ABSTRACT
The quasi-experimental pre-post study presented in this chapter examines the use of virtual individual art therapy for the alleviation of anxiety of 87 Canadian and international adult clients (over 18 years of age). From May 2020 to May 2021, student art therapists at the Canadian International Institute of Art Therapy used three Likert ten-point scale questions to measure changes in their clients’ anxiety levels before and after virtual art therapy sessions. The study showed a 36% reduction in anxiety after the art therapy session when comparing mean anxiety scores at the beginning of the session to the end. When comparing the anxiety score from the past week to the end of the session, anxiety was lowered even further by 45% at session end. Furthermore, there was a smaller reduction of 14% between the mean past week score and the score at the beginning of the session. Although these results are preliminary and contain a small sample size, they are encouraging and should be expanded upon with a longer-term and large-scale study.
