The contribution of creative art therapies to promoting mental health: Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to study therapists’ understandings of working with self-stigmatisation

•Self-stigmatisation constitutes an unavoidable reality for people who suffer from a psychiatric disorder.•Creative art therapies (CAT) seem to be a factor of positive change towards patients’ life.•The present study focused on creative art therapists’ understanding of how they can help psychiatric patients who suffer from self-stigmatisation.•The findings bring to light therapists’ consensus for the potential of CAT to contribute to patients’ relief from self-stigma emotions.

Self-stigmatisation impacts the lives of people diagnosed with a mental disorder. Addressing self-stigmatisation is challenging. Creative arts therapy is identified as achieving positive change in the lives of people who have mental disorders. This study focuses on creative art therapists’ understanding of how self-stigmatisation can be addressed with people who have mental disorders. Six creative art therapists were individually interviewed. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed via Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The findings bring to light therapists’ consensus for the potential of the creative arts therapies to contribute to patients’ relief from self-stigmatisation. Additionally, the concept of mental illness self-stigmatisation offered therapists an opportunity to explore, understand and describe their attitudes when working with people considered self-stigmatised.