Art therapy and guidance and counselling as methods for helping the emotionally disturbed (a comparison)

This study is titled “Art Therapy and Guidance and Counselling as methods for helping the emotionally disturbed (a comparison)” The aim of the study is to find out similarities and differences between the two processes with regards to helping the emotionally disturbed person. The specific objectives stated in the study were to explain: 1 processes involved in the use of art therapy in helping the emotionally disturbed person, 2. processes involved in the use of guidance and counselling in helping the emotionally disturbed person, 3. to come out with similarities and differences in the above mentioned processes with regards to helping the emotionally disturbed person 4. To provide some useful suggestions based on the analyses of the processes for the mutual consideration of both art Therapists and Counsellors. An attempt was made through the use of descriptive and historical methods of research to gather data on guidance and counselling and Art therapy processes of helping the emotionally disturbed person. Data was gathered extensively from primary sources like records of people who went through Art therapy, course materials, oral testimonies from lecturers, art therapists and counsellors. From secondary sources data was collected from areas like documentary accounts of art therapy processes, photographic records or files and bibliographies to come out with findings. The data collected from the primary and the secondary sources was analysed by first drawing comparison between the directive approaches of these two processes, followed by comparing their non-directive approaches, then processes in counselling against art therapy. The findings of the study revealed that: 1. The directive approaches to guidance and counselling and art therapy are essentially similar although in art therapy it is the client who does most of the work while in counselling it is the counsellor who does most of the work. 2 Both art therapy and guidance and counselling use non-directive approaches which are however unique to themselves. In Art therapy the clients may play, create and relate with their pictures and feeling about the image they make while in guidance and counselling images are not made. Rather the counsellor communicates with the client (verbally). 3. Though both art therapy and guidance and counselling use similar processes which are however unique in themselves, during the initial stages of art therapeutic process, so many questions and fantasies are bound to occur, because of the uncertainty of the client about the role of the therapist. In counselling, however the client is certain about the role of the counsellor. Also in art therapy, interpretation involves making conscious analyses of these processes into words by the patient or the therapist. Again the images made in the art therapeutic process are concrete and open to visual interpretation based on theoretical background like that of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud but sometimes they can be vulnerable to misinterpretation in terms of the objective understanding of the content. Misunderstanding or Misinterpretation of content in analyses is applicable to any system, especially where the client’s views are not taken into account.

Source: KNUST