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Expressive Art Therapy (EAT) is an emerging field of psychotherapy in India. The current study aimed to gather opinions on the efficacy of EAT from the point of view of practicing EAT professionals and traditional Mental Health Professionals (MHPs); and to understand the application of EAT for adolescents. A total of 45 MHPs from various fields participated in a recorded telephonic interview (15) and an online survey (30). Snowball sampling and convenience sampling were employed to access the participants. The thematic analysis of the interviews generated four major themes: therapeutic essence of EAT, EAT and adolescent's well-being, limitations of EAT, and application of EAT on psychological conditions. The online survey indicated that 29 MHPs were aware of EAT and substantiated the acceptance of EAT among the MHPs in India. The MHPs confirm the effectiveness of EAT for adolescents' well-being and other psychological conditions. The therapeutic benefits of EAT were confirmed overpowering the usage of therapy merely for inner expression. Nevertheless, the findings also highlight the limitations of this therapy. The current study also calls for further research with a larger sample size to gain an indepth insight into EAT from MHP's point of view in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child Care Institutions (CCI) are often considered the best remedy for vulnerable children in India. Research suggests deteriorating mental health of the children residing at CCI and an inadequate mental health infrastructure aggravates this problem. An alternative therapy is vital to improve the current situation. Research confirms the positive effects of Expressive Art Therapy (EAT) for children facing mental health crises. In this paper, we aim to assess the effectiveness of EAT on the mental health, emotion regulation and resilience of these children. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was adopted for this intervention study. Forty-three children from two CCI in Goa participated in this study and were divided in to two groups. Group A (n = 18) received full intervention, whereas Group B (n = 25) received partial intervention. The quantitative analysis of psychometric data Group A showed significant improvement in their overall mental health and resilience scores. The qualitative content analysis of the art materials and interviews of same group supports the quantitative findings. Group B has also shown positive effects on some mental health and resilience constructs. Our findings reiterate the effectiveness of EAT for children in CCI and that this therapy could corroborate in their daily curriculum to promote overall well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper depicts a pilot study conducted to develop the research design for a larger study and explore the relationships between mental health, emotion regulation techniques, and resilience of destitute children residing at children's homes. The study was explorative and employed purposive sampling to gather data from 28 destitute children (12-17 years) from two children's homes in Goa, India. Mental Health Battery, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and Brief Resilience Scale were used for assessment. The findings indicated a positive correlation between mental health and cognitive reappraisal, r-value as 0.48 with a p-value of 0.008, and resilience with an rvalue of 0.52 and p-value 0.004, both significant at 0.01 levels. There was no significant correlation between emotion suppression and mental health, but it established a negative relationship. Also, it was evident that around 57.14% of destitute adolescents used emotion suppression to manage emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]