NCJ Number
97371
Date Published
1982
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This paper explains the purpose and use of arts therapy with victims of child sexual abuse, based on the work of Clara Jo Stember, an art therapist with Connecticut's Sexual Trauma Treatment Program for sexually abused children.
Abstract
The arts therapies help people understand themselves, release tensions and anxieties, learn specific coping and communication skills, and facilitate the resolution of conflicts. These therapies include the use of music and sound; movement and dance; color, form, and line; mime; and drama and poetry. The Connecticut program integrated the arts with other approaches and rested on the philosophy of maintaining and enhancing the integrity of the family unit whenever possible. Outreach services were provided in the home to strengthen the family. Joint therapy sessions involving the victim, the therapist, and the arts therapist were conducted. The goals of arts therapy were to provide gratifying arts experiences, to elicit verbal and nonverbal expressions of overt and internalized conflicts, to promote an alliance with the therapist, to reaffirm the client's strengths, and to accelerate maturation of delayed cognitive and functional behavior. The design of such a program must consider the effects of the victim, the victim's willingness to participate, the victim's nonverbal behavior, the victim's self-awareness, and the victim's capacity to project a potential or future identity. Therapists should introduce the arts in a nonjudgmental manner and act as an interested observer or facilitator of creative expression. Time must be provided for the completion of each activity and for closure. Case examples and illustrations of children's art are included. Seventeen references are listed.