ABSTRACT
This chapter includes integrative approaches to treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) is the Military Health System (MHS) institute for complex, co-morbid TBI and psychological health (PH) conditions. The NICoE's creative arts therapy program expansion has come about in part as a result of a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), another federal agency. Service members who come through the NICoE's program are introduced to art therapy in their first week of care, as part of two-hour group art therapy mask-making session. Mask making is the directive chosen for the first art therapy group for variety of reasons. In the fourth week of care, service members engage in a final art therapy group during which they are invited to create montage paintings. This directive allows for the layering of materials to depict theme—either about the self, beliefs, or the symbolic representation of the passage of time.
