Creating Art Together as a Transformative Process in Parent-Child Relations: The Therapeutic Aspects of the Joint Painting Procedure

Abstract

The relationships between parents and children contain implicit aspects, which are non-conscious and non-verbal, in addition to explicit ones. Both explicit and implicit aspects are central to understanding the dyadic dynamics and are implicated in psychotherapy processes and outcomes. Visual symbolization has a unique value as a channel of expression that can capture the implicit characteristics of relationships. Creating art together goes even further because it allows the presence of implicit representations of the relations in vivo. These representations can then be transformed through the joint process of creation, which has a unique potential to unleash reflective capacities when it is experienced in a playful and safe context. This paper presents a qualitative study that is part of larger mixed-methods research with 87 mother-child dyads (with children 9 to 12 years old). Dyads were administered the Joint Painting Procedure (JPP), which includes dyadic painting by the parent and child on the same paper and is used for evaluation and treatment in the field of parent-child therapy and art therapy. The study’s objectives were to uncover and better understand the unique therapeutic aspects that such method allows and its potential to impact parent-child relationships. The findings of the qualitative study indicated that the JPP enabled several dynamic processes such as pleasure and fun, bi-directionality, mutual regulation, mentalization, and mutual recognition, which together created a salient positive transformation in the relationship. Through the JPP, a new transformative aspect of relations emerges and enables new and different modes of communication and interactions in about half of the dyads and a lesser and partial positive transformation in about a third of them.

Friends’ Closeness and Intimacy From Adolescence to Adulthood: Art Captures Implicit Relational Representations in Joint Drawing: A Longitudinal Study

“…This fact emphasizes the importance of assessing intimacy also through artistic means, as a window through which we can gain a glimpse into expressions of the individual's internal relational representations. In addition, the findings support the hypothesis that there is continuity in the individual's close relationship from adolescence to adulthood, and this continuity is manifested in the individual's representations of close relationships (Snir and Wiseman, 2016;Gavron and Mayseless, 2018).…”

“…Internal representations have an explicit layer that is conscious, overt, and subject to verbal expression (Rudy and Grusec, 2006), as well as an implicit layer, which is unconscious, covert, and non-verbal (Stern, 2004;Araneda et al, 2010;Greenwald and Banaji, 2017). The implicit components consist of procedural information processing principles, behavioral strategies, and physiological regulation mechanisms (Fraley, 2002;Crittenden, 2006;Jones, et al, 2018), which in the course of an individual's life manifest themselves as feelings, emotions, and behaviors, while remaining less conscious, less accessible to verbal expression (Fonagy, 2001;St Quinton and Brunton, 2017;Gavron and Mayseless, 2018), less conscious, and less manageable.…”

“…Hence, the present study has chosen to rely on the principles of the phenomenological approach in analyzing joint drawings, while focusing on their ability to express closeness and intimacy in relationships. The choice of this particular subject matter is based on previous studies in which researchers showed closeness and intimacy to be the central attributes of a relationship expressed through the joint drawing process (Sharabany and Hertz-Lazarowitz, 1981;Molad, 1991;Snir and Hazut, 2012;Gavron and Mayseless, 2018). According to these studies, closeness and intimacy manifest themselves in joint drawings through a variety of phenomena, such as pictorial continuity, use of shared or parallel elements, stylistic similarities between the two artists, proximity between the two artists on the page in a manner that does not create conflict or defacement, moderate contact between the two artists, completion and connection of one artist's elements with the other's, the presence of friendly images, and the absence of aggressive images (Molad, 1991;Snir and Hazut, 2012;Gavron, 2013).…”

“…In other words, this finding may be explainable by the therapeutic quality of the joint drawing as an opportunity to create a desired interaction, one that differs from the explicit interactions the individual usually experiences in their existing relationships. These qualities are at the basis of the widespread use of joint drawings as a therapeutic tool and as a means of stimulating development and change, alongside their use as expressions of the artists' representations and perceptions of relationships for assessment and diagnostic purposes (Gavron and Mayseless, 2018).…”

Arts-Based Program for Home-Based Care Dyads in Singapore

“…This ABP draws upon a methodological approach of evaluation research using questionnaires, qualitative interviewing, art-based assessments (Brooker & Wooley, 2007;Gavron & Mayseless, 2018;Simons & McCormack, 2007), and observation methods. In order to understand the participants' experiences, and due to cultural and linguistic variations, as well as their literacy skills, the data collection included one-onone interviews with the caregivers and post-program questionnaires for caregivers and for employers (family members of CRs).…”