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RESEARCH SUMMARY
I am pleased to present this research summary for the faculty's review. As you know from my previous correspondence with Pacific Western University, I became aware of this process, which I named Del Giacco's Art Therapy, during my recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI).
As time went on, I formed a not-for-profit agency. The agency's dual purpose was to educate the public and provide direct care with our therapy process. We also extended our services to include case management for our clients. As Executive Director of the Brain Trauma Art Therapy Recovery Center, I provided direct care to 250 clients. I also supervised a nurse, social worker, occupational therapist (OT), and an OT aide. The Brain Trauma Art Therapy Recovery Center also served more than 2,500 people annually as a referral and treatment service for the community.
Even though clients were in different places in their various developmental processes and neurological needs, I was able to identify three constant variables: their neurological-distress levels, their spatial recognition levels, and their cognitive functions. It became apparent to me that clients with high levels of neuro-distress also had very poor spatial recognition abilities. More often than not, the client's cognitive abilities were also affected. For example, if a TBI client was in a state of neurological distress, spatial recognition abilities faltered rendering the cognitive abilities unstable. Professionals often call this fatigue, but it feels much more like a state of crisis to the person that is experiencing it. I stood back from these observations and began to look at how spatial recognition could relate to cognitive functions.
If I were to be extremely analytical, I could state that everything in our environment that has been created by humans was first cognitively conceptual in nature. For instance, to create a simple chair, the inventor would first have an idea, perhaps create a dimensional analysis of that idea, and render a drawing. Next, the creator would find the correct materials, such as hardwood, softwood, glue, and vices and then form a decision and look at the monetary budget to purchase these items. Measuring, organizing, and planning all are involved with the birth of an "idea" to create the chair. The idea in and of itself is visual thinking, or a form of dimensional analysis, such as that required in the early stage of attention as stated by Glass and Holyoak in their book, Cognition. More interesting to me at this point in time is what Rudolf Arnheim, now a Harvard University Professor Emeritus of Psychology of Art, states in Visual Thinking: "A person who paints, writes, composes, dances, I felt compelled to say, thinks with his senses. The union of perception and thought turned out to be not merely a specialty of the arts. A review of what is known about perception and especially about sight, made me realize that the remarkable mechanisms by which the senses understand the environment are all but identical with the operations described by the psychology of thinking" (Preface V). As a result of my injury, I lost my higher abstract thought. I could not organize or plan. I had a poor attention span, and my temperament had a short fuse. My neuro-distress level was high. I had also lost my training to comprehend a three-dimensional plane. I had been a sculptor for 20 years; I was capable of mental rotation of an idea at will, often leisurely exploring the possibilities for creations long before I would create them. I could store ideas and go back to them years later when I was convinced I was ready to begin working on them. With my injury, all of that was lost. Determined to restore my abilities, I faithfully entered all therapies that were available for people with TBI; where they left me was not acceptable. I began to explore other modalities, hence the discovery of Del Giacco's Art Therapy.
I needed to speed up my motor and cognitive functions and regain my attention and organizational abilities. My physical therapist recommended that I utilize the video game Tetris to help regain my fine motor functions. But what she didn't realize was that the geometric shapes I used in the game to solve a logical problem every seven seconds were also affecting on my cognitive abilities. I found that when I played Tetris, I could think better for a time; when I left the game, I regressed. The next time, I would think better for a longer period of time. This was abstract logic that was "moving." I later referred to these stimuli as "mechanical" in nature to the rehabilitation process. Haier's disclosure was important to me, for not only was this process helping me to organized and plan but it was helping me to experience better memory. I later discovered that when a person is under stress for long periods of time (as I had been), the hippocampus actually shrinks. Haier's study showed that indeed the storehouse for short-term memory (the hippocampus) showed an 85% increase in function. Now it all started to make sense to me. Brain Power by Mark & Mark offered abstract drawings that were taken from cognitive training to help regenerate "attention." The circle was becoming complete. To have clarity of cognition, the brain would need to satisfy a basic need to comprehend shape. Of course children had to, why wouldn't a person who was injured? With this knowledge, I designed a program that first taught clients to understand that they were injured and had to monitor their ups and down. Since then, the term "neurological distress" was coined. When a client was experiencing a "down," it proved better to attempt more therapy after a rest period, similar to physical therapy. Closing the eyes and resting often helps to recharge the brain. It's really all a matter of common sense; good diet, healthy living quarters, and support systems all make for a more stable platform for maximum rehabilitation.
If I were to be extremely analytical, I could state that everything in our environment that has been created by humans was first cognitively conceptual in nature. For instance, to create a simple chair, the inventor would first have an idea, perhaps create a dimensional analysis of that idea, and render a drawing. Next, the creator would find the correct materials, such as hardwood, softwood, glue, and vices and then form a decision and look at the monetary budget to purchase these items. Measuring, organizing, and planning all are involved with the birth of an "idea" to create the chair. The idea in and of itself is visual thinking, or a form of dimensional analysis, such as that required in the early stage of attention as stated by Glass and Holyoak in their book, Cognition. More interesting to me at this point in time is what Rudolf Arnheim, now a Harvard University Professor Emeritus of Psychology of Art, states in Visual Thinking: "A person who paints, writes, composes, dances, I felt compelled to say, thinks with his senses. The union of perception and thought turned out to be not merely a specialty of the arts. A review of what is known about perception and especially about sight, made me realize that the remarkable mechanisms by which the senses understand the environment are all but identical with the operations described by the psychology of thinking" (Preface V). As a result of my injury, I lost my higher abstract thought. I could not organize or plan. I had a poor attention span, and my temperament had a short fuse. My neuro-distress level was high. I had also lost my training to comprehend a three-dimensional plane. I had been a sculptor for 20 years; I was capable of mental rotation of an idea at will, often leisurely exploring the possibilities for creations long before I would create them. I could store ideas and go back to them years later when I was convinced I was ready to begin working on them. With my injury, all of that was lost. Determined to restore my abilities, I faithfully entered all therapies that were available for people with TBI; where they left me was not acceptable. I began to explore other modalities, hence the discovery of Del Giacco's Art Therapy.
I needed to speed up my motor and cognitive functions and regain my attention and organizational abilities. My physical therapist recommended that I utilize the video game Tetris to help regain my fine motor functions. But what she didn't realize was that the geometric shapes I used in the game to solve a logical problem every seven seconds were also affecting on my cognitive abilities. I found that when I played Tetris, I could think better for a time; when I left the game, I regressed. The next time, I would think better for a longer period of time. This was abstract logic that was "moving." I later referred to these stimuli as "mechanical" in nature to the rehabilitation process. Haier's disclosure was important to me, for not only was this process helping me to organized and plan but it was helping me to experience better memory. I later discovered that when a person is under stress for long periods of time (as I had been), the hippocampus actually shrinks. Haier's study showed that indeed the storehouse for short-term memory (the hippocampus) showed an 85% increase in function. Now it all started to make sense to me. Brain Power by Mark & Mark offered abstract drawings that were taken from cognitive training to help regenerate "attention." The circle was becoming complete. To have clarity of cognition, the brain would need to satisfy a basic need to comprehend shape. Of course children had to, why wouldn't a person who was injured? With this knowledge, I designed a program that first taught clients to understand that they were injured and had to monitor their ups and down. Since then, the term "neurological distress" was coined. When a client was experiencing a "down," it proved better to attempt more therapy after a rest period, similar to physical therapy. Closing the eyes and resting often helps to recharge the brain. It's really all a matter of common sense; good diet, healthy living quarters, and support systems all make for a more stable platform for maximum rehabilitation.