สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

273 Lertsiri Bovomkitti วารสารราชบัณฑิตยสถาน ปีที่ ๓๗ ฉบับที่ ๑ ม.ค.-มี.ค. ๒๕๕๕ images, the narrative part on the art work, and more drawings or paintings if the client wishes. These art therapy visits continue as long as they like, or may be ended by the therapists based on the on-going evaluations, in particular at times when the therapists have made the decision that their clients should take other form of treatments. A Case Study: Letsiri Bovornkitti et al.(10) in 2006 took the opportunity of a catastrophic event that occurred in Uttaradit Province, which caused vast destruction of most citizens’ houses and farmland and caused great mental trauma among the residents. Study samples comprised eight school children aged 7-14 years (five boys and three girls) whose property and relatives’ lives were lost; the subjects were selected by the psychiatrist member of the team of those children with symptoms that were not so severe that they would require conventional psychiatric therapy. There were follow-up weekly for 12 weeks by the same psychiatrist to observe the progress of their illness. The artists also attended the weekly sessions and provided the children with the sup- plies necessary for doing art work and urged them to draw anything they wanted to on the paper provided every week. Their weekly products were photographed for interpretation of their mental progress. At the end of the research session, their mental progress was judged by comparing the results of the psychiatrist’s opinion about the interpretation of the drawings. It was concluded that the art therapy practice in this group of children yielded considerable success as evidenced in seven of the eight subjects (87.5 %), and that art therapy is effective for managing children suffering from mental trauma caused by disasters. How art therapy works: The general concept of mechanism regarding how art therapy achieves effective treatment for mentally traumatized persons, involves the provision of symbolic language as a means of communication alternative to verbal communication, through creative expression such as drawing and painting, which is much the same as a psychological method of ‘exposure therapy’ (9) in assisting trauma survivors to re-experience distressing memories; according to the author’s opinion the two therapeutic interventions exercise with the same mechanism of homeopathy cum hormesis. (11)ั ณิ ตี ที่ ั บี่ ี .