Kuvataideterapia seksuaalisesti hyväksikäytettyjen lasten auttamisessa terapeuttien kuvaamana.
YLITALO, MAIJA (2010)
YLITALO, MAIJA
2010
Sosiaalityö - Social Work
Yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2010-05-26
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-20613
https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:uta-1-20613
Tiivistelmä
In social work, it is a common practice with children to use pictures alongside discussions. With the help of the picture, children are able to process and communicate their feelings better than they could verbally and children find making the picture natural and pleasing. In my thesis, I first explore the use and potential of the picture in general and then with special reference to child protection services. Art therapy has been developed from different theoretical approaches to art and psychotherapy, and it is one of the so-called creative therapies. It is not yet widely used in Finland, and therefore one the aims of my thesis is to familiarize the child protection workers with the potential of art therapy. In particular, sexually abused children often lack words to describe their difficult experiences. Caring for sexually abused children requires multiprofessional co-operation of different sectors.
The starting point of the study is to explore the ways in which art therapists describe art therapeutic practices with relation to sexually abused children. For the empirical part of the study, I interviewed four art therapists working with sexually abused children. The data collection method of the study is thematic interview, and I used MCD (Membership Categorization Device) as coding aid for the analysis.
Based on the perceptions, art therapy functions within the confidential interaction of the child and the therapist. It is a useful method in helping sexually abused children, because working with art material allows one to process difficult subjects externally to oneself through a picture or a piece of art. In therapy, the child is allowed to define the ways in which s/he is ready to proceed, which facilitates his/her progress. In the art therapy of sexually abused children, the emotional relationship of the child and the therapist is characterized by many—even harsh—features in which sexuality is present. In art therapy, sensitive issues can be approached in a safe, gentle, and discreet manner. The process of confirming, examining and treating suspected sexual abuse is long and demanding, and in the future it would benefit from taking the child’s experience into consideration.
Keywords: art therapy, art, child protection and sexually abused child
The starting point of the study is to explore the ways in which art therapists describe art therapeutic practices with relation to sexually abused children. For the empirical part of the study, I interviewed four art therapists working with sexually abused children. The data collection method of the study is thematic interview, and I used MCD (Membership Categorization Device) as coding aid for the analysis.
Based on the perceptions, art therapy functions within the confidential interaction of the child and the therapist. It is a useful method in helping sexually abused children, because working with art material allows one to process difficult subjects externally to oneself through a picture or a piece of art. In therapy, the child is allowed to define the ways in which s/he is ready to proceed, which facilitates his/her progress. In the art therapy of sexually abused children, the emotional relationship of the child and the therapist is characterized by many—even harsh—features in which sexuality is present. In art therapy, sensitive issues can be approached in a safe, gentle, and discreet manner. The process of confirming, examining and treating suspected sexual abuse is long and demanding, and in the future it would benefit from taking the child’s experience into consideration.
Keywords: art therapy, art, child protection and sexually abused child