This course describes the joint painting procedure as a validated assessment for implicit aspects of the relationship between mothers and children in middle childhood. The course focuses on research and the clinical aspects of the joint painting procedure as a transformative intervention in parent-child art psychotherapy.

This course explores research about how women use a variety of narratives to navigate the transition of menopause. This presentation includes the overview of the literature review of dominant bio-medical and feminist narratives, the mixed-methods design used, and qualitative and quantitative results of a 6-week art therapy group with eight participants.

Chronic pain is a phenomenological experience, shaped by biopsychosocial factors. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a multidimensional, manualized art therapy intervention on participants' perceptions of chronic pain and psychosocial comorbidities. Overall findings support art therapy as a useful adjunct to traditional chronic-pain treatment.

This course explores the archetypal patterns inherent in the art intervention, Draw Yourself Picking an Apple from a Tree (PPAT), as it relates to the creation myth, The Garden of Eden and its mythic connection to the birth of consciousness as seen through a phenomenological and analytic psychology lens.

This course provides an overview of how to use biological indicators in art therapy research. Approaches to art therapy research using biomarkers like cortisol and catecholamines, and, brain imaging techniques like functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and quantitative electroencephalography qEEG are shared.

This study conducted in Caracas, Venezuela, evaluates the psycho-physiological effects in women with Fibromyalgia Syndrome of drawing and coloring mandalas comprising a structured narrative based on Joan Kellogg’s Archetypal Stages of the Great Round of Mandala. Patients reported reduced tender points and improvement in depressed mood.

This course intends to generate thought and discussion about the integration of art therapy and neuroscience from a philosophical, assessment, intervention, and research perspective. The potential of art therapy to change the brain is reviewed, and of neuroscience to enhance the understanding and applications of art therapy.

This course focuses on the theory and practice of an interview assessment procedure-the Affective Color Symbolism and one of its applications, Markers Cosplay. This procedure allows children or adults to express themselves in a nonthreatening way and be better understood through the nonverbal and interactive process.

Recent neuroscience research has reexamined how affect mediates responses between mind and body. Clay Art Therapy (CAT) incorporating the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) involves various neurological processes that elucidate a body–mind, bottom–up approach to clay-work for the treatment of depression. This study evaluates treatment effects of CAT on depression.

Presenters will reveal revisions to the Formal Elements Art Therapy Scale Manual (FEATS) called for through evidence-based research over the past 20 years. Researchers will learn how to strengthen interrater reliability when using the instrument. The paper will outline best-practices for future research design and clinical use of the FEATS