Thanks for this - I guess I am looking for research evidence, though, and also to see how the arts might increase emotional intelligence, reflective function, the capacity to empathise ... these are all things I know intuitively and there is some evidence out there, in the way that we all engage with them (like why do some people cry at a movie and others not?) - but where is the hard evidence?

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

I hope my research might help...? I specifically looked at creativity ( both creative thinking and creative engagement/ art making in new Orleans post Katrina. The quantitative paper that published might help support the connection between creativity and subjective wellbeing after adversity and the full dissertation and parts of the indepth interviews i included in different papers discuss how art making, art community engagement, and thinking out if te box were useful.

There are also many papers in art therapy, expressive therapy, or play therapy that might be helpful to you eventhough thy often do not talk soecifically about resilience. Please let me know if i can help further...?

Dear Einat, I really really want to hear more about your research! It sounds very exciting. Do send me links to your publications. I am aware of much of the literature on arts therapies but could find nothing at all that directly addresses resilience, or uses that as a key word at least. Thanks for responding.

Aloha Bonnie, I have often looked into the value art plays in therapy and resilience, it seems to me that its not so much about the expression of ones self (yet that is important and part of the process) but it is the ability to problem solve. The point is not so much the question or how an art piece is executed but more along the lines of how the "question" or "issue" of the art work is answered or solved. So problem solving equals an ability to rely on oneself. As for book suggestions, maybe look at a bio of an artist you like and see what they have to say in regards to resilience, there is a whole area of this examined. All the best.

Thanks - I think there are a few I know about already - Maya Angelou springs to mind ... hmmmm ...

Hi Bonnie

We are currently conducting an AHRC-funded project into visual arts for building resilience in young people and will be publishing a practice guide, literature review and a film about our project later this year. There are further details here: http://www.boingboing.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90&Itemid=54

Best wishes

Becky Heaver

University of Brighton

Thanks Becky! - rather belatedly!!

I'm very interested about this topic as we I run different units for children and adolescent and we use art-therapy as a mediation with our patients. Recently there was budget cuts and the art-therapy position was/is in the target and I'm very eager to find evidence that would help me defend it.

So thanks Einat, to send me the link to your work and thanks Becky for your link. Bests

Here are some references for articles that evaluated an arts-based juvenile justice intervention program that I directed. The constructs deal with mental health and social skills. I'm working on a broader evaluation article now that also looks at outcomes (recidivism) and we also are doing the analysis on a version of the program that was school-based and focused on social skills, a key aspect of resilience. That one has a comparison group.

The program had a recidivism rate that was 1/3 less than the state average and when we upped the adherence to the protocols, the recidivism dropped to about 50% of the state average.

Rapp-Paglicc, L., Stewart, C., & Rowe, W. (2009). Evaluating the effects of the Prodigy Cultural Arts Program on symptoms of mental health disorders in at-risk and adjudicated youths. Best Practices in Mental Health, An International Journal, 5 (1), 65-73.

Rapp-Paglicci, L., Stewart, C., Rowe, W., & Miller, J. M. (2011). Addressing the Hispanic Delinquency and Mental Health Relationship through Cultural Arts Programming: A Research Note from the Prodigy Evaluation. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 27 (1), 110-121.

Rapp-Paglicc, L., Stewart, C., & Rowe, W (under review). Improving Outcomes for at-risk Youth: Findings from the Prodigy Cultural Arts Program

Stewart, C., Rapp-Paglicci, L., & Rowe, W. (2009). Evaluating the Efficacy of the Prodigy Prevention Program across Urban and Rural Locales.Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 26(1), 65-75.

Bonnie, I was just reading in a non-scientific journal entitled WEAVINGS in their themed edition entitled Resilience and there are some excellent sources and resources their in terms of the arts. Hope this helps.

Hi Bonnie

I am currently doing some research on using interactive theatre (Boal's Forum Theatre) with secondary school students as a mental health promotion and prevention strategy. I view it as very much being about enhancing resilience- unfortunately due to time constraints I haven't been able to design a study of the effects on resilience specifically. However, I think the arts, depending on the form of arts and way that people are engaging with them, can effect resilience in many ways. I believe that the current Forum script that I am studying will help to improve resilience via various other mediating variables such as social inclusion and connectedness (and I have certainly come across literature regarding social inclusion improvement for people with mental illnesses from participating in arts programs), improving social problem solving strategies, destigmatization of mental illness and changing behavioural norms about help seeking for mental illness or emotional/personal problems, Here is a link to the website of the organisation that does the Forum Theatre that I am researching in case you are interested-

http://www.mindblank.org.au/

A quick search of 'art therapy' and 'resilience' in Scopus returned quite a few articles that might be useful (below). From a purely theoretical, psychological viewpoint, the cognitive-emotional consequences of creativity are not as thoroughly studied as the effects of cognitive-emotional states on creativity, but there is some research on creativity and mood that suggests that being creative does affect mood (divergent thinking leads to more positive moods; convergent thinking to negative moods - Akbari Chermahini & Hommel, 2012). I would assume there might be similar effects on resilience and other cognitive-emotional faculties. Because creative thought generates options, it reduces ambiguity and uncertainty, thereby reducing anxiety and stress about the future (Bar, 2009). Hope some of this helps.

Roghanchi, M., Mohamad, A.R., Mey, S.C., Momeni, K.M., Golmohamadian, M.

The effect of integrating rational emotive behavior therapy and art therapy on self-esteem and resilience

(2013) Arts in Psychotherapy, 40 (2), pp. 179-184.

Jang, H., Choi, S.

Increasing ego-resilience using clay with low SES (Social Economic Status) adolescents in group art therapy

(2012) Arts in Psychotherapy, 39 (4), pp. 245-250.

Huss, E., Nuttman-Shwartze, O., Altman, A.

The role of collective symbols as enhancing resilience in children's art

(2012) Arts in Psychotherapy, 39 (1), pp. 52-59.

DiSunno, R., Linton, K., Bowes, E.

World trade center tragedy: Concomitant healing in traumatic grief through art therapy with children

(2011) Traumatology, 17 (3), pp. 47-52.

Kestenbaum, C.J.

Frontline - Secure attachment and traumatic life events

(2011) Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, 39 (3), pp. 409-420.

Learmonth, M., Gibson, K.

Art psychotherapy, disability issues, mental health, trauma and resilience: 'Things and people'

(2010) International Journal of Art Therapy: Inscape, 15 (2), pp. 53-64.

I agree, the pursuit of alternative constructions of the world in therapy through constructivist or rational emotive methods of questioning fits right in with the role of the arts in enhancing resilience.  Conversely, the arts may be construed as a manner of inquiry analogous to therapeutic technique.