Art Therapy as Cumulative Trauma Repair

This book explores the effectiveness of art therapy as treatment for cumulative trauma survivors. Bringing together case studies, research, and the authors clinical and personal experience, it outlines different clinical approaches as well as numerous art therapy interventions that are processed through somatic, metaverbal, and narrative means. It further aims to answer the question of how art therapy works, by pairing aspects of Lusebrinks Expressive Therapies Continuum with Perrys four functional domains (from the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics) to demonstrate how these practices may increase relational capacity and the patients access to higher level functioning, in turn, decreasing trauma responses. Foregrounding a person-centered and multi-dimensional approach to trauma repair and creative interventions, this book will appeal to postgraduate students in art therapy and counselling, as well as professionals and researchers in somatic work and trauma specialties.