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Open research questions in Art Therapy and Mental Health

75 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 1,964 Art Therapy and Mental Health papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • The three-month maintenance of effects within a school-based delivery framework provides initial guidance for preventive intervention design in Chinese schools, while reproducibility, longer-term outcomes, and scalability beyond specialist therapists warrant further investigation. The study offers a preliminary model of culturally adapted art therapy in a Minnan educational setting and adds to the limited evidence on school-based art therapy in Chinese contexts.

    The Influence of Modern Art Therapy on the Mental Health and Positive Development of Primary School Students in Xiamen · 2026 · DOI

  • The concept of playfulness in medical education is still new, and there are numerous facets left to explore. This editorial is relatively concrete, focusing on the small, low-cost, low-timecommitment interventions that start to make learning environments playful. Though there is significant literature with some of the proposed interventions (e.g., improv theater, medical games), further research is needed to assess efficacy and longterm effects of activities such as thunks and plot twists. In addition, the list provided is by no means exhaustive or complete but a launch point to explore many other forms of playfulness, perhaps borrowing from other disciplines, such as humanities, business administration, undergraduate education, game theory, and user experience. Finding appropriate playful activities for academic psychiatry likely involves finding playfulness in other disciplines and adapting those techniques to medical trainees. Playfulness is not encapsulated by playful activities; rather, it is a paradigm shift in how we teach and learn. Playfulness is not most effective when it occurs as isolated events; instead, it is most effective when it is a consistent, suffusing presence in education, always fueling trainee curiosity, community, and creativity. For example, certain formats of teaching may encourage more playfulness into learning environments, such as seminars using problem-based or team-based approaches over didactic lectures. The active integration of art and humanities into psychiatry curricula opens up possibilities for a playful attitude in learning environments. Educators can begin asking themselves: “How can I reinspire a love for learning?” “How can I enhance new ways of thinking?” “Is there a possibility for games, unpredictability, shared exploration, fun?” Further investigation into the deep and implicit structures (i.e., the “nature” and “spirit”) of play will assist with the ultimate goal of creating a playful learning environment. Eventually, this kind of research could be distilled into a toolkit for educators, providing clear direction for methods to integrate playfulness into a teaching practice. This is similar to other toolkits that integrate a topic across different instructors and curricula. A long-term goal of playful exercises is to imbue trainees with playfulness as part of their physician identity.

    Playfulness: Confronting Resident Disengagement in Psychiatry Training · 2026 · DOI

  • 6 Conclusion While the search strategy for this literature review aimed to capture a broad range of relevant literature, the review was not designed to be as comprehensive as a scoping review; as a result, some pertinent studies may have been missed.

    A review of youth mental health in the U.S.: the current landscape, youth perspectives, and strategies for equitable solutions · 2026 · DOI

  • 1 Introduction The mental health of youth in the United States has emerged as a significant focal point for community and national health initiatives. In 2021, the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr.

    A review of youth mental health in the U.S.: the current landscape, youth perspectives, and strategies for equitable solutions · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should explore structural factors that exist that enable mothers with experiences of GBV to fully participate and benefit from arts-informed methods.

    “I was Struggling at the Beginning to Even Show People or do it… it was Very Emotional at Moments”: Exploring the Process of Art Creation in an Arts-Informed Research Method Among mothers From Ontario, Canada With Experiences of Gender-Based Violence · 2024 · DOI

  • Arts-based therapy (ABT) is beneficial for children who have experienced trauma, however, little is known about its feasibility or efficacy in immigrant and refugee children.

    Arts-based therapy: a pilot program for immigrant and refugee children · 2021 · DOI

  • Future research is required to specifically address the importance of art therapist well-being, the development of client and therapist well-being through joint or parallel creative processes, and clients’ perceptions of therapist in-session art practices, specifically from multi-cultural perspectives.

    Strengthening the Therapeutic Bond through Therapist Art Making with Clients · 2021 · DOI

  • Examining the implications of the intervention advances gaps in the literature on SEL programs, supports integrating SEL programming on music and art in schools, and promotes continued program evaluation of unique SEL programming specifically for high school students.

    Influencing Social and Emotional Awareness and Empathy with a Visual Arts and Music Intervention for Adolescents · 2020 · DOI

  • The paper will conclude that a psychosocial approach provides an appropriate framework for art therapists working with refugees and that community murals may hold therapeutic value that could be further explored with primary research and data gathered from participants to expand the discussion of its relevance as a practice within the field.

    ‘Tomorrow we make it better’: an art therapist’s reflection on a community mural in a refugee camp in Greece · 2019 · DOI

  • Despite limited research, this review provides needed guidance for social workers to harness technology for social good, operating in the digital space to implement MPT interventions that afford a range of therapeutic benefits to clients in an increasingly mediated world.

    Media Production as Therapy: A Systematic Review · 2018 · DOI

  • How do people find meaning in the experience of dementia? Can people living with dementia be supported in meaningful activities that may alleviate depression and increase their sense of well-being? Many programs are offered for people in residential aged care, but little is known about the effectiveness of these programs.

    Seeking Meaning: Making Art and the Experience of Spirituality in Dementia Care · 2012 · DOI

  • The review addresses four questions: (1) What is the focus of the empirical base on using AT with persons who have DAT? (2) (How) have these studies been designed and evaluated? (3) What findings are reported? (4) What does this tell us about the potential of AT for enriching the lives of people with dementia? This analysis reveals that systematically designed, documented, and evaluated AT studies are scarce.

    Art therapies and dementia care: A systematic review · 2011 · DOI

  • Despite the growing number of Hispanics in the US and in caseloads of art therapists, previous literature on this topic is scarce and predominantly based on case studies.

    Art Therapy with Hispanic Clients: Results of a Survey Study · 2006 · DOI

  • Although art therapy has been understudied in this context, it shows promise as a means of treating hard-to-treat symptoms of combat-related PTSD, such as avoidance and emotional numbing, while also addressing the underlying psychological situation that gives rise to these symptoms.

    Art Therapy for Combat-Related PTSD: Recommendations for Research and Practice · 2006 · DOI

  • Future research should explore longitudinal outcomes, including relapse prevention, emotional resilience, and shifts in self-concept, to further validate the long-term efficacy of art therapy in addiction recovery.

    Art therapy in addiction recovery the face of addiction through artworks based on clinical case studies · 2026 · DOI

  • Implications for Research To continue expanding the field of art therapy for Chinese adolescents, future research could investigate more on the effectiveness of incorporating art therapy and mindfulness in treatment as well as exploring context-sensitive adaptations of traditional art materials.

    Mindfulness-informed art therapy for inpatient adolescence in China: case study · 2026 · DOI

  • Purpose While quantitative and qualitative approaches have been used to capture school-based creative arts therapy practice, the integration of audio diaries with arts-based methods remains unexplored.

    Methodological insights from a small-scale study with school-based art therapists on the utility of combining audio diary and arts-based research · 2026 · DOI

  • Experimental Design and Methodological Limitations This study demonstrated through a controlled experiment that directive embodied interaction, as an integrated in emotion intervention, yields significant benefits regulation, reduction.

    From Passive Observation to Active “Deduction”: A Study on the Therapeutic Effects of Directive Embodied Interaction · 2026 · DOI

  • In our discussions, we identified several factors contributing to this disconnection, including a lack of validation and curiosity, being stereotyped and undervalued, having to repeatedly explain culture and race-related issues, and the absence of accountability for microaggressions.

    Identity and belongingness of Asian art therapy educators: critical art-based collaborative autoethnography · 2025 · DOI

  • Conclusions: Factors driving this disconnection include the lack of validation and curiosity, stereotyping and devaluation, repeated needs to explain culture and race-related issues, and insufficient accountability for microaggressions.

    Identity and belongingness of Asian art therapy educators: critical art-based collaborative autoethnography · 2025 · DOI

  • There is limited art therapy research in Australia in this area, leaving a compelling gap in understanding the effectiveness of collaborative and side-by-side artmaking in group art therapy to connect refugee youth with their peers.

    Collaborative and side-by-side artmaking: reducing social isolation in refugee youth group art therapy · 2024 · DOI

  • While these programs can facilitate growth and healing, limited research addresses forcibly displaced girls’ perceived benefits of engaging in arts-based programs.

    Girls Rule Art! · 2024 · DOI

  • The theoretical concepts and techniques have been described in the ArAT programme, but insight into which specific therapeutic actions contribute to the benefits in clinical practice is still lacking.

    Measurement and development of art therapeutic actions in the treatment of children and adolescents with psychosocial problems · 2022 · DOI

  • My inclusive dance-theatre company, Les Productions des pieds des mains, creates productions that are presented on professional artistic platforms and not limited to the context of disabled art presentations.

    Raising the Bar in Disability Arts · 2021 · DOI

  • While an increasing number of creative strategies are available to support people with dementia, the area of board games design and their effect on wellbeing is underexplored.

    This is Me: Evaluation of a boardgame to promote social engagement, wellbeing and agency in people with dementia through mindful life-storytelling · 2021 · DOI

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75 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 1,964 Art Therapy and Mental Health papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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