As Pat Benatar`s music video, ”Anxiety,” blared from the television, Bill Bogardus decisively drew a picture of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. His picture showed a building with bars on the doors, his tombstone on the roof and the words, ”Help me,” which were in the lyrics, prominently displayed.
Although the assignment for Bogardus and four other young institute patients–ages 11 to 17–was to draw their reactions to the music, his picture seemed unrelated.
But that was all right. Bogardus` drawing was an example of what art therapy is all about: ”expressing the way you feel at that particular time,” said Peggy Cotton, the institute`s former art therapist, who recently moved to Newport Beach, Calif.
Bogardus, 17, is an accident victim and intermittent outpatient who previously had spent seven months in the institute. Cotton suggested that the lyrics may have triggered the feelings he had when he was hospitalized
–confined, helpless, fatalistic and anxious. The tombstone on the roof was in keeping with his flamboyant personality. ”He would be right up there on top,” she said.
Through her training in art therapy, Cotton had learned to observe closely what her charges were drawing and how they were doing it–whether their figures were large or small, their lines bold or vague, whether they used indelible markers or erasable pencils. She also had learned to listen carefully to comments they made as they were drawing–anything that would provide clues to how they were feeling and their stages of recovery.
”You learn to pick up on everything,” she said.
The people in the group were recovering from debilitating accidents or illnesses. For them, art therapy served as an emotional outlet, a recreational activity and a monitor of the healing process. An example of healing can be seen in the art of head trauma patients, who typically progress from drawing only a squiggle, in the early stages of rehabilitation, to stick figures, and finally, to more detailed, recognizable objects filled in with color.
Cotton holds a master`s degree in art therapy from Lindenwood Colleges, St. Charles, Mo., which she earned after receiving a bachelor`s degree in art from Drake University, Des Moines, and a master`s degree in art education from Arizona State University.
Art therapy can trace its roots to the late 1800s, when some psychiatrists and psychoanalysts began to take interest in drawings by mental patients, some of whom seemed compelled to produce art.
It wasn`t until the mid-1950s, after some experimentation with art in psychoanalysis, that art therapy became a field of study. Pioneers were Margaret Naumberg and Edith Kramer, who taught the first courses at New York University and the New School of Social Research in New York City, said Sandra Graves, president of the Mundelein-based American Art Therapy Association.
The first degree program in art therapy was offered in 1957 at the University of Louisville, where Graves is an art therapy professor. The program graduated two students and then remained dormant for a decade until it was reactivated in 1969, when a more humanistic approach to psychotherapy began growing in popularity.
Today master`s degrees are offered at about 30 schools nationwide, Graves said.
Under the direction of Don Seiden, an art therapist at Rush-Presbyterian- St . Luke`s Medical Center for 20 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago pioneered the training of art therapists in the Midwest with a 36-credit-hour certificate program that opened in 1980. In 1985, the art institute shifted to a two-year master`s degree program, with students taking required psychology and psychiatry courses at Rush Medical College.
An art therapy program is a study of psychological expression through art. A student in a typical program takes classes in studio art and psychology and learns to apply the two in art therapy classes. Most programs also require at least two semesters of internship and a thesis.
At the art institute, a student must take 15 hours of art therapy seminars, 12 hours each of psychology, studio art and field experience, and 9 hours in thesis preparation.
Programs vary somewhat at different schools, with some placing more emphasis on an art background and others giving equal recognition to backgrounds in other fields. For example, the art institute, which emphasizes art, requires a student to have a bachelor`s or master`s degree in art.
”But there is some flexibility there,” said Seiden, who is professor and chairman of art education and therapy. ”A student may have another degree if he or she has a good portfolio. We are interested in a student`s commitment to art making and the depth of his work.”
The University of Illinois at Chicago will admit students to its art therapy master`s program with undergraduate degrees in art, psychology, education, social work, anthropology, art history or other humanities.
”We`re not interested in talent, but in whether that person has used art for personal expression,” said Harriet Wadeson, coordinator of the university program.
The university has the only master`s program in the state that is approved by the American Art Therapy Association. The association sets professional standards, registers therapists and approves art therapy training programs. Its nationwide membership of registered therapists is about 1,300.
To receive association approval, a master`s degree program must have graduated three classes. Programs at other Illinois schools are too new to meet that requirement. The association, formed in 1969, has approved 18 master`s programs and 1 hospital-based program nationwide.
Northern Illinois University, De Kalb, has offered a master`s program in art therapy for four years. Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, has offered one for three years.
Illinois State University, Normal, is developing an institute program in art therapy for students who already have master`s degrees in art education, special education, social work, psychology or studio art. The certificate program, to require 21 credit hours and an internship, is expected to go into effect in two to three years. ISU offers an undergraduate prerequisite program in art therapy. Other schools offering undergraduate art therapy programs or courses include Loyola University, Chicago, and Barat College, Lake Forest.
Physical rehabilitation, such as that at Chicago`s Rehabilitation Institute, is among several uses of art therapy, which until about 10 years ago had been confined primarily to a psychiatric setting.
At the University of Chicago`s Wyler Children`s Hospital, a study of art therapy in the treatment of cystic fibrosis patients has been underway since 1980 by art therapist Marilyn Leonhart. By comparing cystic fibrosis patients` art work with that of patients with other diseases, doctors and researchers hope to get a clearer picture of the psychological counterpart of physical problems, Leonhart said.
In the mental health field, art therapy is used mostly as an ancillary service. In psychiatric hospitals, it can be used as a diagnostic tool with patients who can`t express themselves verbally, as a source of creative achievement and to help create rapport among patients, said Dr. John Raftery, director of inpatient psychiatry at the University of Chicago Hospitals.
Use of art therapy at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center is fairly typical, said Randy Vick, supervisor of general adjunctive therapy and president of the Illinois Art Therapy Association. The organization is the state chapter of the American Art Therapy Association.
Outside hospital settings, art therapy is making inroads into geriatric institutions, hospices, alcohol and drug treatment facilities, shelters for battered women and abused children, correctional facilities and schools for special education.
Despite expanding uses of art therapy, the Chicago area job market remains tight, therapists said.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital`s Institute of Psychiatry recently had 15 applicants for one part-time position, said Peggy Sabol, clinical director of occupational therapy. Salaries for art therapists generally start at $18,000 to $20,000 a year, Vick said.
Many art therapists ”create their own jobs” by going into private practice, he said. ”Although art therapy is getting wider acceptance, there are still misconceptions about it,” he said. ”It is not an art or craft class; it is a rich blend of several disciplines.”
