Dealing with opposites as a mechanism of change in art therapy in personality disorders: A mixed methods study.

Integration of conflicting emotions, behaviors, and thoughts were promoted by the explicit use of opposites and supporting coherent representation. Practice based recommendations are therefore to make more explicit use of dealing with opposites as a theme in art therapy. Also, we recommend more research on different mechanisms of change to refine the theory of change that provides an underpinning rationale and structure for art therapy. The results of this research should be regarded as exploratory given the small sample size and limited amount of therapy sessions.