Ever wondered how art therapy works?
We present an Art Therapy AIR Interview. to help people understand more about the benefits of art therapy, from the person’s point of view.
We would like to thank the interviewees for their courage and honesty and wonderful insights.. It was their wish to be able to encourage others by providing insight into how art therapy helped them. We value participant-led research and feedback.
Mindscape was invited to conduct a 12-week group Art Therapy programme with a group of women who had experienced emotional challenges. The group took place at a charity that supports these women and the objectives of the programme were as follows:
- Engage in a group promoting an expressive arts approach to wellbeing
- Improve self-awareness and confidence
- A safe place to share and explore feelings
- Tap into one’s creativity and meet others
- Be mindful and share creative coping skills
Following the programme, a participant agreed to be interviewed to talk about their experience of doing art therapy. The interview used the Audio Image Reflect Interview ((AIR) framework, which invited the interviewees to share their thoughts and reflect on two meaningful artworks that summed up their experience.
The interview took place in a quiet, confidential room, with informed consent. It is audio only to protect confidentiality.
The 2 images referred to in the Interview are shown below:
