You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 45, Issue 4
  • ‘Master My Demons’: art therapy montage paintings by active-duty military service members with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Original research
‘Master My Demons’: art therapy montage paintings by active-duty military service members with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress
  1. Marygrace Berberian1,2,
  2. Melissa S Walker3,
  3. Girija Kaimal1
  1. 1 Creative Arts Therapies, Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
  2. 2 Art & Arts Professions, New York University, Steinhardt, New York, New York, USA
  3. 3 National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
  1. Correspondence to Professor Girija Kaimal, Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions, Philadelphia, PA 19034, USA; gk27{at}drexel.edu

Abstract

This study involved a thematic analysis of montage paintings and of related clinical records of 240 active-duty military service members collected during their art therapy treatment for traumatic brain injury and underlying psychological health concerns, including post-traumatic stress, at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Congruent with other research findings, the qualitative analyses of this study suggest that the group art therapy experiences fostered improvement in interpersonal relatedness, hopefulness and gratification for the service members in treatment, aiding in externalisation, progressive exposure and construction of a trauma narrative imperative for recovery. The mixed media nature of the montage painting supported the expression of a range of postcombat symptoms. Results from this study highlighted the complexity of military culture, necessitating a broader scope of analyses for how art therapy helps service members express and communicate their challenges to care providers, peers and family as well as regulate emotion in the short and long term.

  • art therapy
  • mental health care
  • metaphor
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2018-011493

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors MB coordinated all the coding and prepared the literature review. MSW was the lead clinician and facilitated the creation of the montage paintings. GK led the study and reviewed the analysis.

    • Funding This research was supported through funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network.

    • Disclaimer The identification of specific products or scientific instrumentation is considered an integral part of the scientific endeavour and does not constitute endorsement or implied endorsement on the part of the author, DoD, or any component agency. The views expressed in this (article, speech, presentation and so on) are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy of the Department of Army/Navy/Air Force, Department of Defense or US Government.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Ethics approval Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.