59-05-032 Proceeding

255 Proceedings of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Congress APPLICATIONS OF ART THERAPY IN THAILAND Thaweesak Sirirutraykha, M.D. Specialty in child and adolescent psychiatry Abstract : Art therapy is a complementary and alternative medicine which can be integrated with the conventional medicine for treatment and rehabilitation. Because of high flexibility, it can be applied in a variety of patient groups and in different contexts. There were many applications of art therapy in a variety of patient groups in Thailand for long periods of time. First, some therapists had applied the programs for psychiatric patients in a hospital setting since 1983. Second, Rajanukul Institute had applied programs for intellectual and developmental disabilities persons since 1987. Then the center for the protection of children’s rights foundation had applied the program for abused children since 1993. Since the tsunami disaster in Thailand in 2005, many institutes had applied the program for disaster survivors in various settings. After that, the bulk of knowledge in art therapy were convey widely. There are many applications with additional various groups. This article provided the applications of art therapy in Thailand. The content contained the applications for psychiatric patients, persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, children who have been abused or sexual abused, disaster survivors, and alcohol addicted. Keywords: Art therapy, application, Thailand Introduction Art therapy is an alternative and complementary medicine, one of the models that use artistic activity to find fault, some disorders of mental processes and use appropriate art activities helps in the treatment and rehabilitation program. Activities those apply the various forms of art, such as visual arts, music, drama, literary, etc., in medical process with clear structure. There are criteria and scientific methodology is carried out in order to set goals by art therapist or specialist training in this field (1) . In each country, the definitionof “art therapy” varies according to the art therapy association defines, which ranges fromusing the art component as the therapy itself (therapeutic art) until one of the formats of psychotherapy (2) . Some countries require that art therapist must be trained in the specific course such as the United Kingdom. While some countries considered as creative therapy that therapists can be more general training to develop skills and expertise such as Netherlands (3) . Art is an easy-to-understand learning media in all ages, all abilities, even if they do not have the language to talk or have limitation of the movement. In addition, art is also obviously reduces the frustration in creative ways, including reducing aggressive behavior. Art therapy can bring local wisdom, folk crafts and arts applied harmoniously in accordance