Trauma Art Narrative Therapy (TANT)
Who?
· Anyone (children, teens, or adults) struggling with the impacts of minor, moderate, or significant traumatic events. These clients may be experiencing multiple symptoms, including those below:
Nightmares
Intrusive thoughts and/or memories
Emotional reactivity in response to trauma cues
What?
Trauma Art Narrative Therapy (TANT) is a highly structured cognitive exposure technique that incorporates art, written and spoken word to provide symptom resolution related to traumatic events. TANT training allows a therapist to guide a client step-by-step through piecing together difficult memories and experiences to allow the brain to better integrate the painful experience. No artistic ability is needed for this treatment, in fact, a lot of people draw stick figures!
Why?
Along with symptom resolution, TANT is a very helpful modality that allows the therapist to truly partner with the client in their healing journey so that they are not alone. This feeling of being “seen” is extremely potent in therapeutic healing. Additionally, this treatment can have a particularly powerful ability to heal and connect when children and teens are able to present their TANT series to their caregiver, if appropriate. This allows caregivers to “be there now” when they were potentially unable to be there in the past.