Art Therapy with Veterans: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature with Recommendations

Abstract

Art therapy has been conducted with military servicemembers and veterans since the beginning of the profession itself. Veterans suffer from a myriad of diagnoses, some of the most prevalent being posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), combat trauma, military sexual trauma (MST), complicated grief, substance abuse, anxiety, and depression.Research exists that underscores the unique and vital role art therapy plays in the treatment of these diagnostic concerns; however, no known comprehensive literature review on the topic exists. An integrative, systematic literature review was conducted to gain an understanding of the format, setting, directives, materials, and approaches being used to treat veterans with art therapy. A total of 85 articles and books with a primary focus on art therapy with veterans were organized using the filing method recommended by Garrard(2011). A literature matrix was used to organize26 of the publications for comparison and to identify themes among the content. Themes emerged in all categories of the matrix. Notably, it was shown that 68.6% of the 85 pieces of literature had been published in the last five years. Recommendations for future research were made in response to these themes, such as the need to identify the specific therapeutic factors of art therapy rather than simply its efficacy in comparison to more traditional talk therapy approaches. Finally, opportunities were identified to standardize and streamline the use of art therapy with this population, which would benefit both the clients and the replicability of studies to bolster the generalizability and validity of findings.