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Journal of Thai Traditional & Alternative Medicine Vol. 8 No. 1 January-April 2010 ˜Ò

making and the relationship with the therapist offers tion, which is often present when a young person is
a reframing of the experience of being with an adult. in trouble with the police and has been put in prison.
In the Adrian, Hartz and Thick paper, the authors Anger can be worked within sessions and the resolu-
discus this empowering structure, noting that it of- tion and exploration of this can potentially help cli-

ten decreases adolescent resistance to therapy, thus ents to think more reasonably, providing opportuni-
promoting collaboration and avoiding power ties for them to make their own decisions and take
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struggles. responsibility for the consequences. This hopefully
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Franklin examined the mechanisms within art enables the client to begin to understand the impact
therapy that promote the development of self-esteem, of his or her actions on other people and learn empa-
explaining that the art process and art product en- thy and social understanding. Exploration of all these
abled clients to confront their self-esteem issues. parts of a person can be aimed at helping to reduce

These issues could then be transformed through art- offending behaviour and allow a young person to in-
making, and improved self-concepts rehearsed in a tegrate back into the community.
non-threatening manner. Art-making thus becomes In addition to these aspects, issues of self-es-
a safe place where the old self can be confronted and teem can be addressed and interventions can help to
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the new self rehearsed. raise this and a personûs self-confidence. Self-esteem
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Moon elaborated on developing personal power provides a sense of competence and resiliency to un-
through creating. He describes çartistic acts trans- dertake and successfully respond to lifeûs challenges:
forming [a person]...from victim to hero/survivor.é çSelf-esteem ranks among the most important aspects
Neurological research suggests that art therapy of self-development since evaluations of our own com-

can help different parts of the brain to communicate, petencies affect emotional experiences, future
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linking creative processes with language and long- behaviour and long-term psychological adjustments.é
term memory. This can then facilitate a personûs In general, self-esteem develops out of a sense
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ability to use cognitive skills to learn. Further re- of competence and positive social interactions. Es-
search shows that this non-verbal process accesses tablishing a sense of mastery is an essential factor in
the areas in the brain where traumatic experience is the creation of self-esteem, and even the awareness
stored and thus enables an exploration of early emo- that it is possible to become more capable promotes
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tional trauma and a renegotiation of experience and self-esteem.
subsequent reconnection of the neural pathways–in Importantly, working with offenders in art therapy
simple terms making art in therapy anables the diffi- does not condone the offence but looks at the rea-
cult unnameable experience to be given language, sons behind it.
be observed, and be processed by the individual and
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the containing maternal functioning of the therapist. Case Study - David
Attachment issues can also be addressed–within the
Referral
safe and developing nature of the therapeutic rela-
tionship where the boundaries and trust developed David was initially referred to art therapy within

allow for safe expression of difficult feelings, a testing the Child and Adolescent Mental Health team. While
of the capacities for the holding function of the thera- David received individual art therapy his foster par-
pist, and a renegotiation of how to be with another ents were seen by a family therapist. His younger
human. brother was also seen in a brief focused art therapy
Art therapy can be used to work on strong emo- intervention. So the whole family was given support