An unfound door: Reconceptualizing art therapy as a community-linked treatment

Prevailing short-term psychiatric treatment targets symptom reduction and s ymptom management. Paradoxically, adolescents cling to symptoms integral to their sense of self, and fundamental to their peer affiliation and accepta nce. Adolescents facing the challenge of identity formation confront a self -concept void that emerges with the cessation of symptoms. Thus, treatment resistance can be attributed to a desire to fill that void and to maintain affiliations, as well as to classically defined psychological processes. The Arts Incentives Program (AIP) model merges psychodynamic formulations o f adolescent risk and prevention with art therapy and community-linked inte rventions. This article illustrates how a matrix for long-term change is constructed w ithin a short-term treatment setting, and how a clinical response to the ad olescent's own interests motivates recovery, as at-risk and beyond-risk ado lescents are linked with community arts and youth development projects, whe re they acquire lifelong skills and a positive sense of self.