art therapy

The population that really shocked me was the population with AIDS. I never really thought of art therapy or therapy at all being used to help with medical issues or diseases. It makes sense though, as they can really effect someones mentality especially if it something that will be a struggle for life.

The psychiatric population was the least surprising to me. When you think about therapy or art therapy you typically think about individuals with mental illness and hospitals designated to their care. This is the population that most often portrayed in the movies as working with therapists of all kinds.

I don’t think that any population benefits more or less just because of the group that they fit into. I believe that it is all about what you give to the sessions and therapist and your willingness to receive the help. I think that some populations would have it a little bit harder to find help such as the homeless but if they were able to and put the effort into therapy they would benefit from it just as much as anyone else would. Whether or not you benefit from something has more to do with you as an individual than it does what population you belong to. Just like many other things.

Reply：

Hi Leann! It was surprising for me too when I read that clients with AIDS benefits from art therapy. I like your explanation though, about the disease effecting a person’s mentality. I also like your points about what kind of populations might be more likely to receive help. I wrote in my own post that some populations might actually go to their appointments more over other populations, so they at least have more potential to get help, but I also like your point about how it is all about the client’s willingness to receive help, this is exactly what I was trying to say!

Sample 2:

The population that surprised me the most by being served by art therapists was prostitutes. I think this surprised me most because a few girls I graduated high school with became strippers and they want everyone to know how proud they are of it, so at first I wasn’t sure prostitutes might feel the opposite; however, when I think about it it makes sense. As said in the article, prostitutes have a lot of substance abuse, childhood trauma, and sexual abuse.

As for the least surprising population for me was children and psychiatric clients. This is because communication might be difficult for children and those with mental illnesses, so utilizing art therapy would be help them easily considering not much, if any, speech needs to be used.

Populations that might benefit more or less from art therapy, I am not sure about. I think different populations could benefit more, for example as I previously said, children and psychiatric patients might benefit the most. They would be more likely to actually attend therapy, children are brought by their parents and some psychiatric patients might have to stay in an institution, so they might not be able to change their minds like prostitute clients can and do.

Sample 3:

The population I was most surprised to serve by art therapists was older adults and the elderly. The reading this week talks about how when older adults use art therapy they tend to draw memories from past experiences in their lives. It also discusses how even Alzheimer’s patients benefit because patients can “muster some creativity in working with tantalizing materials.” It makes sense why older adults would benefit from art therapy. What did not surprise me as much is how children and people with domestic violence in their history benefit from art therapy.

I do not think there is a population that will benefit more or less than others in this type of situation. I believe everyone is different so whether you are 90 or 10 you could benefit from art therapy it just depends on the effort and if it works for you.

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