ABSTRACT
This chapter provides art therapy to several populations, including chronically institutionalized adult/geriatric patients with schizophrenia and adolescents in a maximum-security juvenile detention facility. Years of personal values clarification, cultural competence training, experience as Chairperson of the Ethics Committee of the American Art Therapy Association. The need for physical closeness can stem from inadequate social skills, unsatisfying relationships, and poor boundaries, each instance must be viewed individually with an understanding of the client’s culture, presenting problem, and rationale for the need to touch the therapist. Art-making tasks such as mandalas, family art evaluations, bird’s nest drawings, and bilateral scribbling have all yielded great success in introducing families with young children to art therapy.
