Department of Community Health, Ensign Global College, Kpong, Ghana.
Department of Food Science and Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
PLoS One. 2024 May 9;19(5):e0303246. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0303246. eCollection 2024.
Art therapy allows people to express feelings about any subject through creative work. It is beneficial for people who feel out of touch with their emotions. In Ghana, little is known about art therapy as a therapeutic tool. Herbal treatment, biomedical and faith healing practices are the most common treatment options for mental health. This research aimed to provide new insights into clinical psychologists on their knowledge and use of art therapy in treating clients and identified the enablers and barriers in this therapeutic intervention.
Twenty-one clinical psychologists were sampled using the snowball sampling method. They were interviewed over the phone using a semi-structured interview guide which was developed based on the predefined study objectives. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the data resulting in three central thematic areas.
Twelve of the clinical psychologists were females and eight were male, with an age range between twenty-five to fifty years. The major themes identified were knowledge of art therapy, the use of art therapy and enablers and barriers in using art therapy. The study revealed that clinical psychologists had limited knowledge of art therapy mainly due to lack of training. With the use of art therapy, the participants revealed that they had used some form of art therapy before and they perceived art therapy to be effective on their clients however, they demonstrated low confidence in using it. Practitioner training and the availability of art therapy-related resources were identified as both facilitators and hindrances to the use of art therapy.
Clinical Psychologists are cognizant of art therapy albeit they have limited knowledge. Therefore, training in how to use art therapy and the availability of resources to facilitate art therapy can be provided for Clinical Psychologists by the Ghana Mental Health Authority.
艺术治疗允许人们通过创造性工作来表达对任何主题的感受。对于那些感觉与自己的情绪脱节的人来说，这是有益的。在加纳，人们对艺术治疗作为一种治疗工具知之甚少。草药治疗、生物医学和信仰治疗实践是心理健康最常见的治疗选择。本研究旨在为临床心理学家提供关于他们在治疗客户中使用艺术治疗的知识的新见解，并确定这种治疗干预的促成因素和障碍。
采用雪球抽样法抽取 21 名临床心理学家进行抽样。他们通过电话接受了半结构化访谈指南的访谈，该指南是根据预先确定的研究目标制定的。采用主题分析方法对数据进行分析，得出三个中心主题领域。
21 名临床心理学家中有 12 名是女性，8 名是男性，年龄在 25 岁至 50 岁之间。确定的主要主题是艺术治疗的知识、艺术治疗的使用以及艺术治疗使用的促成因素和障碍。研究表明，临床心理学家对艺术治疗的了解有限，主要是因为缺乏培训。通过使用艺术治疗，参与者们表示他们之前曾经使用过某种形式的艺术治疗，他们认为艺术治疗对他们的客户有效，但他们对使用艺术治疗的信心较低。实践培训和艺术治疗相关资源的可用性被认为是艺术治疗使用的促进因素和障碍。
临床心理学家虽然对艺术治疗有所了解，但知识有限。因此，加纳心理健康管理局可以为临床心理学家提供关于如何使用艺术治疗的培训，并提供资源以促进艺术治疗的使用。
