Art therapy for PTSD and TBI: A senior active duty military service member’s therapeutic journey

Assessing the potential use of art therapy in the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence Department of Community Mental Health

“…Combat Stress art therapy department in consultation with Kings College London has produced research that evidences the benefits of art therapy with veterans who have PTSD (Lobban, 2017). There are a number of published research papers studying military personnel who enrolled in art therapy programmes in the US and Russia supporting the hypothesis that art therapy improves the health and wellbeing of those who are currently serving or, have served in the military (Alexander, 2015;Campbell et al, 2016;Collie et al, 2006;Jones et al, 2017;Kopytin & Lebedev, 2015;Malchiodi, 2016;Salmon & Gerber, 1999;Walker et al, 2016Walker et al, , 2017. A study in Israel hypothesised that stressors for women in the IDF were not the same as their male counterparts (Harel-Shalev et al, 2017).…”

“…The progress of art therapy with military populations in the US is captured in a recently published book (Howie, 2017) and many published papers (Alexander, 2015;Campbell, Decker, Kruk, & Deaver, 2016;Collie, Backos, Malchiodi, & Spiegel, 2006;Jones et al, 2017Malchiodi, 2016Salmon & Gerber, 1999; Walker, Kaimal, Gonzaga, Myers-Coffman, & DeGraba, 2017; Walker, Kaimal, Koffman, & DeGraba, 2016). Research on both sides of the Atlantic demonstrates that the outcomes art therapists achieve with serving personnel and veterans, particularly those with PTSD and/or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is effective.…”

Art therapy interventions for active duty military service members with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury

“…Art therapy is a psychotherapeutic intervention that helps patients safely express and non-verbally externalise inner psychological experiences, especially fragmented memories resulting from trauma, as well as the identity-related, emotional struggles of physical and cognitive injuries sustained with TBI (Walker, Kaimal, Koffman, & Degraba, 2016). When an art therapist facilitates the art-making, the experience assists service members (SMs) in externalising their PTSD symptoms.…”

“…Since 2010, art therapy has been utilised as a treatment method for military SMs as part of a multi-disciplinary approach at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. The art therapist at this site established an intensive outpatient (IOP) treatment model to treat TBI, PTSD, and co-occurring mood disorders by incorporating both group and individual weekly art therapy sessions in a dedicated studio space (Walker, 2017;Walker et al, 2016).…”

Art therapy and underlying fMRI brain patterns in military TBI: A case series

“…The initial session lasts two hours, with more time allotted in ensuing weeks. Some SMs continue to process the content of the masks throughout the four-week programme, and often use the art therapy products as platforms for trauma processing (Jones et al, 2017;Walker, Kaimal, Koffman, & Degraba, 2016). Art therapists' observations, along with images of the masks themselves, are uploaded into the military's electronic health record systemthe Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) -as part of standard clinical practice.…”