Art Therapy for Treatment of Schizophrenia

Helping people communicate what they are unable to think and feel on a normal level is the ultimate goal of art therapy, and art therapy for treatment of schizophrenia has developed its initial stages within Pennsylvania’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic with the utmost of success. According to Robyn Cruz, director of creative and expressive arts therapies, about 2,500 schizophrenia patients participate in their art therapy program for outpatients with schizophrenia for the past 15 years.

The reason that art therapy for treatment of schizophrenia is successful is because art therapy is a safe and effective tool to use with people who cannot share their thoughts and feelings adequately through the tried-and-true traditional methods of “talk therapy” conversation. And the medications that are normally documented to reduce and control the mental illness of schizophrenia are often discontinued because the side effects are sometimes worse than the disease itself.

If that is the case, art therapy for treatment of schizophrenia offers a non-objective therapy to adults who are faced with such a situation on some level. It has been documented that children over five years of age can develop schizophrenia, but very seldom does it develop before adolescence. It is difficult to accurately distinguish between different types of mental disorder from another, especially when the symptoms of the schizophrenia exhibit elated or depressed mood swings. In this case, it can be schizophrenia, manic-depressive disorders, or even major depressive disorders with similarity in all of them.

If the person cannot be categorized because of this, they are occasionally diagnosed as having a schizoaffective disorder. But on October 19, 2005 scientific research was done on art therapy for treatment of schizophrenia by R Ruddy and D Milnes, titled in “Art Therapy for schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like illnesses,” published in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2005, Issue 4.

According to the study, traditional medication is the treatment of choice for patients with schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like illnesses, but five to 15% of the patients still experience the same symptoms. The study explores the benefits of art therapy in addition to medication, but still required more research at the end regarding art therapy for treatment of schizophrenia, in order to make the study more meaningful and to determine the value of the art therapy. In 2005, art therapy was not as accepted as it is within the past year or so, with the emergency of interest in natural healing and alternative methods.

One treatment center for many all types of mental disorders, located at Skyland Trail at Atlanta, Georgia, focuses on expressive arts or art therapy for those diagnosed with schizophrenia. Through art therapy, those with schizophrenia can develop ways to achieve self-expression while simultaneously being able to utilize social skills, new hobbies and personal interests through their creativity.

Using Clip Art for Massage Therapy

When it comes to promoting a business in massage therapy, using clip art for massage therapy is the cheapest and wisest way to go. If this does not sound accurate, check out the price for good quality original artwork, unless that massage therapist is also an excellent artist who does his or her own clip art. Once this is done, it will become quite apparent that high quality clip art for massage therapy is more than a bargain.

The only problem with choosing good clip art for massage therapy is there is too much to pick from. Considered as pre-made images to illustrate any graphic arts medium, almost anyone in advertising or business uses clip art anymore. Not including stock photography the majority of the time, clip art is usually done by hand or by computer software. Available in black and white, or in full color, the term “clip art” originally began when people cut out certain images from pre-existing art work to form a new piece of art work.

With so much to pick from, it is difficult to pick the “right” type of clip art for a person’s advertising to promote their massage business, unless they know what they want to say and how to say it. Many styles and concepts are used, such as humorous, serious, illustrative, wood block, sketchy, abstract, realistic, and so on. The main thing is to choose the type of clip art for massage therapy that illustrates an idea or tells a story–contributing a specific meaning to a certain message that the message owner wants to send out.

Learning to use visual language in addition to wordage will make a person better equipped to expand their message business. Using borders and background as decorative elements to break up space, using diversity that is like none others, along with many other ways to send out a message while using clip art for massage therapy ideas include:

• Visual Puns - one or two possible meanings can be portrayed by one or two symbols.
• Symbol - using a visual image of something that is invisible.
• Sign - the use of a shorthand device that actually stands for something else.
• Metaphor - a likeness between two ideas portrayed by a likeness
• Icon - image used to suggest a meaning
• Cliché - an image with a widely understood meaning.

Many artists and designers have said, “If concept is what you say, style is how you phrase it.” This is the reason one artist can come up with so many different ideas for one simple meaning. But in truth, professional designers do not have the magic formula to make their work better than another one does. They only can communicate the message better, using art and words alone.