Using Collage to Overcome Resistance in Troubled Adolescents
Graduation Date
Fall 1994
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
Abstract
Those adolescents, usually designated as juvenile delinquents, have been reframed as troubled and in-trouble. The thesis of the paper is that magazine-picture-collage making, as an Art Therapy intervention, can be used to overcome resistance in this adolescent population. The theoretical approach is Gestalt, and the forms of resistance being addressed are: resistance to doing art work in the session, and resistance to working on underlying and current issues once participation has been achieved. Statistical tables are presented to establish that resistance to doing art work has been overcome; tables of ratings done on selected collage works are presented to establish that resistance to working on underlying and current issues has been overcome. Examples of collage work are presented and discussed.