Abstract
Objective: Some patients in our outpatient's clinic have difficulty in communicating or expressing their emotions by the use of language. Such physical symptoms of patients who have psychosomatic disease may function as an expression of their emotions, as it is difficult for them to verbalize, or they are not yet aware of their illness. Unless patients are conscious of their emotions and can express their feelings, their physical symptoms continue and the treatment of their illnesses is difficult by a common medical approach. In these cases, we try to employ group art therapy for those alexithymic patients. Subjects and methods: We selected the appropriate patients for group art therapy by the HTP test and personal interview. Group art therapy consists of six sessions. Each session is one and a half hours long and is held everyother week. Patients report their recent events and changes in their life at the beginning of each session They stretch their bodies and extremities for relaxation. They then start drawing a picture of various themes in each session. At the end of the session they share their personal picture with all the participants. Results: We've completed 9 therapy groups at this time. The total number of participation is 33. Most of the participants can't communicate using their pictures at all. Therefore the therapist has to lead them much of the time. However, the participants gradually begin to talk about their pictures in an informal atmosphere without the therapist's instruction. Furthermore, they mention their own ideas or are aware of their own feelings through their drawings. The communication pattern of the participants changes from two-person therapist-participant communication to multi-person inter-participant communication. In the course of time, the participants become able to share the experience with each other without the therapist. For example, Ms S who felt dizzy, stiff with fear of going out, had been under drug treatment. She wanted to reduce her medication but couldn't because of her anxiety. Then she participated in the group art therapy to be aware of her real emotion. Gradually she became aware of her own real emotion, a conflict with her mother and the signs coming from her body. As a result, she began to express her anger towards her mother and ignore her physical symptoms. She finally returned to work. In addition to Ms S, nearly all participants achieved a good balance between their emotion and thinking. They also showed more natural mood and relaxation of their body. Conclusion: Group art therapy is one of the most useful methods for the treatment of to psychosomatic patients who have difficulty in communicating or expressing their emotion.
