Accessing traumatic memory through art making: An art therapy trauma protocol (ATTP)

“We use our minds not to discover facts but to hide them.” Antonio Damasio“Art makes the invisible visible.” Paul KleeIn this article I propose an art therapy trauma protocol (ATTP) designed to address the non-verbal core of traumatic memory. Trauma theorists [van der Kolk, B.A. (2003). Frontiers in trauma treatment. Presented at the R. Cassidy Seminars, St. Louis, MO 2004; Steele, W. & Raider, M. (2001). Structured Sensory Intervention for Traumatized Children, Adolescents and Parents-Strategies to Alleviate Trauma. New York: The Edwin Mellen Press] have endorsed alternative treatment methods such as eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR), body-based psychotherapy, and expressive arts therapy as an alternative to verbal psychotherapy. Following an overview of the role of memory and emotions in trauma and theories of art making and brain function, I describe a protocol that has had success in integrating the cognitive, emotional and physiological levels of trauma drawing on EMDR, McNamee's bilateral art and Michelle Cassou's method of painting. A one-session example serves to illustrate its use.