Fostering the Five Principles of Healthy Aging in Group Expressive Arts Therapy for Seniors

This thesis explores the research question: How can expressive arts group therapy support seniors with healthy aging? For the purpose of this project, healthy aging is defined according to the United Nations’ (UN) five principles for older persons: participation, dignity, independence, care, and self-fulfillment. Second-person action research was applied during an eight-week expressive arts group therapy program for six seniors. Art-based qualitative feedback was collected to track how the participants experienced the principles of healthy aging from week to week and across the program. The findings demonstrate that seniors in expressive arts group therapy experienced high levels of the five principles for healthy aging with average scores ranging between 94% and 98% (n=5). From highest rated to lowest were participation, dignity, independence, care, and self-fulfillment. This thesis discusses the phenomena that contributed to fostering these principles including the participant recruitment process, art prompts and materials, studio space arrangement, facilitation techniques, and artist interactions. The discussion also considers ways to improve healthy aging outcomes in group art therapy with seniors.