With reports of the incidence of child abuse in Britain increasing, art therapists are regularly coming into contact with children suffering from the resultant psychological trauma. A central issue is the right of children to be listened to and taken seriously when making allegations of abuse. To this end I explore the possibility of spontaneous art therapy images being used in the diagnosis of abuse and illustrate my hypotheses with images made by children I treated using art therapy. My findings are compared with those made by other clinicians, and I try to establish the important role art therapy plays in helping children explore their trauma, disclose their abuse and come to terms with their experience through visual expression.
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