Hello there! My name is Tia Forsman and I'm a senior at BASIS Scottsdale High School. Although I have grown to love my school (and the people in it), I am incredibly excited to leave behind its crowded hallways in a few weeks. Instead of sitting in classes during the final months of my senior year, I will be out in the "real world" exploring two of my favorite topics: art and science.
Art has always been a form of therapy to me. From stressful school work to simple sleep deprivation, a variety of difficult situations have made art necessary in my daily routine. I spent a majority of my junior year painting and trying to relax when I had a few too many things on my plate. And the art really did help me. So for my senior research project I will be studying how art can help others.
My internship location is St. Mary's Hospital in Tucson, Arizona (feel free to explore the hospital's website by clicking the button on the top of the page). More specifically, I will be working in the Bridges Geropsychiatric Program. Many of the elderly patients in this program (some stay for a couple days, others for several months) suffer from mental illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, dementia, substance abuse, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, delirium, and psychosis. The patients in this program receive art therapy from Ms. Emily Endreson, an art therapist who I will be shadowing for ten weeks. I will observe Ms. Endreson's group and individual therapy sessions and hopefully gain a better understanding of art and its healing abilities.
As much as I would like to "cure" the patients in the geropsychiatric program, that is not what I am focusing on with this project. I think it is important to note that I am going to be studying art in a medical setting because I want to understand how art can go hand-in-hand with medicine (a field I plan on pursuing in college), not how it can replace it.
I am absolutely thrilled to be starting this final journey of high school and I hope you are just as excited to read about it! For a more detailed description of my project, please click the link at the top of the page labeled "My Proposal." (It's a bit lengthy, I will admit. But it turns out there is already a lot of awesome art therapy research out there!) The first official day of my project is February 13th and I cannot wait. Talk to you soon!
Tia
This is so exciting! I'm sure you'll be able to apply lots of the things you learn in college and in the future in general :)
ReplyDeleteLooks exciting! I cannot wait to hear the stories you tell.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a really cool project and a very well-written post! I'd like to learn about what forms of art are used most in art therapy.
ReplyDeleteHi Tia,
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great topic. I don't know the first thing about art therapy. Is it creating art, or viewing art, or a combination?
Also, just out of curiosity, who are some of your favorite artists?
Mr. Bloom
The art therapy I will be doing with the patients is geared toward creating art. I actually visited the hospital over winter break and took part in a session with Ms. Endreson where the patients worked with collage. But Ms. Endreson also pointed out many of the beautiful photographs that decorated the hospital halls. I think it is widely acknowledged that viewing art can be therapeutic as well!
ReplyDeleteAs far as my favorite artists are concerned, I have so many. I am a huge fan of Picasso, but I also love impressionist like Degas. I am really into Alphonse Mucha as well.
This looks cool! I've personally worked with disabled children myself, so I understand how it feels to be helping those that struggle with everyday life. I hope that you can help make them feel better!
ReplyDeleteI love how your topic marries two completely different interests! Since I know you're approaching this project in terms of both art and science, I was wondering if there was a concrete measure of art therapy's effects.
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard to measure the recovery progress in a concrete way and even harder to measure how effective art therapy is. But there are some tests that can and have been used in the field of art therapy already. For instance, there is something called a "Clock-Drawing Test," which measures cognitive impairment. Patients can be asked to take the test before and after receiving art therapy and the results usually show interesting changes. I'm not sure if I will be able to use a test like this, but I'm sure I will find a way to observe patient progress. If you are still curious, I listed more tools in the "Methodology" section of my portfolio that help measure art therapy effects :)
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