Art Therapy in Artistic Creation of Children

Likovni izraz djece data je i urođena sposobnost izražavanja - komuniciranja i oblikovanja. Tim komuniciranjem dijete može izražavati svoje mentalno i tjelesno zdravlje. Naime, djeca tijekom svog djetinjstvo prolaze kroz određene razvojne faze. Kako prolaze kroz spoznajne, tjelesne, emocionalne i ostale faze, tako prolaze i kroz određene likovne faze: faza šaranja, faza dječjeg, odnosno intelektualnog realizma te faza vizualnog realizma. One su uvjetovane godinama starosti, mišljenjem i pristupom okolini. Djeca koja su proživjela neke traume, imaju određene strahove i frustracije, o svojim problemima se najčešće i najlakše mogu izraziti na papiru. Upravo metoda koja se može primjenjivati u takvim situacijama je metoda art terapije. Definicija art terapije se može sažeti kao „integrativni, dubinsko psihološki i hermeneutički pristup koji obuhvaća uporabu različitih elemenata umjetnosti s ciljem unapređenja zdravlja i bržeg oporavka pojedinca“. Art terapija čini podjelu na: glazboterapiju, terapiju plesom i pokretom, simbolizacija tijelom, likovna ekspresija, dramatizacija, psihodrama i biblioterapija. Nadalje, korijeni art terapije posežu čak u doba šamanizma te se kroz povijesni razvoj art terapije spominju mnogi psiholozi koji su imali utjecaja na razvoj art terapije. Neki od njih su, britanski umjetnik Adrian Hill i otac art terapije Edward Adamson. Također postoje i modeli za razumijevanje art terapije. Prvi od njih je model kontinuirane ekspresije, a čiji su utemeljitelji Kagin i Lusebrink. Postoje četiri razine tog modela: senzomotorno-kinetička, perceptivno-afektivna, kognitivno-simbolička te kreativna razina. Ostali modeli su: model predstavljanja i model kreativne osi, koji također ima podjelu na iduće faze: faza kontakta, faza organizacije, središnja tema, elaboracija i očuvanje. Likovna terapija u odgojno-obrazovnom radu s djecom je također segment koji je povezan s art terapijom. Također, u art terapiji postoje i načini rada koji mogu biti od individualnog pristupa do grupnog pristupa. Crtež u dijagnostici ima vrlo bitno mjesto u dijagnosticiranju i terapiji osoba s psihičkim poremećajima, prema stručnjakinjama Kondić i Dulčić te ono može biti sredstvo u obliku potpore dječjeg razvoja, kao projektivno-dijagnostičko sredstvo te kao komunikacijsko i terapijsko sredstvo. Još jedna nezaobilazna stvar su psihoterapijski pristupi u kojima se naglašava uključenost roditelja koji svojim prisustvom mogu proces psihoterapije učiniti učinkovitijim. Na kraju, u primjeru iz prakse temeljenom na vlastitom iskustvu u dječjem vrtiću Vrbik Zagreb, prikazan je jedan od mogućih načina primjene segmenata iz art terapije u vrtiću koji je omogućio djeci likovno izražavanje vlastitih strahova i osjećaja pomoću crteža kao sredstva izražavanja.The way that kids express themselves through the art is innate ability they are born with it. That is the way and they communicate and figurate. With that kind of communication kids can express their mental and physical health. During their childhood they go through certain phases. As the time pass by, they go through phases of cognition, physical, emotional and other phases in the same way they go through specific artistic phases: phase of scribbles, childhood phase, respectively intelectual realism and then the phase of visuallistic realism. They are conditioned by age, their opinion and access of environment. Some kids that lived trough some kind of trauma, they have some specific fears and frustrations, so the most common and the easiest way to express themselves is through the paintings of some kind of poems (on paper). The method you can use in situations like that is called „art therapy“. Definition of art therapy can summarize as „integrative, psychological, hermeneutic approach that includes using a lot of different elements of art with specific target of faster recovery of individual.“ (Škrbina, 2013:46). Art therapy is separated to music therapy, therapy that includes dancing and some sort of moving, specific body language, art expression, dramatization, psychological-drame therapy and literature therapy. So the roots of art therapy are even from the time of shamanism and there are lots of psyhologyst that had a very important influence in development of art therapy like Adrian Hill and the initiator of art therapy Edward Adamson. There are also lots of models that can help you to understand art therapy. First of them is continuously expression model, whose founders are Kagin and Lusebrink. There are four levels of that model: sensorimotor-kinetic, perceptual-active, cognitive-symbolic and creative level. The rest of models are: model of presentation, model of creative axis (this model is also in different levels): phase of contact, phase of organization, main topic, elaborations and preservation. Artistic therapy in educational sistem (working with kids in school and kindergartens) is also a part that is connected with art therapy. Also, in art therapy there art certains ways of how to work with kids and that can be from individual to team approach. Drawing is very important factor in diagnostic and also in therapy with mental disturbance, according to experts Kondić i Dulčić, and that can be used as resource in helping with kids development as a projective-diagnostic, communication and therapy resource. Another thing that can help are psychotherapy approach in which they highlight including of parents. They can help the proces to be more effective. At the end, in example that includes way experience in kindergarten Vrbik Zagreb, we used one of potential methods in art therapy. Kids in kindergarten were enabled to artisticly express their fears and feelings using drawing as instrument of expression