From gesture to meaning: art therapy, children’s drawing process, and emotional resilience—a phenomenologically informed psychological study
- 1Department of Fine Art and Design, Wenzhou University , , ,
Abstract
Children often struggle to verbalise difficult emotions, which makes therapeutic methods that support their emotional health and wellbeing particularly important. This study examined the relationship between art therapy, children's drawing processes, and emotional resilience from a phenomenologically oriented psychological perspective in China. The study aimed to understand children's experiences of drawing during art therapy and the role of these experiences in meaning-making and the development of resilience. A qualitative phenomenological design was used with 20 children (aged 8-12 years) who took part in a 10-week art therapy programme delivered across three settings. Data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, reflective dialogue, and analysis of 200 drawings, and were analysed following transcendental phenomenological procedure. Four interconnected themes emerged: Drawing as Emotional Externalisation, Symbolic Meaning-Making Through Visual Narratives, Transformation of Fear into Agency, and Emergence of Emotional Resilience and Future Orientation. Participants described drawing as a means of externalising difficult emotions, constructing personal meaning through symbols and stories, and developing a stronger sense of agency and coping. The findings suggest that art therapy can function as a developmental bridge connecting emotion and meaning, supporting children's experienced sense of resilience through emotional awareness, reflective understanding, and self-expression. As a qualitative study without a comparison group or independent outcome measures, the findings describe children's perceived and experienced changes rather than demonstrated therapeutic effects; with this caveat, the results carry exploratory implications for education, counselling, and therapeutic practice aimed at supporting children's psychological wellbeing.
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BibTeX
@article{sun2026from,
title = {{From gesture to meaning: art therapy, children’s drawing process, and emotional resilience—a phenomenologically informed psychological study}},
author = {Wenke Sun},
journal = {Frontiers in psychology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1940689},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13716618},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - From gesture to meaning: art therapy, children’s drawing process, and emotional resilience—a phenomenologically informed psychological study
AU - Wenke Sun
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
JO - Frontiers in psychology
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1940689
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13716618
AB - Children often struggle to verbalise difficult emotions, which makes therapeutic methods that support their emotional health and wellbeing particularly important. This study examined the relationship between art therapy, children's drawing processes, and emotional resilience from a phenomenologically oriented psychological perspective in China. The study aimed to understand children's experiences of drawing during art therapy and the role of these experiences in meaning-making and the development of resilience. A qualitative phenomenological design was used with 20 children (aged 8-12 years) who took part in a 10-week art therapy programme delivered across three settings. Data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, reflective dialogue, and analysis of 200 drawings, and were analysed following transcendental phenomenological procedure. Four interconnected themes emerged: Drawing as Emotional Externalisation, Symbolic Meaning-Making Through Visual Narratives, Transformation of Fear into Agency, and Emergence of Emotional Resilience and Future Orientation. Participants described drawing as a means of externalising difficult emotions, constructing personal meaning through symbols and stories, and developing a stronger sense of agency and coping. The findings suggest that art therapy can function as a developmental bridge connecting emotion and meaning, supporting children's experienced sense of resilience through emotional awareness, reflective understanding, and self-expression. As a qualitative study without a comparison group or independent outcome measures, the findings describe children's perceived and experienced changes rather than demonstrated therapeutic effects; with this caveat, the results carry exploratory implications for education, counselling, and therapeutic practice aimed at supporting children's psychological wellbeing.
SN - 1664-1078
ER -