Case Study of Cognitive-Behavioral Art Therapy to Improve Self-Expression and Self-Esteem in Adolescents With Intellectual Disabilities

This study was conducted as a single case study to examine the impact of cognitive-behavioral art therapy on improving self-expression and self-esteem in adolescents with intellectual disabilities.The subject of the study was a mildly intellectually disabled female who was a second-year student at a special education high school, living in city D, receiving cognitive and speech therapy.In this case, a total of 100 sessions of 50 minutes were conducted 5 to 6 times a week at Y Treatment Center in D City from June to December 2022.To examine changes in self-expression and self-esteem in adolescents with intellectual disabilities, the KHTP drawing test, self-expression scale test, and self-esteem test were conducted pre-and post-test, and compared and analyzed.In addition, qualitative analysis was conducted by recording observations for each session.The research findings revealed, firstly, that cognitivebehavioral art therapy had a positive effect on the self-expression of adolescents with intellectual disabilities.Secondly, cognitive-behavioral art therapy positively influenced the self-esteem of these adolescents.Thirdly, qualitative analysis of session-by-session observations indicated positive changes.Based on these results, this study suggests that cognitive behavioral art therapy has a positive effect on improving self-expression and self-esteem in adolescents with intellectual disabilities, and is significant in that it provides practical possibilities and empirical case study data for activities in counseling settings.