Art therapy and the online world

This document shows the possibilities, in terms of coverage and efficacy of psychological intervention, that the development of the art therapy, if it is done through e-learning. The benefits of e-learning as an effective teaching and learning tool in today's world are evident, a situation that motivates us to address the possibilities that art therapy would have when making effective use of these tools, optimizing costs and time in the psychological treatment of the patients. In short, it could be said that the results obtained for art therapy open new doors with just one click on your computer.

Keep reading Online Psychology and discover the relationship between art therapy and the online world so you can see the innovations in the sector and the great advantages.

Index

1. Introduction
2. State of the art
3. From e-learning to blended learning
4. Experience
5. Results Achieved
6. Conclusions and recommendations
7. Bibliographic Recommendations

In the globalized world in which we live, the multiple and diverse virtual information systems have become constituted a privileged platform to influence the feelings, thoughts and actions of millions of people. This incidence can be seen in fields such as business, education, politics and health, among others. The purpose of this article is framed in this context, by analyzing the possibilities of intervention that art therapy has, by using the virtual information highway through the e-learning.

The online education allows the direct interaction of a user with the material that she needs, through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the pedagogical aspects of teaching and learning. This new educational concept is a revolutionary training modality that is increasingly positioned as the predominant form of communicative intervention in the present and into the future.

If this system has profoundly transformed education, opening doors to individual learning and organizational structure, it has given immense possibilities for transformation in the field of mediated psychological therapy. for art. How many people with financial difficulties and psychological problems would benefit from having the possibility of access a virtual platform that provides them with therapeutic tools to alleviate or cure their ailments psychic? Which are the benefits that an art therapy user could obtain using e-learning through the virtual highway?

These questions and their answers revolve around three themes: psychological therapy mediated by art, diversity of communication tools offered by the internet, and hybrid or blended learning, better known as blended learning. This thematic triad concentrates the challenge, and the nucleus of a new intervention proposal in psychology from the virtual network. The combination of art therapy and e-learning has become a powerful instrument to relieve physical and mental pain of many human beings on the planet.

Donald Winnicott and Jessica Kingsley have pointed out that “art therapy is one of the few disciplines where the individual is fully involved in treatment. through art and creation ”. Around the year 1942, the artist Adrian Hill was the person who used this term for the first time, to refer to the work that he carried out in a tuberculosis asylum; artistic activity provided the patient with a notable increase in emotional well-being and positive results in his recovery. Since then, artistic production has been used as therapy by many artists in an involuntary way. Lidia Polo [1] (2000: 314), exposes specific cases such as that of the Mexican artist Frida Khalo or that of artistic creations carried out by Jews deported in concentration camps, in which the role of art as a mediator is demonstrated therapeutic.

Jorge Kleiman [2] considers that the artist is an advance who discovers the spaces of desire, conquers lands, does the work so that others can later, by observing the work, travel and colonize a territory previously discovered and pacified. Artistic activity has a great structuring power of the personality, which allows to extract order from chaos (Callejón and Granados, 2004) [3].

One of the important contributions of art therapy is that it provokes in the patient the ability to make a synthesis between feelings, internal impulses and external impressions. In the creative process, the subject can discover himself and the external world from a different perspective, establishing a relationship between them (Kramer, 1982). [4] Araya et al. (1990) [5], citing Kramer (1982), point out that thanks to the symbolic nature of the expression plastic, conflicts and tensions can be expressed and dealt with before being ready to speak from them. In this way, by being able to face and elaborate these in the symbolic aspect, the self, an essential part of the personality, is strengthened, anxiety decreases and a general psychic maturation is promoted.

In recent years there have been significant advances in the conjugation of art and psychological therapy. Such is the case in Great Britain, where since 1999 art therapy has enjoyed a recognized professional status within the health service. In contrast, Colombia does not teach art therapy as a professional career, and the therapists who exist in this discipline have been trained outside the country. The organization Sasana [6] (Bogotá), offers an academic option of non-formal education in this field, aimed at professionals in all areas of knowledge with interests and needs very specific. The Colombian Association of Art Therapists [7], has been performing interventions to patients in its Sanar Foundation through art therapy in a group and individual way; His idea is to create a space in which interested people or patients can share their dreams, their fears, their learnings and everything they have in common. The Colombian Therapeutic Community –COTECOL-, founded in 1982 by the Congregation of Capuchin Tertiary Religious, offers help therapeutic to people with addiction problems to alcohol and / or drugs that produce dependence together with direct support to their family, using art therapy for addiction rehabilitation, overcoming trauma and disease treatment terminals.

Art therapy through e-learning

It is necessary to analyze the second essential topic of this project: e-learning as a communication tool for the development of art therapy.

The beginnings of e-learning could be traced back to the year 1728, when the Boston Gazette began offering self-instructional material to be sent through the mail. E-learning then finds its origin in distance education, via physical mail. With the development of technologies and the appearance of the Internet, this system was greatly favored, which allowed its massive use for educational activities. Virtual education is emerging as the solution to problems that traditional teaching cannot answer, this system allows students to deal quite effectively with classic problems of formal education such as class attendance and synchronization of schedules with the job.

Online training courses are defined for this purpose as courses where most, if not all, instruction and tests are accomplished via accessible resources on the Web ”(Schell, 2001, p. 95). [8] The Commission of the European Communities in 2001, in a debate on the role of ICT in development policies, stated: “Information and communication technologies communication (ICT) are terms that are currently used to refer to a wide range of services, applications and technologies, using various types of equipment and software computerized and that are often transmitted through telecommunications networks. " That same source adds that the importance of ICTs does not lie in the technology itself, but in the fact that what allow access to knowledge, information and communications, increasingly important elements in the economic and social sphere.

On the other hand, the current media phenomenon of social networks is a germinated seed after the Internet growth crisis, at the beginning of this 21st century. The main characteristics of the so-called “social network” are: the concept of community, through the creation of user networks that interact and provide communication and knowledge; flexible technology and bandwidth, a necessary factor for the exchange of information and web standards of free application; and a modular architecture that favors the creation of complex applications more quickly, at a lower cost. Social networks have been linked to educational, economic and medical processes, among others. Currently there are in Colombia Health Provider Entities (EPS) that provide their services through the network as well as a large number of art therapists with their blogs or web pages, but so far no information has been found on the network where art therapy is offered as a therapeutic service through a network Social.

For García Aretio (2004) this type of training “… combines face-to-face sessions with other online sessions in the same program”. For his part, Cabero (2004, p27) states that it is a "Blended learning" and he defines it as "... one that complements and synthesizes two options that, until a few years ago, seemed contradictory to many: face-to-face training with training through ICTs."

A clear example of this modality has been given since 2004 in higher education, in the training of secondary education teachers in Uruguay. The semi-face-to-face education in Uruguay it has evolved due to the needs of individuals, providing training opportunities to youth and adults in the interior of the country. Another example of application of blended learning is the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, which combines face-to-face and distance modalities, oriented to the construction of strategies to evaluate learners in secondary education and higher.

Research has found that blended learning produces more effective learning. But likewise, it has been found that currently there is no referenced documentation of artistic therapies through an official internet portal that has implemented a hybrid process to this end.

Once the previous experiences and the existing on the management and use of art therapy on the network have been reviewed, it can be expressed that this practice is not yet official by groups that are already formally constituted in the network.

The exploration of therapeutic practices mediated by art in Colombia through e-learning required in this initial stage to carry out an exhaustive search in those countries in which this discipline is formally established and recognized by their countries of origin, before mentioning the practice as such in Colombia.

The experiences of these countries show that in a matter of time they have a great advantage, as well as the opportunities to study for professionals who wish to specialize at the postgraduate, master's or doctoral level, since they have the study programs designed to this. The mere fact of being able to study within their countries gives a great advantage to professionals and hence the fact that in cases such as in England, art therapy is thought and planned within the health program that this government has for its inhabitants.

Taking a look at Colombia, it can be said that there is a great disadvantage for professionals in this country since there are currently no study centers with formal programs recognized by the Colombian Ministry of National Education for this discipline, so they must resort to studying at the Foreign. As with the countries mentioned above, the organization established in Colombia for the practice of this discipline and the result is similar, this organization expresses that develops the discipline in person and not through its internet portal. It should be noted that in Colombia there is a great variety of offers on the internet where the art therapy is offered, but it was found that those who offer this service are not suitable people in this profession.

Continuing in this order of ideas, it is necessary to think about the elaboration of a proposal based on e-learning on therapeutic art practices in Colombia and it is here where e-learning becomes the best strategy for training for this proposal since the combination of technology and the internet are the tools that have been creating a new technology of learning.

In this proposal, techno pedagogical tools whose purpose is to guarantee accessibility, interoperability, durability and reuse of teaching materials, it is necessary to evaluate e-learning standards as the vehicle through which it will be possible to provide flexibility both in content and in infrastructure. However, these standards will allow products not to become obsolete in the short term, thus protecting not only the investment that this may cause but also the time spent on their design.

Now, the general trend these days of most institutions or professionals is to implement their own platform, adapting it to their specific needs, so the development of a website where the application of art therapy in Colombia was evidenced was not long in coming. www.arteterapiacolombia.com

The internet portal will have technological resources, asynchronous (email) of this This way, it will favor the interaction that is generated through this portal so that it is open and participatory. On the page, the option of personalized signatures was created for messages not only from e-mail but also the icons of facebook and twitter that lead to these social networks, when the recipient of the message clicks on the signature icon, a new browser window opens and the account appears in the social network

One of the essential requirements for this project to be successful is provided by the content you want share with users, they must be of quality not only because of their theme itself, but also in the way they are present. It will always be necessary to consider How do you want the art therapeutic process to take place? How can you support the e-learning platform created to develop art therapy through it? It will be constantly necessary to identify the key points that will allow this process to be carried out with optimum quality.

The activities proposed for this project contribute directly to the achievement of the proposed objectives. As the results were given, other questions arise, but the conceptual bases also emerge that support the verification that e-learning can contribute to art therapy, through a portal of the Internet.

Then, according to what has been raised, the first expected result yields a report of experiences of virtual communities in Colombia where therapeutic practices mediated by art are evidenced, its applications and uses through e-learning. This report gives a vision of the management and use of art therapy and e-learning in Colombia, to finally achieve a fusion of these two great arteries.

The report shows that art therapy in Colombia is a relatively young disciplineIn addition, the study opportunities in this specialization within Colombia do not yet exist as a professional training career, but it is clear that in its In practice, artistic expressions such as painting, music, among others, are being used, thus helping many people who need treatment psychological. On the other hand, there is the accelerated development that e-learning has had in Colombia and how it is being supported by the national government of this country, in summary this report reveals experiences of isolated individuals or groups, but there is no documentation where evidence the practice of art therapy through the internet, let alone delve into how this discipline is developed through the same.

It is important to mention that e-learning is opening a new door, and this time, it is for the practice of art therapy through an internet site, since It is a new and fertile field, with no antecedents in the past, easily accessible, therefore of great potential.

It is therefore necessary to generate a study of this project that looks at the analysis of the viability and validity of carrying out an art therapy program through e-learning in Colombia. To achieve the credibility of this report, it is important to observe from conceptual bases emanating from art therapists with experience about the effectiveness of this discipline as well as exploring the effectiveness of e-learning in the processes in which it is Present.

It is concluded in this report that only until an idea is put into practice, a problem that gives a starting point to an investigation, is it when you can start talking about the validity and viability of a project like this that is focused on management through network; for not only the viability and validity of the practice of art therapy, but also the effectiveness of this procedure have yielded successful results in the treatment of patients with emotional difficulties from practice carried out in an office in a physical place, now a new opportunity opens up and it is offered by the e-learning.

But since not everything can remain in words and support from authors, a relevant proposal is born to the advancement of knowledge in e-learning to carry out practices with art therapy in Colombia. In this proposal, not only the knowledge at the time of carrying out an instructional design is evidenced, but also the information technologies and communication (ICT) introduce new development strategies in a teaching / learning environment, the same e-learning being fundamental for pedagogical development and technological.

The functional components of e-learning as LMS (Learning Managemet System) They are tools to manage, launch courses, manage the same communication services that are essential as online material at the time of develop therapeutic art sessions, discussion forums, chats, video conferences to offer them to users as the needs.

As this experience took place, tests were carried out through the moodle platform to develop the idea of ​​performing artistic activity to treat pathologies from a perspective psychological.

This is how it is decided design a web page given the profound versatility of ICT, which offer and allow its administrator to reach any context, the page alone does not attend a user, but he does admit to reaching where the traditional system of art therapy consultations in a physical space does not to get. It is then that ICTs become the perfect ally to consolidate the proposal of this project, offering a broader coverage so that they have access to this service in their own right.

E-learning manages to make this project come true, on the arteterapiacolombia.com page, there are the most relevant aspects, where users can not only access a virtual consultation, but also can access up-to-date information about what is happening with art therapy in Colombia and the world, update workshops, image gallery, the contact area where the The user will be able to initiate contact with the therapist, it is expected that in the future other art therapists will join in order to give greater coverage to the population that wishes to take this service.

Finally, within the expected results, a popular science article where the activities that have been carried out on the practice of art therapy are expressed, the results obtained, the effectiveness of this discipline and how it has supported groups at risk. And on the other hand, there is e-learning and the use of new technologies that can be used in any corner of the world. Colombia and the world, e-learning is making virtual education a friendlier medium and closer to the users. Virtual scenarios will or are already the future of development in Colombia and the world.

The dissemination of this article reveals conceptual bases of psychological conception established where each user or patient builds their own processes, to be changed, controlled and modified by the hand of an art therapist which you will find in the virtual avenues offered by the Internet. In this way, the increasing digitization of information and the predominance of the internet have led to numerous sites or portals specialized in the field of psychology has a link that leads to popular science articles specialized in this discipline.

E-learning, as has been mentioned, becomes the main vehicle to carry out the practice of art therapy through the network, In this way, and with the aim of telling not only the experience of the practice of art therapy through the network, but it is really possible to carry it out in an effective way and where the The results are efficient for the sake of the emotional health of those who are assisted in this discipline through e-learning, it is important to tell the specialized community about this idea, but above all, how to bring it to reality, so what is mentioned in this article is simply the beginning of another opportunity that opens up e-learning for highway users virtual.

The moment in which human beings are currently, is changing, of permanent transformation and the Teaching-learning systems have not been left behind, they are at the forefront because they are moments of change and progress. There is much talk about new pedagogical models resulting from the application of ICT and how they are applied in the classroom, both face-to-face and virtual.

Another conclusion that has been reached is about lifelong learning, the continuous training of professionals in society current, leads to young disciplines such as art therapy plus the union of e-learning become the perfect ingredients for achieve greater coverage with this discipline.

The search for new paths, the dare to say if it is possible to carry out art therapy sessions through the internet, believe that it is possible, that the path continues, the research continues, the e-learning is expanding more and more and goes further and further, it can be concluded that the conditions are in place for this project not to stop here, but to become the pioneer of this modality.

Finding the best evidence, developing coherent and understandable theories, working with art therapists or program developers on e-learning, recognizing the importance of the patient will allow in the future to agree on a model that facilitates the progress of knowledge about the practice of the discipline of art therapy through Internet.

Since the results show that there is no documentation to date that evidences the practice as proposed here, it is necessary to mention that it will continue to be developed as it has been. raised in this article, since there is no other way to know if a project like this can be developed with the efficiency and effectiveness that it deserves, if it is not done over time practice.

Finally, it is necessary to propose as a possible improvement for this project, the create support networks with art therapists in different parts of the world, continue investigating the network to find out about a practice similar to that proposed in this project, because given the rise of e-learning, it may happen that at any time it arises somewhere in the blogosphere... art therapy in network.

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