title: Art psychotherapy in a consumer diagnosed with borderline personality disorder: a case study.
abstract: This case study reviews 11 sessions of art psychotherapy with a consumer diagnosed with having borderline personality disorder. A consumer who reported difficulty in communicating her lived trauma verbally and engaged in self-harming behaviour was offered individual art therapy sessions following a consultation between an art therapy student and clinical nurse consultant in an attempt to understand her experiences and to collaboratively engage her. Notes were taken after each session by the art therapy student, reflecting conversations with this consumer while they were engaged in art making, which were subsequently explored within formal clinical supervision sessions with a mental health nurse consultant. An art portfolio is reproduced. It illustrates the expressive power of image creation. The key features of the images were that of lived trauma, the externalization of thoughts and feelings, and intense emotional expression. The results of this chronological art portfolio case study indicated therapeutic benefits from the intervention for this consumer. Further investigations of this type of intervention are warranted within the mental health setting.
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Service, Prince of Wales Hospital, Edmund Blackett Building, Nurse Education and Research Unit, Room 7, High Street, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia. scott.lamont@sesiahs.health.nsw.gov.au
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lamont
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brunero
authors.forename: Dianne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sutton
mesh_terms: D001155:Art Therapy; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009517:New South Wales; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000628:therapy