COGNITIVE-CONSTRUCTIVIST ART-THERAPY MODEL - A PRAGMATIC APPROACH FORSOCIAL-WORK-PRACTICE

Cognitive-constructivism has gained increased scholarly attention with in the social sciences with roots grounded in a variety of human behav ior theories. A major limitation inherent within constructivist meta-t heory, however, is the paucity of strategic and pragmatic techniques t o substantiate its practice utility. Specificity of technique, whereby clinical procedures are introduced within this theoretical framework, has not proliferated as strongly as the philosophical critiques in th is content area. This analysis responds to this theoretical limitation by presenting a treatment framework that integrates art therapy metho dology into a cognitive-constructivist theoretical model in treating e arly adolescent girls who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. The presented treatment methodology details art therapy techniques as lin ked to constructivist treatment phases, with therapeutic goals reflect ive of the theory's underlying principles.