Is your child being bullied at school? Childhood bullying is unfortunately a widespread problem and faced by many of today’s youth.  According to the Australian Covert Bullying Prevalence Study, 27% of students from year’s four to nine were bullied frequently, every few weeks or more during every term. The bullying that is endemic in schools most often takes the form of offensive teasing and being the victim of lies designed to damage reputation.

Previous generations could find a safe haven in their home but young people in the 21^st century have the added threat of cyberbullying so if they choose to use social media to chat with their friends they are also at risk of ‘trolling’. The same researchers found that people who bullied others at school would also bully online – although less common than face to face bullying, 14% of students experienced cyberbullying and 7% experienced both.  The most frequently used mediums to bully someone online are MSN Messenger, social networking sites, texting and email.

Usually the bully and their intended target know each other and may even describe each other as ‘friends’.

The person on the receiving end of the negative treatment may end up feeling anxious or depressed as a result as well as being isolated and lonely. There are also physical side-effects of bullying, like upset stomach, disturbed sleep and increased susceptibility to infection. This is because the child is pumping out extra cortisol, a stress hormone that raises blood pressure and pulse while suppressing the immune system.

If your child has become the victim of bullying, if their grades are slipping, they are skipping school or you think their mood is low, art therapy is a way you can help them release those negative tensions and start to feel good about themselves again.

What is Art Therapy

Art therapy is a type of psychotherapy that uses art as a method of expression so that a person can communicate how they feel through painting and drawing. The approach is based upon psychoanalysis – a technique by which a person accesses his deepest held impulses and instincts and acknowledges them even if they are considered unacceptable. Repressed emotions can manifest into psychological problems so recognizing underlying feelings in important in maintaining good mental health and balance. Art therapy could be described as a symbolic language, that is, experiences that are too complicated or frightening to describe in words can be described more easily through the use of pictures. Just as Freud – the father of psychoanalysis – was able to interpret a patient’s true feelings and motivations through dream symbolism, the same can be done through picture symbolism.

Art can bring out the hidden desire for revenge against the bully or help the artist’s self-esteem by giving him an outlet to bring colorful creations to life.

Art therapy is often used for children who are victims of child abuse; physical, sexual, emotional or verbal and who may be suffering from mood disorders, attachment disorders and behavioral problems. As victims of bullying are also subject to emotional and verbal abuse – and sometimes physical abuse – this makes art therapy an ideal form of therapy for them too.

Art allows traumatic memories to be communicated on paper or other media and is particularly useful in children who find it difficult to talk about what has happened to them. Nurturing their creativity and expressing themselves through art can encourage some children to verbalize their experiences when they previously didn’t.

Is Art Therapy Effective?

Art therapy is an effective strategy for preventing anxiety caused by bullying and can be used as a way to explore self-empowerment methods. Edith Cowan University reported on a 10 year old girl who was psychologically affected by bullying and had started to skip school because she was worried she would experience more bullying. She was given six, directed art therapy sessions with one follow up session to encourage her to express her fears and worries about being bullied. She also saw a child psychologist before and after the art therapy intervention to get a measure of her emotional state pre and post treatment. After she had completed the course, she reduced the number of times she skipped school, had a greater opinion of herself and improved relationships with her family members, according to her own estimation and the opinion of her mother, the school principal and the child psychologist.

Art therapy can also be utilised by a child who is displaying bullying behaviour as an outlet for expressing negative emotions in a safe way instead of expressing them by intimidating others. This approach is increasingly being used by schools to prevent bullying from occurring in the first place.

References:

Art Therapy, Children and Interpersonal Violence, Psychology Today, accessed December 20, 2015, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/arts-and-health/201310/art-therapy-children-and-interpersonal-violence

Bullying and Cyberbullying Facts, Queensland Government, accessed December 20, 2015, https://www.qld.gov.au/disability/children-young-people/bullying/facts.html#common

Physical Effects of Bullying, Kwik Med, accessed December 20, 2015, http://www.kwikmed.org/physical-effects-of-bullying/

Matthews, F. (1998). A Case Study : A Short Term Art Therapy Intervention For A Child Victim To Bullying, accessed December 20, 2015, http://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1449

Forest, Melanie (2006), Children who Bully: A School Based Intervention Using Cognitive Behavioural Art Therapy, Concordia University, accessed December 20, 2015, http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/8960/

Lyndal Bond et al, Does Bullying Cause Emotional Problems? A Prospective Study of Young Teenagers, BMJ 2001;323:480, accessed December 20, 2015, http://www.bmj.com/content/323/7311/480.short

The Blog today is written by freelance contributing writer; Helen Farnes and I hope that you find the article both interesting and useful.

The Art of Mental Health

When you get into the flow of doing something that holds your whole attention, the experience can become almost like meditation. We can immerse ourselves into this relaxed state when reading, painting, gardening, even for a few moments while ironing or washing the dishes, but when it is a creative activity that catches us up, the benefits can be even greater. Art can be wonderful for your mental health.

The Creative Mind

Creativity doesn’t always have the best press when it comes to mental health, although we are increasingly keen to encourage people to be more creative. There are still many articles suggesting that the examples of great artists affected by mental illness show that being creative makes us much more susceptible to conditions such as depression. There is even some scientific evidence to back up claims that those of us who are more creative may also have a slightly increased chance of developing certain mental health problems, such as bipolar disorder, and that there may be a higher incidence of mental illness in the families of creative people. Some of the characteristics that we prize in a healthy creative mind, such as openness to experience and the ability to make unusual connections between apparently unrelated ideas, can also be seen in certain kinds of mental illness, combined with symptoms that can make these characteristics very problematic. However, this does not mean that creativity and mental illness must go together. There are plenty of creative people who have great mental health, and many people who are affected by mental illness who have never been particularly imaginative or artistic.

The Science of Creativity

Scientists have been working on understanding exactly what the apparent connection between creativity and mental illness means, where ideas come from, and how the creative process itself actually works, but figuring out how our minds work when we create might be even harder than creating a work of art. It is not as simple as the traditional idea of left-brain logic and right-brain creativity. The process of creation seems to involve a complex series of conscious and unconscious processes that take place in networks of neurons spread across the entire brain. These networks work to keep us focused, to reconfigure what we know and remember into newly imagined combinations, and to pinpoint the best and most important thoughts. Exactly how this results in a new poem or piece of art is still something of a mystery, but while we might not understand exactly what creativity does to our brains, we do know that art can help us to heal.

Art as Therapy

The link between mental health and art can actually be a very positive one. While some people fear that creativity can spark mental illness, the truth is that art can actually play an important part in helping people to manage these kinds of conditions. Art therapy is increasingly being used to help people who are affected by mental illness or who are recovering from issues such as drug and alcohol addiction or trauma. Art therapists encourage their patients to express themselves through a variety of forms, from visual art and writing to drama, dance and music. While these types of creative processes can often feel very cathartic and may act as excellent stress-relievers by themselves, under the guidance of a trained therapist or art psychotherapist, they can also be used as diagnostic and therapeutic tools.

How Art Can Help Your Mental Health

Why is this sort of therapy so successful? It turns out that producing art can help to shape our sense of self, a sense that therapists are often working with their patients to change and strengthen. It can help us to express our feelings and to process our experiences, even when we have suffered extreme trauma. Art can also provide a different way for us to communicate with other people, which can be particularly important when there are subjects that we find difficult to talk about. When we create, we can gain insight into ourselves, increase our self-esteem, and develop a greater sense of empathy for ourselves, and for those around us. We learn to see the world from other perspectives.

Artists Healing Themselves through Creativity

Although these benefits of creativity have only been recognized by therapists relatively recently, many artists have been aware of them for years, and there are some interesting examples of people, like Agnes Richter, whose embroidered jacket is preserved by the Prinzhorn Collection in Germany, who expressed themselves creatively while experiencing mental illness. Now that the value of art for mental health has been recognized, these types of creative works are no longer shut away of ignored. Instead, they can form part of therapy, and be celebrated in exhibitions like the annual MIFQ show in Brisbane.

Links on Art and Mental Health:
1. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s TED talk on Flow, the secret to happiness
2. The Scientific American explores The Real Link Between Creativity and Mental Illness and the Real Neuroscience of Creativity
3. Everyday Creativity in Psychology Today
4. The Australian and New Zealand Arts Therapy Association explains What is art therapy?
5. Agnes Richter’s jacket at the Prinzhorn Collection
6. The Queensland Mental Health Commission reports on how Creativity Shines at Iconic Brisbane Art Exhibition

So on the theme of health at the end of Helen’s article I thought I would add just a little humor to the blog with this great quote from James H. Boren;

” I got the bill for my surgery. Now I know what those doctors were wearing masks for.”

Till next time happy painting and sculpting and enjoying life.

Love Marie xxx

Why not come and have a look at Marie Jonsson-Harrison’s PAINTINGS FOR SALE, GICLEE PRINTS FOR SALE and SCULPTURES for sale or WALLBASED SCULPTURES.  Enjoy an original artwork on your walls or perhaps one on your bed ARTnBED.