Art therapy for people with intellectual disability

Spain

Sant Tomàs

C./ Arquebisbe Alemany, 26 ent. D-8 08500 Vic Phone: (+34) 938854482 Fax: (+34) 938850195 Email: administracio@santtomas.cat www.santtomas.cat

Charity

Art therapy, sometimes called creative arts therapy or expressive arts therapy, encourages people to express and understand emotions through artistic expression and through the creative process. The main aims are:
 Work different aspects such as sensitivity, creativity, expression and communication;
 Work with emotions;
 Foster self-esteem and improve relationship between participants.
Specific aims are:
 Prepare art therapy programming adapted for each individual;
 Foster active participation of users;
 Foster group cohesion;
 Develop and promote sensitivity of users through senses;
 Experiment with a variety of materials;
 Allowing people take the initiative when communicating and interacting with each other;
 Foster communication through non verbal language to achieve a more sensory and perceptual level;
 Evaluate individual and group processes.

The innovation in this case is adapting art therapy to people with intellectual disability.

The most notable results have been at an emotional level, people participating in this activity are now able to express more easily their emotions. This has a clear impact on the people’s quality of life. Emotional expression in people with intellectual disability is sometimes very difficult to deal with and art therapy achieves the expected results in this matter.

The fact that the activity is still going on, and that people use it regularly, makes us think that there is a quite good level of satisfaction, although we don’t have actual figures.

Art therapy, intellectual disability