Art Therapy With Students at Risk: Fostering Resilience and Growth Through Self-expression

This updated and expanded new edition continues the theme of the first edition of providing the reader with extensive new research findings in the areas of resilience, cognitive science, neuroscience, dropout prevention and school engagement, coupled with new federal and state legislation. In addition, important trends in philosophical and theoretical models have emerged that call for a 'reclaiming' of at-risk youth, reflecting the research, legislation and trends that impact the theory and practice of art therapy with diverse at-risk student populations. The book includes 19 tables, 16 illustrations (14 color plates), and is divided into seven chapters with fourteen therapeutic techniques that are written in a lesson plan format. The selected techniques provide art experiences to facilitate creative and therapeutic change for students and the fourteen color illustrations highlight students' creative responses elicited from the application of the technique. Chapter 1 examines the developmental domains of adolescence and adolescents' participation in health risk behaviors. Chapter 2 traces the evolution of the alternative schools movement from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s to the present. Chapter 3 explores the catalysts for policymakers to embrace alternative education. Chapter 4 provides insights into the phenomenology, psychobiology, and the implications of emotion, and Chapter 5 focuses on the field of school art therapy. Chapter 6 examines the issue of risk and the issue of protection, with Chapter 7 offering a foundational framework for implementing an art therapy program for adolescents. Recommended procedures for art therapy are provided that address the following: promoting art therapy, assessment, establishing goals and objectives for treatment planning, art therapy program review, and annual reviews for students. Consequently, the application of therapeutic art experiences in a safe and supportive environment fosters resilience and enhances cognitive, emotional, and social growth. This book is designed for art therapy students, professional art therapists, educators, administrators, and practitioners in the allied professions of counseling, social work, and psychology.