Art Therapy and Use of Mediator/Expressive Technique in Family Therapy: A systematic review

The use of objects in family therapy has been a widespread phenomenon for years. Nevertheless, despite the popularity of these techniques, there is little consensus on the therapeutic processes engaged. The purpose of this review is to identify the literature exploring the use of objects, labelled artistic or expressive, in therapeutic settings with families. English and French studies from 1982 to 2022 were considered. The final review included 92 articles. These articles were divided according to the epistemological belonging of the authors.
This literature review shows the variety of techniques used, difficulties encountered by the patients and populations studied. The review provides a critical view on the methodologies used to write the papers, and, therefore, calls for scientific rigor in future research. Despite these methodological issues, the results underline the positive effects of using mediating tools (better communication, improved therapeutic alliance). To further investigate therapeutic processes, the authors propose a second study focusing on French-language systemic studies. In addition, the authors call caution in the use of these media and suggest research into more pedagogical and formative aspects.