Text

The art therapy literature contains many case reports that point to the relevance of individual images during therapy. Their design, content and origin hold potential for insight that enables emotional and cognitive learning processes. However, there has been a lack of conceptual clarification of images that refer to a particular process of change and can thus be defined as turning point images. The aim of the study was to capture the characteristic features of turning point images in the context of art therapy from multiple perspectives to create an initial theoretical basis and model for capturing and describing image-related transformation processes. The data was based on five studies from Germany and Sweden, which examined change processes and inner transformation from various perspectives. The evaluation was based on a dimensional analysis of the central study content. Turning point images initiate, in the sense of a forerunner or pioneer, therapeutically relevant insight processes that stimulate a gradual structural change during therapy. Contradictory positions in the self-perception of patients can be resolved in the moment of lived insight in the turning point image, and novel perceptions can be assimilated into the self-image. The process of creating turning point images was accompanied by strong emotional involvement for patients; they experienced the turning point image as a core element of their development process, around which the entire course of therapy was built. Therapists can retrospectively identify turning point images within the image series, but they are more likely to recognize an acute inner change through verbal communication from the patients and outwardly visible change than through the images themselves. Knowledge of change has a direct influence on further intervention decisions. Therefore, image-related insight and change processes should be further researched in the context of art therapy education.