Taking the Diagnostic Drawing Series to psychologists (again)

[Guest guest]

In April of 2011, I helped bring Barry Cohen and Anne Mills to NYC for the first ever NYC based DDS training.There was a full house- a really fantastic class.It's great to hear about what else is going on with the Diagnostic Drawing Series, even in the profession of psychology, and to hear about greater advances for arts in healthcare.The email forwarded below is an update from the field on this.Best,- Brandoff, ATR-BC, ATCS, LCATArt Therapist and Clinical SupervisorET Summit, Exec. Coordinatorhttp://summit.expressivemedia.org/Ethics Chair, New York Art Therapy Assoc. ----- Forwarded Message ----- Subject: [DiagnosticDrawingSeries] Taking the Diagnostic Drawing Series to psychologists (again)

Hello, all,

As you may know, the American Psychological Association celebrated the Diagnostic Drawing Series in a 1985 article in the APA's newsletter, the Monitor. Many of the early supporters of the DDS were psychologists. The DDS was featured in two psychology textbooks, and has been used in a number of psychology dissertations. However, we have not reached out to the psychology community for some time.

A specific way to do so was brought to my attention by list member Donna Betts. She wrote of her experiences in attending the meeting of the Society for Personality Assessment (SPA), which is American Psychological Association Division 12, in a post on the ART-TX listserve. As I recollect, she suggested that it would benefit art therapy if we art therapists increased our visibility at the SPA meeting. This inspired Barry Cohen and me to attend the SPA meeting last week. We presented a lunch talk titled "The Diagnostic Drawing Series: An Overview of Thirty Years of Assessment through Art". Our goal was to introduce the DDS to a new generation of psychologists.

Our presentation, which featured lots of DDS examples plus some exciting new statistics prepared by list member , was warmly received. We were very conscious of the fact that if the attendees saw drawings at all in their work, they would probably be pencil-and-paper projectives or drawing completion tests. The way in which the DDS is different--in the creativity shown by the subjects, the richness of the color, and the expressive possibilities of the chalk--was striking to this audience. We made the case for the scientific basis on which the DDS rests, but also noted that for each diagnostic group, the DDS graphic profile is a visual metaphor for the disorder itself.

Several attendees expressed interest in learning more about the DDS so that they could replace less-researched drawing tests in their assessment batteries. Others indicated interest in adding the DDS into their research plans. We look forward to hearing about future developments!

You are welcome to forward this e-mail to other interested parties or listservs.

best regards,

Anne Mills, MA, ATR-BC, LPC

Director, DDS Archive

From: The Diagnostic Drawing Series Network, on Yahoo Groups