused children in her Artmobile
in the 1970s, and art therapist Connie Naitove contributed a chapter to the Handbook of
Clinical Intervention in Child Sexual Abuse (Sgroi, 1980). Since abuse is usually perpetrated
by a family member, the art therapy often involves the family (Landgarten, 1987), as well
as groups of mothers of abused children (Landgarten & Lubbers, 1991) or of mothers and
children (Linesch, 1993).
Frances Anderson led two ceramics groups for incest survivors, which she documented in
a film, Courage! Together We Heal (K) (Anderson, 1991). By the time adult survivors of abuse
seek treatment, they usually have problems in many areas, and often carry multiple psychiat-
ric diagnoses. They sometimes discover repressed memories of sexual abuse in the course of
therapy, which has stimulated serious questions about the accuracy of such “memories.”
Despite many years of intensive psychotherapy, Alice Miller, a well-known analyst and
author, did not uncover her own abuse until she started painting the images she published in
Pictures of a Childhood (M i l ler, 1986). Si m i la rly, a successf u l a r t ist d id n’t fi nd her bu r ied i mages
of trauma until she was drawing the pictures in her book, A Child’s Story (Harris, 1993).