The effects of online art therapy on ego functions, emotion regulation, and interpersonal relationship styles in neurotic personality organization.

Art therapy, as an effective therapeutic intervention, is used to improve positive self-image and self-awareness, promote insight, and enhance therapeutic communication. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of art psychotherapy on ego functions, emotion regulation, and interpersonal relationship styles of individuals with neurotic personality organization. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design, 60 participants were assigned to intervention and control groups, each further divided into three subgroups (n = 10 per subgroup). The intervention group engaged in online art therapy sessions twice weekly over nine weeks, while the control group received no intervention. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, paired samples t-tests, and independent t-tests. There was a significant decrease in the intervention group's judgmental subdimensions of the Ego Function Assessment Scale. A significant decrease was found in the intervention group in "awareness" (p < 0.01), "clarity" (p < 0.05), and "impulse" (p < 0.001) subdimensions and total scores of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. There was no statistical difference between the intervention and control groups' mean pretests and posttests and comparing those groups with each other concerning IRSQ scores. The online group art therapy led to successful improvements in participants' ego functions and emotion regulations.

Effect of a long-term art-based group therapy with eating disorders.

Eating disorders (EDs) affect the physical, psychological, emotional and interpersonal areas of the individual and cause serious medical and mental consequences. Their treatment should be handled in a multidisciplinary manner.The objective of this study was to investigate potential benefits of long-term art-based group therapy (ABGT) as an adjunct to treatment for a variety of EDs. This study examined the effects of ABGT on disease symptoms, difficulty regulating emotions, depression, anxiety, targeted problems, functioning of individuals with EDs and therapeutic efficiency of the group. The study was carried out as a pre-test-post-test, quasi-experimental study with a control group, with a small sample diagnosed with an ED. In addition to their standard treatment at the outpatient centre, participants were included in a 30-week long-term semistructured ABGT focused on raising awareness of their psychological problems. Participants who received ABGT had significantly better functioning and lower severity of target problems compared with the control group. The severity of the three most important problems reported by patients post-ABGT compared with pre-ABGT and the effects of these problems on their social/private lives reduction was observed. The participants mostly benefited from catharsis, universality, self-understanding, existential factors and family re-enactment in the group process. Through the artwork, participants recognised the mental conflicts causing the symptoms of their ED. We found that art-based interventions are useful in the treatment of EDs, as they positively changed the functioning and symptoms of people with EDs. We recommend that clinicians keep these interventions in mind in formulating treatment protocols for these disorders.