Art Therapy Trainee's Attitudes and Beliefs About Self-Care
Graduation Date
Spring 2015
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy
Degree Granting Institution
Notre Dame de Namur University
Program Name
Art Therapy
Dean
John Lemmon, PhD
First Reader
Jennifer Harrison, PsyD, DAAETS, ATR-BC
Second Reader
Amy Backos, PhD, ATR-BC
Abstract
The objective of this study was to better understand the self-care attitudes and habits of graduate Art Therapy graduate students. Seventy participants completed an online survey on these topics. The survey included quantitative and qualitative questions about a wide range of self-care techniques. Participants were also asked about their experience with their graduate programs integration of self-care topics in the curriculum. The results of the study found a high correlation between the belief that participants need to improve their self-care habits and their opinion that self-care habits are not adequately integrated into gradate curriculum. Results also revealed that participants were not engaging in personal art making as often as they perceived they should. No significant difference was found between the frequencies of engagement in highly valued self-care techniques and the amount of milestones completed in the graduate program. The findings of this study suggest the data may be helpful for both graduate students to become more aware of the issues and risks related to poor self-care and for educational institutes to consider increased self-care integration in programmatic materials and coursework.