Art therapy, trauma and substance misuse: Using imagery to explore a difficult past with a complex client

Abstract

Literature regarding the efficacy of treatment programmes for post-trauma pathologies is prolific; however, often little attention is given to the treatment of resistant and complex trauma. Many psychotherapists recognise that a trauma history may need to be considered and explored, particularly when working with complex clients. Avoidance of distressing thoughts, feelings and images can manifest in a range of symptoms and behaviours other than post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including substance abuse and interpersonal problems. Creative therapies, such as art therapy, utilise the potentially unfamiliar language of imagery. Imagery, as an adjunct to a sense of safety and holding, in some cases has been shown to overcome therapeutic avoidance. This paper outlines the unveiling and recognition of intra-familial childhood trauma through Art Therapy with a highly articulate Australian woman battling binge drinking behaviours.

Keywords:

• Substance use
• art therapy
• medical model
• creative therapies

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Petra May Skeffington

Biographical details

Petra Skeffington graduated from an Honours Degree in Psychology at the University of Western Australia in 2005 and from a Master of Counselling at Murdoch University in 2010. She currently practises as a psychologist in rural Australia and is writing a PhD on resilience to trauma at Curtin University. Email: [email protected]

Mandy Browne

Mandy Browne is an art psychotherapist who has taught in the Postgraduate Counselling Program in the School of Psychology at Murdoch University. Her teaching focus is to assist students in enhancing their creative and critical capacity to consider themselves along with the other in as expansive a way as possible. Her psychotherapy practice works within a relational model of depth psychotherapy that is informed and influenced by contemporary Jungian psychoanalytic discourse.