Experiences with Bilateral Art: A Retrospective Study

Recent advances in neuroscience describe the effect of experience on neural architecture. Paralleling these advances in neuroscience, recent explorations in the field of art therapy speculate on the relationship between specific therapeutic interventions and neuroplasticity, which underlies the changes in neural architecture. One such intervention, bilateral art, purposefully engages both left and right hemispheres of the brain, as well as multiple sensory systems, in responding to clientidentified conflicted elements of experience. This paper summarizes experiences using bilateral art over an eighteen-month period with individuals at a university family therapy center. The bilateral art intervention was applied to a range of presenting problems including relationship issues, depression, anxiety, and trauma. Outcome measures include clientreported scalings, as well as client-reported and/or therapistobserved changes in behavior over time. Additionally, this paper presents indicators for the use of bilateral art an as intervention, as well as contraindications for its use.