Welcome back everyone to another weekly blog post! 

This week I finished up an article about the current treatments for self-harm in youth. It mainly focused on three different methods: dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and mentalization-based therapy (MBT). DBT mostly targets emotion regulation and developing coping skills for challenging situations. CBT challenges an individual’s maladaptive thoughts to enhance daily moods. MBT helps with experiencing a more stable sense of self, especially in the context of relationships with others.

The article also mentioned the characteristics of these methods that may have contributed to their effectiveness. The characteristics were an emphasis on skill development and incorporation of family/caregivers. Therapy methods that include family members/caregivers usually produce better results as they can help keep the environment around the adolescent safe, provide emotional support, and ensure the individual is using their skills. I thought back to past articles on art therapy and how it relates to these characteristics. Art therapy can also help develop healthy coping skills, like the coloring of a mandala that I mentioned in a previous post.

The second part of my week consisted of listening to music while starting my new painting! It was honestly really challenging moving on from my doll painting. I kept looking at it and seeing little details I wanted to fix. I did end up darkening the background a bit, but I resisted all the other details I wanted to change and moved on to my shadowy figure painting. So far, I’ve started the base colors for the background and shadowy figure which are both a mix of Payne’s gray and white. This painting is not as detailed as my doll painting, so I am hoping to finish it up this week. See you all next week!

*Note: my mentor is currently out of the country, so she was not able to double check the accuracy of phrasing and information of this post.