From individul to Social Change trough Art Therapy - Thesis Example

Thus the paper concludes on a positive note of an existing correlation between art therapy and positive societal change in both perspectives and attitudes. Social change is a dynamic process of transformation caused by such catalysts as human agents, e.g. psychotherapists in a variety of contexts. Art Therapy, on the other hand, is defined as "an expressionist therapeutic mode of treatment adopted by psychotherapists and combined with conventional psychotherapeutic treatment techniques and theoretical constructs that underlie the very creative energies and processes of art forms across a broader spectrum of applications" (Kaplan, 2006).

Mental health care profession has been evolving in the larger context of clinical and non-clinical psychotherapeutic environments against the ever increasing multifarious choices available to the patient. Art Therapy is one such alternative available to the average patient in a formal clinical setting or an informal non-clinical setting. Theoretical postulates on the subject of art therapy have evolved in a particularly dynamic context of creative healing and therapeutic rejuvenation. As any other form of psychotherapy, art therapy has its own set of rules and regulations.

Art therapists are certificated as Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and so on. While the practitioner's domain includes the use of such materials as paints, brushes, chalks and markers, there is also an extensive use of theories. These professionals provide a variety of services in an equally diverse and complex set of circumstances. Their actual practice begins with children whose cognitive abilities permit their direct involvement in art therapy environment.

Then there are those adolescents and adults who would also be totally immersed in this environment. The psychosocial environment of the art therapist deserves a broader analysis in the contextually determined perspective ridden backdrop of the practice environment. The average therapist is essentially a social catalyst with a degree of freedom to make decisions in a perpetually binding symbiotic relationship that presupposes all but divergence in attitude and behavior. Their professional outreach touches a variety of their subjects' needs ranging from physical to emotional and from cognitive to developmental.

The available literature on the subject essentially focuses on the art therapeutic interventions but without a clear-cut or precise definition of the art therapist's role as a catalyst in the larger context of social transformation and the convergent behavioral synthesis. While the antithetical behavior of the individual therapist is no doubt open to debate because there is very little obvious effort being made by the individual to bring about societal change, the sum total of every single contribution to this social transformation is significantly higher and therefore demands an in-depth analysis.

The creative instinct of the individual art therapist has to be treated as an all pervasive force with a distinct identity despite the challenges that the researcher has to face in the