Mindfulness-based art therapy

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Caroline Peterson, Daniel Monti · 2006

What it is

Mindfulness-based art therapy (MBAT) is a structured, closed psychosocial group for adults with cancer. Its developers were Caroline Peterson (art therapist, ATR-BC, LPC, and advanced-level MBSR instructor) and Daniel Monti (psychiatrist, Thomas Jefferson University / Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center…

Format

• Format. A closed group of about 8 participants (the trial's power calculation assumed an "average class size of 8"). The original groups were women-only. There are 8 consecutive weekly sessions of about 2.5 hours, each following a standardised agenda. Each session includes a review of home and…
• Home practice: mindfulness practice 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week, with an audio recording of a guided body scan and sitting meditation, plus suggested reading.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Walkabout variant: 8 weekly sessions of about 2.5 hours. Sessions 1-2 include brief talks with handouts: what mindfulness and meditation are, perception and appraisal in stress reactivity, mindful responding, and the attitudinal foundations. Session 1 starts with exploring media and a torn-paper collage. Session 2 introduces photography. In 4-5 of the 8 weeks there are outdoor mindful "walkabouts" with digital…
• Professional frame. As published, MBAT is delivered by a credentialed art therapist who is also trained to teach MBSR. In the US that means ATR-BC (Art Therapy Credentials Board) within the American Art Therapy Association professional frame. In the UK the equivalent is an HCPC-registered art therapist (BAAT is the professional body). Separately, the leader needs mindfulness-teacher training to recognised…
• How change is thought to happen: MBAT draws on Leventhal's self-regulation model. People hold both objective ("what is happening to my body") and emotional representations of illness, and how well they can work with these affects their stress. Mindfulness trains people to observe their reactions instead of being driven by them (responding rather than reacting). Art gives these representations a concrete, nonverbal…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• grief at the group ending. Name it.
• picking a traumatic event. Suggest a moderate, recent one.
• members with unresolved distress. Arrange follow-up or referral.
• shame about not practising. Treat it as information, not failure.
• distress at "destroying" work. Allow keeping part of the sheet whole.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.