7.6 Family Art Evaluation & Writing Art-Based Assessment Reports
Key Takeaways
- Kwiatkowska's Family Art Evaluation, developed at the National Institute of Mental Health, comprises six procedures: a free picture, a family portrait, an abstract family portrait, an individual scribble, a joint family scribble, and a final free picture.
- The joint family scribble is the procedural heart of the evaluation because it forces negotiation and makes alliances, deference, and control observable in real time.
- Landgarten's family art psychotherapy assigns each member a distinct marker color across a non-verbal team task, a non-verbal family task, and a verbal family task, so authorship and encroachment remain traceable.
- Assessment selection must follow a defined referral question, match the population, fall within the clinician's trained competence, and be linked explicitly to client goals.
- An art-based assessment report separates behavioral observation from interpretation, quotes the client verbatim, names every scoring system used, and discloses normative and situational limitations.
The Two Remaining Domain 3 Requirements
Beyond the named instruments, Domain 3 contains task bullets that are tested in their own right: determine the need for, select, and administer the appropriate art therapy and art-based assessment (linked to client goals) and write and evaluate art therapy and art-based assessment reports. The Family Art Evaluation is the last named instrument and is treated here alongside them, because family assessment is where selection, administration, and reporting most often go wrong at once.
The Family Art Evaluation
Developed by: Hanna Yaxa Kwiatkowska, working at the National Institute of Mental Health, initially with families of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia; her Family Therapy and Evaluation Through Art was published in 1978.
Administration: Ideally a single session with all available nuclear family members present, each with their own paper and materials at an easel or table, with the therapist observing seating, sequence, alliances, and verbal exchange throughout.
The six procedures, in order:
- A free picture — each member draws whatever they wish, establishing an individual baseline.
- A picture of the family — a representational family portrait.
- An abstract picture of the family — the same subject rendered non-representationally, which often produces the most revealing material because it bypasses literal depiction.
- A picture started with a scribble — each member individually creates a scribble and develops it.
- A joint family scribble — the family agrees on one scribble and develops it together on a shared surface.
- A final free picture — a closing individual drawing that shows the effect of the session.
The joint family scribble is the procedural heart of the evaluation: it forces negotiation, and the observable process — who proposes, who defers, who takes physical control of the paper, who withdraws — is data no individual drawing can provide.
Related Family Approaches
| Approach | Distinctive feature |
|---|---|
| Kwiatkowska, Family Art Evaluation | Six-procedure diagnostic sequence, individual then joint |
| Judith Rubin, family art evaluation | Emphasis on free-choice media and the family's spontaneous use of the studio |
| Helen Landgarten, family art psychotherapy | Three tasks: a non-verbal team task in pairs, a non-verbal whole-family task, and a verbal whole-family task, each with a different colored marker per member so authorship is traceable |
Landgarten's colored-marker device is worth remembering for the exam: assigning each member a distinct color makes contribution, encroachment, and erasure of another's marks immediately visible in the finished product.
Determining the Need for, and Selecting, an Assessment
An assessment is administered because a specific clinical question cannot be answered another way — never as a routine ritual and never because the therapist is curious.
| Step | Question to answer |
|---|---|
| 1. Define the referral question | What decision will this assessment inform? |
| 2. Check whether it is already answered | Do the chart, collateral reports, and existing testing already suffice? |
| 3. Match the instrument to the question | Transition → Bridge; stress and coping → DAP-R; developmental level → CATA or LECATA; structure tolerance → FSA; family process → Family Art Evaluation |
| 4. Check population fit | Age range, language, motor capacity, sensory needs, cultural appropriateness |
| 5. Check competence | Has the clinician been trained in this instrument's administration and scoring? |
| 6. Obtain informed consent | Purpose, procedure, who will see the results, and what will happen to the artwork |
| 7. Link explicitly to goals | The blueprint requires assessment selection to be tied to client goals |
[!WARNING] Administering a battery of projective drawings "to see what comes up," without a referral question and without consent covering how the results will be used, is a competence and ethics failure regardless of how skillfully the drawings are interpreted.
Writing the Art-Based Assessment Report
A usable report is written for its actual reader — a treatment team, a school, a court, a payer — and stays inside what the instrument can support.
Standard Structure
- Identifying information and referral question — who, when, why, and who requested it.
- Instruments administered, each with its full name, developer, and date of administration.
- Behavioral observations — how the client engaged with the task, materials, and clinician; latency, pace, affect, and verbalizations.
- Description of the artwork in formal, behavioral language — elements, composition, media handling — without interpretation at this stage.
- Client's own statements, quoted verbatim, about the work.
- Findings, including any formal scores with the scoring system named.
- Integration with history, collateral information, and other testing.
- Limitations and cautionary statement — normative base, cultural considerations, situational factors on the day, and the boundaries of what the findings support.
- Recommendations tied to the referral question.
- Signature, credentials, and date.
Language Discipline
| Write this | Not this |
|---|---|
| "The figure occupied approximately 10 percent of the page in the lower-left quadrant." | "The tiny, cowering figure reveals profound inadequacy." |
| "Client stated, 'That's my old house before we had to leave.'" | "The house symbolizes a lost sense of security." |
| "PPAT scored with the FEATS; Prominence of Color rated 1, Space rated 1." | "The FEATS indicates moderate depression." |
| "These findings are consistent with, but do not establish, …" | "These findings prove that …" |
| "Recommend re-administration in 12 weeks to assess change." | "Recommend the client be considered high-risk indefinitely." |
Evaluating a report — also a blueprint requirement — means checking that every conclusion is traceable to stated observations, that the instruments named were actually appropriate for the population, that limitations are disclosed, that the client's own words appear, and that no diagnostic or forensic claim exceeds the evidence.
Consent, Distribution, and Storage
The report is part of the clinical record. Releasing it outside the treatment team requires a valid, specific release of information, and any artwork images reproduced within it require the same authorization as the artwork itself. Originals are stored under the same retention and security rules as any other clinical record.
Which sequence correctly lists the six procedures of Kwiatkowska's Family Art Evaluation?
A new art therapist plans to administer four projective drawing tasks to every client at intake "to see what comes up." What is the principal problem?
Which statement belongs in the observations section of an art-based assessment report?
A family completes Landgarten's three-task family art psychotherapy assessment. What is the purpose of giving each family member a different colored marker?