Art Therapy and Faith Transitions: A Research Presentation and Art-making Experience

This original research study asked former Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Fundamentalist protestants, and members of other high-demand religious groups to share their stories through writing and artmaking. Using the Bridge Drawing, an established art therapy assessment tool for life transitions, this study elicited beautiful, heartbreaking, resonant, and salient insights into the faith transition experience. The participants’ artwork, written responses, and emergent themes from the study will be presented, afterwhich the audience will be invited to participate in artmaking about their own faith transition experiences. These artworks are intended to become part of a larger, ongoing faith-transition art project.

Summer Myers