Art Therapy Treatment Model for Rural LGBTQ+ Emerging Adults

Abstract

LGBTQ+ individuals living in rural areas who are aging into adulthood face specific challenges, such as isolation, discrimination, bullying, and hate crimes, leading to mental health issues that often go untreated due to lack of services, stigma, fear of being outed, as well as distrust of mental health clinicians. Art therapy is an emerging treatment modality that may help to address these barriers to treatment. An integrative literature-based review was conducted to study the treatment needs of LGBTQ+ rural emerging adults in order to design a model for an art therapy program for queer emerging adults in rural communities. Created from an antioppressive perspective, the model focuses on using art therapy with clients to assist them in building and exploring their identity, empowering them in the face of discrimination, and decreasing isolation through a therapeutic group experience. The model may also serve to train and educate clinicians to treat this population ethically.