Contemporary Art Therapy with Adolescents

Art therapy provides a particularly helpful method for treating adolescents. A notoriously difficult age group to work with, teenagers often respond better to making artworks than they do to talking to adults. It is the gift of the well-trained art therapist to channel this creative impulse into therapy.

Shirley Riley explores the possibilities of using art therapeutically with adolescents. She reviews current theories on adolescent development and therapy, and emphasizes the primary importance of relying on the patients' own words. their social, cultural and economic background, rather than following pre-designed assessment directives too rigidly. She examines family treatment, looking at how the adolescent functions in relation to parents and siblings. The book is firmly rooted in Riley's own experience of working with this age-group, and includes detailed case studies. She also reflects on the effect upon the therapist created by close contact with this difficult but ultimately rewarding group of clients.