Art therapy has grown exponentially over the past two decades, not only advancing treatment options but also advancing into different populations and treatment settings. In particular, art therapists have been working with a very special and unique population—the military.
For over 15 years, post-9/11 military service members and veterans have been coming home after serving sometimes multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. Many have sustained physical and psychological combat injuries and require extensive care. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are prevalent in returning service members, which poses tremendous daily challenges for the veteran and his or her entire family. Roughly 352,619 US military service members have been diagnosed with TBI, with 82.3% cases classified as mild. Research points to a connection between PTSD and TBIs, wherein recent studies link TBIs sustained during deployment to significant predictors of developing symptoms of PTSD.
It must be noted that stark cultures exist between the military and art therapy. The military—an institution and culture of rigid protocol, disciplined training, mission-focused; and art therapy—a profession based in creativity and the therapeutic relationship, within a fluid and flexible approach that offers myriad ways to openly express one’s feelings and thoughts. Despite this divergence, many who serve in the military are finding art therapy to be their preferred method of treatment.
It’s a simple answer to a not-so-simple and pervasive issue challenging many military members who return from war: trauma. These two worlds intersect because art therapy has the means to assist veterans and their families in dealing with combat trauma.
The American Art Therapy Association (AATA) describes art therapy as an integrative mental health service that is based on active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship. Combat veterans are seeking art therapy to assist with trauma resolution, integrate with their TBI treatment plan, and provide coping mechanisms for PTSD symptoms. These therapies have become an increasingly accepted form of complementary care for military veterans, and art therapy effectively supports personal and relational treatment goals as well as community concerns.
The growth of neuroscience has also contributed to advancing art therapy to the forefront of trauma-focused treatment today. Brain imaging now shows what art therapists have believed all along: creating, such as art-making, can change neural pathways in the brain; and that potentially changes the way one thinks and feels. Conscious and unconscious mental activity, mind-body connectedness, the use of mental and visual imagery, bi-lateral stimulation, and communication between the limbic system and cerebral cortex functioning underscore and illuminate the healing benefits of art therapy—none of which could take place without the flexibility of neuronal processes, otherwise known as neuroplasticity.
Creative art therapists know that through creating—whether through art, music, poetry, or drama—that traumatic memory can be readily accessed in a way that is far less threatening than traditional verbal therapies. Further, traumatic memories are often stored in images and other sensations rather than in words or through verbalization, and many art therapists have observed how making art helps in releasing traumatic memories that were previously inaccessible.
Recent developments in neuroscience have illuminated the areas of the brain responsible for the verbal processing of traumatic events. Brain imaging illustrates that for many, when recounting a traumatic event, the Broca’s area (language) of the brain shuts down, and at the same time, the amygdala becomes aroused. Right brain activation through art media and process allow for less reliance on the verbal languages area of the brain, which provides some substantiation for why nonverbal therapies like art therapy might be more effective when working with trauma.
The American Art Therapy Association identified four major contributions of art therapy to the treatment of PTSD: 1) Reducing anxiety and mood disorder, 2) Reducing behaviors that interfere with emotional and cognitive functioning, 3) Externalizing, verbalizing, and resolving memories of traumatic events, and 4) Reactivating positive emotions, self-worth, and self-esteem (AATA, 2012).