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The Effectiveness of Trauma Focused Art Therapy

NCT05593302 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 38

Last updated 2025-09-04

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

More than 30% of patients with trauma-related complaints do not benefit from prescribed treatments. This concerns patients who have either a poor verbal memory or who are unable or do not wish to talk about their experiences.

In clinical practice, trauma-oriented art therapy appears to be an appropriate treatment. The visual, tangible, experiential character of art therapy is in line with the often wordless, visual and sensory nature of trauma.

Art therapy aims to contribute to achieving personal goals through the use of visual materials and techniques. This approach has been insufficiently examined. Treatment of refugees with Trauma-Focused Art Therapy has previously been shown to be feasible in clinical practice and acceptable to patients.

Using a Mixed Method design, the researchers aim to measure the effect of this protocol in specialized mental health care and the experience of patients with regard to their personal recovery.

Conditions

  • Trauma
  • Psychological
  • Art Therapy

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Trauma-Focused Art Therapy (TFAT)

Individual Trauma Focused Art Therapy (TFAT) consisting of 10 sessions. Each session lasts 60 minutes. Sessions are aimed at trauma recovery using visual art therapy. The sessions cover an introduction, making pieces of artwork, and reflection. Three phases can be distinguished: Phase 1: 'stabilization and symptom reduction', i.e. exploring traumatic and positive memories, imagining a lifecourse, and expressing a safe haven (4 sessions). Phase 2:'uttering and expressing memories', i.e. expressing chosen memories by making 5 pieces of artwork. Materials that can be used include clay, paint, graphite pencil or crayons and if needed with support of imagination using relevant photographs or objects (5 sessions). Phase 3: 'integration and meaning attribution', i.e. ordering and assembling of the 5 pieces of artwork. Patients are asked to appraise the memories in the here-and-now present (c.f. mindfulness-based cognitive therapy) (1 session).

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • HAN University of Applied Sciences

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Christine De Vries, Msc. · HAN University of Applied Sciences

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2022-10-10
Primary Completion
2024-06-01
Completion
2024-08-31

Countries

  • Netherlands

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05593302 on ClinicalTrials.gov