A.T. Hypotheses
Art Therapy Hypotheses.
PTSD
1) Task: Have veterans draw a map of the incident, indicating where the major event occurred. The participants illustrate where all the people involved were situated. The participants plot lines on the drawn map between all of the participants on the map. Visually, you have a) a map of the location of the traumatic incident, b) an indication of where participant was in relation to others present 3) the proximal representation of each person involved at the time of the incident. The people present can be illustrated with a simple black dot. The map illustrates the physical surroundings and the plotted lines designate the human surroundings. With Glass paint on aluminum bas relief, participants are to creatively select solid colours that reflect an emotion or thought which occurred in each zone of the map at the time of the incident.
Result: The participants are able to restructure the visually encoded memories of the incident. Participants are able to modulate the neural circuits involved in maintaining the traumatic reaction (the autonomic parasympathetic component) and re-engage the sympathetic response. The ultimate outcome is the alleviation of symptoms. A participant is able to re-integrate the traumatic event as visual information, only this time, the object is beautiful because it is art created by the participant.
1) Task: Have veterans draw a map of the incident, indicating where the major event occurred. The participants illustrate where all the people involved were situated. The participants plot lines on the drawn map between all of the participants on the map. Visually, you have a) a map of the location of the traumatic incident, b) an indication of where participant was in relation to others present 3) the proximal representation of each person involved at the time of the incident. The people present can be illustrated with a simple black dot. The map illustrates the physical surroundings and the plotted lines designate the human surroundings. With Glass paint on aluminum bas relief, participants are to creatively select solid colours that reflect an emotion or thought which occurred in each zone of the map at the time of the incident.
Result: The participants are able to restructure the visually encoded memories of the incident. Participants are able to modulate the neural circuits involved in maintaining the traumatic reaction (the autonomic parasympathetic component) and re-engage the sympathetic response. The ultimate outcome is the alleviation of symptoms. A participant is able to re-integrate the traumatic event as visual information, only this time, the object is beautiful because it is art created by the participant.