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Campus Access only Research Projects

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Marital and Family Therapy

School or College

College of Communication and Fine Arts

First Advisor

Paige Asawa

Abstract

This study endeavors to explore the use of Helen B. Landgarten’s Family Art Assessment as a consultation service, in community mental health clinic settings. This research is a continuation of a pilot project initiated by director of the Helen B. Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic, Dr. Paige Asawa, MFT, ATR-BC, in which Dr. Asawa implemented the Landagarten Family Art Assessment at a local clinic with five families. The initial results of that study were examined and analyzed by Meirav Haber, who used a survey and an art response component to document the participants’ experience. In this study, a focus group was conducted, which consisted of various stakeholders in the agency from administration to the clinicians who participated in the initial pilot project. They shared their thoughts and feelings about the experience in a semi-structured conversational setting. The focus group recording was transcribed and analyzed into three themes: procedural recommendations, assessment conceptualizations, and therapeutic relationship indications. This indication pertained to the formation and stability of the therapeutic relationship between the family and its primary clinician, which must exist prior to conducting the Family Art Assessment. A synthesis of the existing protocol, focus group conversation, and the literature reveals that it is beneficial to have both the assessing art therapist and the primary clinician present in the therapy room during the consultation of the Family Art Assessment, in order for the results of the assessment to be as authentic and valid as possible. These results may contribute to a better understanding of the possibilities of having art therapy consultations as this local clinic, and to promote collaboration between art therapists and mental health professionals.

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