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Toward an Illustrated Understanding of Art Therapy for ADHD: A Creative Inquiry Using Scoping Review, Autoethnography, and Visual Methods
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- Author / Creator
- Godel, Stephanie N.
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Affecting at least 5% of youth and 2.5% of adults worldwide, ADHD is associated with considerable suffering. Art therapists must therefore know how best to support clients of all ages who live with this neurodevelopmental disorder. Unfortunately, literature describing or evaluating art therapy for this population is sparse and typically produced by scholars who do not have ADHD themselves. This qualitative inquiry thus addressed the question: How does an illustrated description of research about art therapy for ADHD, incorporating the researcher’s firsthand experience of the disorder, illuminate possibilities and guide future inquiry in this area? To this end, I combined scoping review, autoethnography, and visual methods in an arts-based bricolage inspired by and aspiring toward research-creation. I sought English-language articles, books, chapters, and student works released between 1990 and 2020 which explicitly describe art therapy for people with ADHD. Descriptive numerical analysis shows that the collected sources are characterized by limited access, recency, and continuity, as well as citation distortions. Creative qualitative analysis using mixed-media visual methods including altered books and collage identified three clinical consensus themes: framework for freedom, practising success, and accounting for symptoms. Other key themes relate to research quality and assessments. This thesis tells the story of its own creation, punctuated and interrupted by autoethnographic texts and images reflecting my struggle through a degree which I am less likely to complete than are my typically developing peers. The work offers an evocative personal narrative, a multi-modal illustration of the existing literature, and recommendations for future study.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- 2022
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Psychotherapy and Spirituality
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.