Drawing therapy

Dr. Ola Ayesh

Dr. Rozan Sabobeh
Drawing therapy:
• Drawing is one of the most important tools for dialogical communication,
as it is the easiest tool to express what is going on in the minds of people,
so they can bring out what is inside them to the outside world, in the form
of a drawing that expresses thoughts, feelings, and sensations going on
inside them.

• The role of drawing doesn’t stop at being just a hobby or a job. What many
people don’t know is that drawing has a great effect in treating souls and is
an effective factor in getting rid of psychological disorders and nervous
tension. Drawing also helps provide a person with positive energy that
helps him be a healthier person and in a higher psychological state.
• Drawing therapy is considered one of the branches of art therapy and is
mainly used in psychiatry. It is a sensory therapy that is carried out
individually, bilaterally or in a group.

• It does not require any creative background on the recipient and is

suitable for all age groups.

• Drawing therapy aims to help the recipient understand his inner world,
learn about other aspects of his personality while getting to know the
external environment, in addition to creating a link between the patient’s
inner world and the outside world.

• In addition, there is no negative effect or contraindications to use this

type of treatment, because it doesn’t use medicines or herbs, only
drawings and colors.
 Principle of treatment:
• Drawing therapy is considered a method of expressing the inner self and internal
conflicting thoughts. Therefore, after the remarkable development in the field of
psychology and personality analysis, drawing was used as one of the
psychotherapeutic methods used in treating mental illnesses. The sick person lives
in an unreal world, and drawing takes him out of the illusory world of reality and
thus facilitates his treatment.
• Drawing therapy aims to help the recipient discover and understand his inner
world, other aspects of his personality and his external environment, in addition
to creating a link between these two worlds, “inner and outer.”
• It also helps in expressing repressed feelings and feelings and releasing them from
the subconscious to the conscious at different stages of treatment.
• This smooth and spontaneous expression helps the recipient gain greater self-
confidence, self-realization,development of his personality, and development of
his relationships with his family, social, professional, and academic environment.
• Sick people can bring out what is inside them and express it with a brush of
colors that suit them.
• By discussing with the sick person what he has drawn, the psychiatrist can
identify the personality type.
• Also, through what the patient has drawn, the psychiatrist can identify the
disorder that the patient suffers from, and then the a correct treatment
plan is done.
• If there is a person suffering from sexual orientation and he draws naked
people or sexual organs, then after treatment he draws pictures of women
wearing clothes.
• Likewise, a person who feels lonely and isolated draws as if he were in a
lonely desert, isolated alone in the desert, and then after treatment you
see him drawing a “happy” version of himself with happy people, roses and
flowers surrounding him.
The history of treatment:
• The term drawing therapy falls under the concept of art therapy,
which is a term launched by the British artist Adrian Hill in 1942, who
found great solace in the use of drawing and photography during his
recovery from tuberculosis.
• He found that this matter has great therapeutic value, based on the
fact that drawing does full work for the mind and body.
• Our fingers move while the mind focuses on producing a specific
thing, and thus this benefits us and helps to release energy.
• The scientist convinced his fellow patients to practice art during their
recovery period, and this period resulted in him writing a book. “Art
against disease” in 1945.
 Treatment Uses:
There are many diseases in which we can use this type of treatment:
1-Anxiety disorders
2-Depression
3-Addiction
4-Nervous pressure
5-Post-traumatic stress disorder
6-Cancer
7-Anorexia
8-Relationship problems and family problems
9- Memory problems and Alzheimer's disease
What are the most important benefits of drawing
therapy?
• Improve communication
• Boost self-esteem
• Improve motor skills
• Brain stimulation
• Increase concentration
• Drawing is useful in greatly relieving stress and feeling relaxed by bringing
out the feelings of tension inside a person, in the form of pictures and
drawings on paper, which helps him empty the negative energy inside him
and puts him in a state of psychological calm. Because it helps with
emotional release, for example, using calm colors when feeling angry helps
calm the soul, and using loud colors helps enhance the mood.
• Drawing also has a wonderful ability to avoid daily stress and helps us
meditate, thus helping our ability to focus and think more clearly and better.
• Scientific studies have proven that drawing contributes to renewing brain
cells, reducing feelings of tension, and relaxing the nerves, this improves
mood and strengthens memory by approximately 20 percent and helps
protect against Alzheimer’s as one gets older, gets rid of fatigue and stress,
and increases the ability to concentrate and a person's productive capacity.
• Many American studies have proven that drawing helps in reaching the
basic roots of anxiety that afflicts patients and treating this problem. It also
contributes to overcoming the problems of panic and panic that afflict
patients if they remember situations they were previously exposed to, by
drawing a person or places that they love and that bring comfort to them.
Therapist relies on these drawings later by interpreting them and re-
implanting confidence in the patient after it was destroyed by the situation
or fear of a certain thing.
• In addition, drawing helps in treating cancer by giving patients the
opportunity to express contradictory feelings during the period of illness
and treatment. Drawing helps them to bring these feelings out on paper
and express them, it helps improve the mood and psychological state of
patients, and many studies have proven the effectiveness of drawing
therapy on these patients and helping them give hope and adhere to
treatment and recovery. The higher the morale of patients, the better their
recovery will be.
• Through an experiment conducted by Christina Blumdal, a researcher specialized
in the field of art therapy at the Institute of Health and Academic Care Sciences
at Sahlgrenska University in Sweden, through a study that included 43 patients
suffering from depression, they were subjected to treatment sessions and
colored chalk and watercolors were used for drawing by the participating
patients. The treatment was carried out individually and under the supervision
of specialists in this field. The sessions began with a short speech in which the
patient talked about himself and then practiced relaxation exercises before
starting to draw.
How do we use art therapy? What is its importance?
• In adults:
Although adults have more experience using language to express feelings and
thoughts, they sometimes need drawing therapy to express their repressed emotions.

• The most important diseases in which drawing therapy can be used for
adults:

1. Treatment of anxiety: This is done by discussing works of art, viewing drawings

and biography, and therapeutic drawing is also useful in treating various
complications of anxiety through therapeutic mechanisms of self-discovery.

2. Panic and Panic Treatment: This is done by directing the patient to use a brush or
drawing pens to record things that he feels comfortable with whenever a panic
attack returns, such as: writing a poem or drawing someone’s face.
3. Treatment of depression: The therapist gradually guides the patient
to record the events that bring him comfort and positive things he
enjoys. These things are collected in a board and hung in a place in the
house where he sees them daily to motivate him.
In children:
• Art therapy for children plays an important role in helping them express feelings,
thoughts, and emotions
Methods and importance of drawing therapy for children:
1) Psychotherapy: Through it, the patient is able to release the anxiety, tension, and
disorders inside him that affect his thinking and lifestyle, as the therapist can read
the patient’s thoughts and diagnose the disease through the drawing and discuss it
with him.
2) Treating depression and stress: This method has been used in ancient times by
drawing animals that cause fear on the walls. Drawing represents one of the creative
abilities that can reveal personality patterns and show weaknesses and disorders.
3) Cognitive therapy: In this treatment, the therapist gives the patient who suffers
from cognitive and behavioral disorders a painting or a picture of a person’s face so
that he can draw it once for good and once for bad in order to compare them, so
that the therapist can understand the fears that are going on inside the patient.
Meanings of some drawings:-
• There are many of us engaged in simple, random drawing of people,
circles, lines, and arrows when talking on the phone, while sitting in
business meetings, in lectures, or even when feeling bored.

• Although these drawings seem meaningless, they are not so to

personality analysis and psychology specialists. Through these random
drawings, specialists can learn a lot about you.
Drawing people in this primitive way means that the artist
suffers from insecurity, an inability to bear responsibility, or a
tendency to isolate himself from others and emotional
instability.

The person who draws stars randomly wants to be the center

of attention of those around him and to become the most
prominent figure in the place he is in. However, drawing stars
may also indicate suffering from depression if they contain
many edges.
 Drawing geometric shapes: determination, precision, a
stubborn personality, and perhaps caution

Drawing a spiral shape: - Other people’s problems don’t bother

you much, and you always have unconventional and innovative
methods that differ from others in solving problems.

• Also, many of us write our name or signature repeatedly, and this is an indication of an arrogant personality that has
high self-confidence.
• Drawing circles and rings indicates the need for attention from friends and family. You suffer from loneliness and need
to talk about what is inside you and feel the heat of feelings from those close to you. You are an introvert, and this
does not make you happy.
The most important techniques that the therapist relies on
in interpreting children’s drawings during treatment:
1. Exaggerating the shape: If the patient draws a huge shape, for
example a person or an animal, this indicates the child’s inability to
harmonize and conform with the outside world. Likewise, drawing a
human shape in an exaggeratedly large shape indicates aggressive
tendencies.

2. Small in shape: Often an introverted child tends to draw things

smaller than their normal size. When a human figure is drawn in a
very small size, it indicates the presence of feelings of shame,
depression, self-absorption, and a feeling of inferiority.
3. Head shape: If the child draws a huge head shape, this is evidence of
his inflated ego, but if it is appropriate for the rest of the drawing, then
the child is psychologically compatible.

4. Mouth shape: Treatment experts believe that aggressive children draw

a huge mouth with protruding teeth and an unusually large size. This
indicates a desire for aggression and revenge on others and also indicates
psychological incompatibility.

5. Neck shape: If the neck is drawn in a long and exaggerated shape, this
indicates that the patient is experiencing difficulty in achieving his goals,
and also if the neck is completely hidden and ignored.
6. Eye shape: If the eyes are drawn larger than the body, this indicates fear of
being watched by others, and if they are drawn smaller than their normal size,
this is evidence of introversion and an unwillingness to mix with others.
7. Drawing hands: Long hands are evidence of the patient’s desire to deal and
communicate with others despite his inability to do so, while very small hands
indicate a feeling of weakness, helplessness and introversion.
8. Drawing the sun and the moon: Drawing the crying sun indicates a state of
extreme sadness over the loss of a close person, while drawing the moon
often indicates fear of death.
9. Drawing of the house and its details: The drawing of the house and its
details are evidence of the presence of positive or negative emotions in the
patient. The more complete the details of the house indicate stability and
family harmony, but if the details disappear, they indicate negative feelings for
the patient.
Meanings of some of the colors used:-
• Choosing the color red more than once in a drawing, for example, indicates
excessive vitality and nervousness and reveals a tendency toward hostility and
sensuality, while excessive use of it indicates a need to vent emotional
repression.

• The color yellow indicates interaction with others and the extent of a person’s
openness, but excessive use of it indicates his yearning for freedom from
internal pressures.

• The green color reveals the extent of a person's self-esteem and his
appreciation for others, while the tendency toward light green indicates his
longing for others, while the tendency toward the olive color reveals his closed
nature.
• The use of the color blue repeatedly indicates a sensitive nature and his effort
to accommodate the needs of others. He is emotionally coherent, peaceful,
and consistent with his desires, but he sometimes exaggerates his insistence
or shows excessive coldness and indifference.

• The color violet reveals contradictory feelings sweeping through him, as he

desires to communicate with the other in order to withdraw into himself. He
is a mass of contradictory desires that express an internal anxiety that affects
his emotional decision.

• The color orange reveals the extent of the desire for success, love of life, and
openness, while exaggeration in preference for this color is evidence of
internal turmoil and a tendency to attract attention, emotional decisions.
• The brown color symbolizes the color of the earth and reveals its owner's
primitive desires, and his longing to reach safety by returning to the roots.
He is a difficult person because he has difficulty communicating his feelings
to others.

• The color pink symbolizes tenderness, peace, psychological balance and

harmony.

• The color black symbolizes sadness, loss of hope and anxiety. The tendency
to this color expresses rejection of reality. He is dissatisfied with society
and wants to distance himself from it. It also symbolizes a philosophical
tendency among his lovers to analyze relationships with others.
• Gray color is a state of cautious rejection and privacy in feelings.
Lovers of this color suffer from difficulty in expressing and translating
their feelings.

• The white color reveals a tendency toward introversion or a desire to

dream. It indicates a lack of communication and a rejection of reality.
Choosing the white color, or preferring wide white spaces, reveals the
emotional repression that the person experiences, which generates
an internal conflict within him.
Some symbols, colors and meanings:
Symbols in general
• Faces indicate a personality that loves people and friendship.
• Drawing a ladder or stairs indicates an optimistic personality.
• Crossed lines indicate a person who feels suffocated and has a desire for freedom.
• The stars, sun, and moon indicate an ambitious person who wants to prove himself and
has the ability to reach details.
• Hearts indicate a passionate person who has the ability to win the hearts of others.
• The triangle indicates a person who has quick judgment about things, has high energy,
and is quickly exposed to pressure.
• The square indicates limited interaction with others and tension on the inside.
• The circle loves peace and forgives.
Implications of the location of the drawing on the paper:
• Drawing in the middle of the paper
• The drawing is on the right of the paper
• The drawing is on the left of the paper
• Drawing at the top of the paper
• Drawing at the bottom of the paper
How are therapy sessions carried out?
• Drawing therapy sessions are carried out in the Psychiatry and Addiction
Treatment Center by the specialized psychologist, who guides the sick people
about the rules of the session and explains how the session will proceed. The
session can be individual or group, and before starting the session, we talk
about the patient, his daily life, and some personal details.
• Drawing therapy is one of the methods that makes you put the inner world on
paper and depict it from the outside so that there is a strong connection and
relationship between the mind and body and what the person’s heart has with
reality, which increases the person’s awareness of the world and increases the
adjustment between reality and inside the sick person.
• Many psychiatrists have confirmed that when psychiatric patients attend
drawing sessions, which last for three or four hours, they come out of these
sessions feeling positive and with a clear improvement in their mood, so the
degree of tension and severity of their disorder decreases. Drawing therapy is
one of the most famous types of psychological treatment for depression.
Using drawing to treat family problems:- (example)
• Throughout the twentieth century, dozens of psychologists used
drawing as a means of psychological treatment and sometimes family
reunification.
• Drawing is one of the procedures to achieve expression and
communication. What is meant here is not to paint international
paintings for museums, nor for drawing to be about talent, but rather
as merely a means of creative expression, through which a person
may be able to overcome the restrictions of language. It is also
possible to express confusing matters that cannot overcome the
stumbling block of language through drawing and coloring.
• Today, art therapy has become the most effective approach in treating
many family issues. The reason for this is that this type of artistic
activity has amazing advantages that can be achieved simply without
the need for drawing talent.

• Facilitating the ability to communicate without the need for words

enables family members to process and move beyond more complex
matters or devastating traumas, and without artistic talent or
experience maximum success can be achieved, according to the
American Art Therapy Association.
• According to psychiatrist Taylor Lessor, in her research article published by
the Positive Psychology Program in the Netherlands, there are a number of
family activities to deal with anger, sadness, and broken relationships,
especially among children and adolescents.

• On top of these activities is the family meeting in a family session in which

each member draws on a sheet of paper the rest of the family members.

• The drawings will reflect the image in which each member sees the others,
especially since the same colors will reflect each individual’s negative feelings
in dark colors and the positive in cheerful colors.

• Sometimes the strange drawings that children draw, which seem to resemble
reality, express their lack of understanding of the reality around them.
• When a child draws his family members, the arrangement has a
meaning and he often draws the individuals closest to him in reality.
When the characters he draws are short or without a nose or mouth
and the arms are close to the body, he is a shy child.

• The characters he draws larger than their size are the most dominant
and important in his head, and when he draws the hand larger than
the body, this means that he sees this character as aggressive, and
when he draws the foot small, this indicates his insecurity.
• In the end, different drawings and colors help us understand
repressed feelings, whether for children or different age groups, and
help provide guidance in how to deal with others. Although drawing
helps in treating some diseases, one shouldn’t stop taking various
medications because it is considered an auxiliary treatment with
these medications.
Obstacles to use drawing:
• The patient may deny the fact that there are problems in his life or
the fact that he suffers from disorders and refuse to complete
treatment.
Two confirmed studies on drawing therapy:
• Devlin's study (2006) was concerned with clarifying the role of artistic
work "drawing" in alleviating cancer. The artistic work performed by
children with cancer includes evidence and proof of their feelings and
reactions towards this disease, as we find in their drawings topics
related to isolation and anger. , loss of hope, and feelings of sadness
and sorrow. It became clear from the results that art is a valuable and
valuable tool in the process of communicating with patients, and it is
important and of great benefit when individuals are unable to express
their feelings verbally. The results of the study recommended the use
of artwork in hospitals. It provides a psychologically safe environment
for patients.
• In a study (Hannemann 2006), art therapy (drawing) was used with
the elderly and patients with severe mental disorder due to brain
disease, and it became clear from the results that creative activity
and art (drawing) reduce feelings of depression and isolation, allow
internal emotions to emerge, and increase the ability to Sensation
and awareness make patients able to choose and make decisions, and
they have a positive effect on individuals.