Arts for the Blues – a new creative psychological therapy for depression: a pilot workshop report

Haslam, Shelly; Parsons, Ailsa; Omylinska‐Thurston, Joanna; Nair, Kerry; Harlow, Julianne; Lewis, Jennifer; Thurston, Scott; Griffin, Julia; Dubrow‐Marshall, Linda; Karkou, Vicky

doi:10.1177/1757913919826599

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…These studies confirmed the impact of several common factors of change in psychotherapy beginning with the therapeutic alliance (Heynen et al, 2017 ). Their orientations differ in that some work in the here and now (Flanagan, 2004 ; Parsons et al, 2020 ), while others focus on past events (Parsons et al, 2020 ), creative arts therapists tailor the therapeutic goals to meet individual and group needs, facilitate fundamental relational skills and features, and promote supportive relationships (Heynen et al, 2017 ; Kalaf and Plante, 2019 ; Parsons et al, 2020 ). CATs take place in a liberating environment characterized by trust and safety (Chiang et al, 2019 ), in which clients can experience a sense of agency and skill with regard to processing and communicating emotions and forming connections with others (Dunphy et al, 2019 ; Kalaf and Plante, 2019 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These studies revealed that the CATs actively engage (Parsons et al, 2020 ) participants in artistic therapeutic activity and offer multiple options for verbal and non-verbal expression through symbolism and metaphor (Flanagan, 2004 ; Schiltz, 2014 ; Chiang et al, 2019 ; Dunphy et al, 2019 ). The CATs facilitate concretization , to make visible internal conflicts , which enables perspective-taking (Schiltz, 2014 ; Kalaf and Plante, 2019 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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From Therapeutic Factors to Mechanisms of Change in the Creative Arts Therapies: A Scoping Review

et al. 2021

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Empirical studies in the creative arts therapies (CATs; i.e., art therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, psychodrama, and poetry/bibliotherapy) have grown rapidly in the last 10 years, documenting their positive impact on a wide range of psychological and physiological outcomes (e.g., stress, trauma, depression, anxiety, and pain). However, it remains unclear how and why the CATs have positive effects, and which therapeutic factors account for these changes. Research that specifically focuses on the therapeutic factors and/or mechanisms of change in CATs is only beginning to emerge. To gain more insight into how and why the CATs influence outcomes, we conducted a scoping review (Nstudies = 67) to pinpoint therapeutic factors specific to each CATs discipline, joint factors of CATs, and more generic common factors across all psychotherapy approaches. This review therefore provides an overview of empirical CATs studies dealing with therapeutic factors and/or mechanisms of change, and a detailed analysis of these therapeutic factors which are grouped into domains. A framework of 19 domains of CATs therapeutic factors is proposed, of which the three domains are composed solely of factors unique to the CATs: “embodiment,” “concretization,” and “symbolism and metaphors.” The terminology used in change process research is clarified, and the implications for future research, clinical practice, and CATs education are discussed.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Therapeutic Factors to Mechanisms of Change in the Creative Arts Therapies: A Scoping Review

et al. 2021

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“…In-depth study of the manuals of the different types of DMT practice used can result in further refinement of what we think is currently responsible for the significant effects of DMT on reducing depression. A new project called “Arts for the Blues” (Haslam et al, 2019; Karkou et al, 2019; Parsons et al, in press) may offer relevant support in this direction for DMT as well as the other arts therapies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of Dance Movement Therapy in the Treatment of Adults With Depression: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analyses

et al. 2019

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Background: Depression is the largest cause of mental ill health worldwide. Although interventions such as Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) may offer interesting and acceptable treatment options, current clinical guidelines do not include these interventions in their recommendations mainly because of what is perceived as insufficient research evidence. The 2015 Cochrane review on DMT for depression includes only three studies leading to inconclusive results. In a small and underfunded field such as DMT, expensive multi-centered Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are as yet rare. It is therefore, necessary to not only capture evidence from RCTs, but to also look beyond such designs in order to identify and assess the range of current evidence. Methods: We therefore conducted a systematic review of studies that aimed to explore the effectiveness in the use of DMT with people with depression. This led to a qualitative narrative synthesis. We also performed meta-analyses that calculated the effect size for all included studies, studies with RCT designs only, followed by a subgroup analysis and a sensitivity analysis. In all meta-analyses a random effects model was used with Standardized Mean Differences (SMD) to accommodate for the heterogeneity of studies and outcome measures. Results: From the 817 studies reviewed, eight studies were identified as meeting our inclusion criteria. Three hundred and fifty one people with depression (mild to severe) participated, 192 of whom attended DMT groups while receiving treatment as usual (TAU) and 159 received TAU only. Qualitative findings suggest there was a decrease in depression scores in favor of DMT groups in all studies. Subgroup analysis performed on depression scores before and 3 months after the completion of DMT groups suggested changes in favor of the DMT groups. When sensitivity analysis was performed, RCTs at high risk of bias were excluded, leaving only studies with adult clients up to the age of 65. In these studies, the highest effect size was found favoring DMT plus TAU for adults with depression, when compared to TAU only. Conclusions: Based on studies with moderate to high quality, we concluded that DMT is an effective intervention in the treatment of adults with depression. Furthermore, by drawing on a wide range of designs with diverse quality, we were able to compile a comprehensive picture of relevant trends relating to the use of DMT in the treatment of depression. Despite the fact that there remains a paucity of high-quality studies, the results have relevance to both policy-making and clinical practice, and become a platform for further research.

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“…Based on the therapeutic model (Figure 1), each session was focused on a specific topic and therapeutic goals, based on existing evidence of previous arts therapies interventions (Hilliard, 2001;Koshland et al, 2004;Karkou and Sanderson, 2006;Choi et al, 2008;Karkou, 2010). There were also strong influences from the project ' Arts for the Blues, ' a study that supported the development of an evidence-based creative intervention for adults (Haslam et al, 2019;Parsons et al, 2019). Each session has been described thoroughly in the study protocol (Moula et al, 2019).…”

Section: Inclusion Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The therapeutic protocol was also developed through a synthesis of previous interventions that had been successfully implemented and assessed by children themselves. It was also informed by other evidence-based arts therapies protocols (Haslam et al, 2019;Parsons et al, 2019). The detailed description of the therapeutic protocol (Moula et al, 2019), and the process evaluation from the perspectives of children, researchers and arts therapists in a forthcoming publication (Moula et al, in preparation), are expected to make this intervention replicable in future studies.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation of the Effectiveness of Arts Therapies Interventions on Measures of Quality of Life and Wellbeing: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Study in Primary Schools

2020

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BackgroundOver the last decades there has been a change in the way schooling is perceived recognizing that children’s learning is closely linked to children’s health. Children spend most of their time at school, which is often the place where problems are identified and interventions are offered, not only for treatment but also prevention. Embedding arts therapies into the educational system may help address children’s emerging needs and have a positive impact on their wellbeing.MethodsA pilot cross-over randomized controlled design was employed to investigate the effectiveness of an arts therapies intervention on a series of child- and teacher-reported outcome measures, specifically, health related quality of life (assessed using a HRQOL scale; EQ-5D-Y), wellbeing and life functioning (assessed using the child outcome rating scale; CORS), emotional and behavioral difficulties (assessed using the strengths and difficulties questionnaire; SDQ), as well as duration of sleep (assessed using Fitbits). Sample size calculations for future large-scale studies were also performed, and the sustained impact of the intervention was evaluated at 3, 6, and 12 months follow-up. The pluralistic theoretical and therapeutic framework of this intervention was informed by a systematic review on school-based arts therapies interventions and is presented in detail in the study protocol. Participants were 62 children with mild emotional and behavioral difficulties.ResultsImprovements in HRQOL and CORS were greater in those engaged in the arts therapies intervention than the control groups and were maintained at the follow-up stages. Significant improvements were only found for duration of sleep (P = 0.002) and SDQ (P = 0.008). Minimal clinically important differences (MCIDs) as defined in the published protocol were found for CORS, SDQ and duration of sleep, but not HRQOL.DiscussionFindings indicate that the arts therapies interventions were having a clinically significant effect on life functioning, duration of sleep, emotional and behavioral difficulties. Findings also indicate a small effect size for health related quality of life, suggesting the intervention was having a small positive effect on this outcome measure. The study indicates that all outcome measures assessed here would be suitable for inclusion in a larger randomized controlled study utilizing these arts therapies interventions, and that a sample size of 225 participants would be required if these outcome measures were used.

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Arts for the Blues – a new creative psychological therapy for depression: a pilot workshop report

Cited by 17 publications

References 20 publications

From Therapeutic Factors to Mechanisms of Change in the Creative Arts Therapies: A Scoping Review

From Therapeutic Factors to Mechanisms of Change in the Creative Arts Therapies: A Scoping Review

Effectiveness of Dance Movement Therapy in the Treatment of Adults With Depression: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analyses

An Investigation of the Effectiveness of Arts Therapies Interventions on Measures of Quality of Life and Wellbeing: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Study in Primary Schools

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