Art Therapy With Students at Risk: Introducing Art Therapy into an Alternative Learning Environment for Adolescents

Art Therapy With Students At Risk: Introducing Art Therapy into an Alternative Learning Environment for Adolescents represents the research, planning, organization, development, and implementation of an art therapy program with an at-risk population. The book includes 5 tables, 14 color plates, and 7 appendices and is divided into six sections: Adolescence, Alternative Schools, Alternative Edu-cation Programs, Emotions and Learning, Art Therapy in the Schools, and Implementation of the Art Therapy Program. The book is designed for graduate art therapy students, professional art therapists, educators, counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and individuals interested in the application of art therapy. It is organized as follows: Chapter 1, Adolescence, examines the developmental period of adolescence—the physical, cognitive, moral, social, emotional, and creative components. Chapter 2, Alternative Schools, traces the evolution of the alternative schools movement from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s to the present. Chapter 3, Alternative Education Programs, explores the dual catalysts for policymakers to embrace alternative education, which are the desire to increase graduation rates and the need to eliminate disruptive or violent students from the classroom without sending them into the streets. Chapter 4, Emotions and Learning, provides insight into the psychobiology of emotion and its impact on learning. Chapter 5, Art Therapy in the Schools, focuses on the field of school art therapy. Chapter 6, Implementation of the Art Therapy Program, presents an effective proposal for the introduction and implementation of a viable art therapy program within an alternative learning environment. The book will provide practitioners with valuable insights into this unique population of students and offer intervention strategies that will lead students at risk to creative self-expression and ultimately into cognitive, social, and emotional growth.