Clinical Art Psychotherapy With War Veterans PDF Download

This study sought to better understand the transition experiences of combat veterans and military families before and after deployment. Transition experiences were defined through life stories and associations of the participants. A qualitative approach with quantitative measures provided the framework and a combination of phenomenological, ecological, and narrative strategies emphasized inner awareness and meaning making. Fourteen military family members and two combat veterans were interviewed and engaged in individual or group art therapy to obtain a description of their personal story. Fifteen of the participants reflected solely on the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and on participant shared how facilitating a support group for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan related to a personal connection to World War II. Semistructured, open-ended questions, a five-point Likert scale, collage tasks, and creative writings were used to investigate: participants' definition of transition and readjustment, value for and use of support services, value for and perceived ability to narrate a personal story of experiences, and construction of personal meaning throughout the deployment cycle. Data analysis followed a phenomenological method guided discovery of the experiences and identified the following major themes: "mixed emotions," "family member worry," "family member relief," "the unknown and a sens of open responsibility," "role and task fulfillment," "interpersonal and intrapersonal change," "kinship and bonding versus loneliness and despair," and "remembrance of war." Overall, the art therapy interventions presented and processing of the tasks helped maintain positive attitudes regarding veteran support services and personal narration of deployment transitions.