N/NY-TR-39 - Quilting as Therapy
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The use of quilting to treat mental health issues and trauma is reviewed, as well as postulated mechanisms of its benefits, and similarity to other art therapy techniques. Results of two projects will be presented in which quilting was used to facilitate recovery from mental health trauma.
Dr. Kathleen Decker
Psychiatrist
Hampton VA Medical Center
Dr. Decker is a Board-Certified psychiatrist and researcher. Her undergraduate education was completed at University of Michigan in Biochemical Genetics. She then pursued an M.D.-Ph.D. at Stanford University, and after obtaining her M.D., she remained at Stanford for internship, residency, and completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Molecular Neuropsychopharmacology there. Past faculty appointments include University of Washington and Eastern Virginia Medical School. She has also practiced psychiatry as a solo private practitioner, worked for the U.S. Air Force, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
She mentored a number of graduate students in Art Therapy at Eastern Virginia Medical School. With them, and in collaboration with Dr. Sarah Deaver, she has published several articles on the use of art therapy to improve symptoms of PTSD in combat veterans. They demonstrated that adjunctive art therapy in combination with Cognitive Processing Therapy resulted in quantitative improvements in both PTSD and depression symptoms in veterans with PTSD related to combat.
Her current interests include use of fiber art therapy to reduce depression and improve socialization in those with mental illness, and in combat veterans. She has conducted a recent study on the mental health effects of both making and receiving quilts.