ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the early interventions with individuals and their families, the effect of individual illness on the family system, and recent advances in treatment. The family art therapy program endeavors to foster change and independence in each participant through the process of working together to identify common issues and to help resolve them. Family therapy has its roots in social work, anthropology, systems theory, and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and developed around the same time as art therapy. In his first year at Walter Reed, the author joined a multidisciplinary family therapy seminar held by the Social Work Department. The chapter provides a family art therapy intervention through a case study of Kathy. When one member is hospitalized, has experienced multiple traumas, and manifests deep depression, as Kathy had, people must assume that there is a profound effect on the family.
