Fending off Vicarious Trauma Through Art Making

• Main Author: Wong, Laura M.
• Format: Others
• Published: Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School 2014
• Subjects: Art Therapy; Marriage and Family Therapy and Counseling; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental and Social Health
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/etd/62; https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1122&context=etd

This study utilized Moustakas’ heuristic methodology as the vehicle in which art creation was explored as a coping mechanism to fend off vicarious trauma when working with incarcerated juveniles with extensive trauma histories. During Moustakas’s initial engagement phase, the following questions were considered: What healthy coping mechanisms help a student deal with the harsh realities encountered in practicum? Can the art creation process fend off vicarious trauma? Can the art making process help the counter-­‐transference and help as a container for residual emotions after contact with a client? The data gathered for the study included twenty pieces of art and twenty journal entries, along with a culminating art piece for the Creative Synthesis. Six major themes were found in the researcher’s art work: Figure drawing, Stream of Consciousness Narrative, Duality, Powerlessness/Trapped, Schema Shifts, and Color. The findings of this study suggest that art making acts as a container for negative emotions that result from working with more challenging clinical populations and assists in fending off vicarious trauma.