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HANA YAXA KWIATKOWSKA
Hana Yaxa Kwiatkowska (c. 1910- April 1, 1980 ) was a Polish award winning sculptor, author , professor , and the founder of family art therapy.

Life and Work
Hana Kwiatkowska gained much of her psychoanalytic and psychiatric training while she was in New York studying under Margret Naumburg, who is often referred to as one of the mothers of art therapy. Naumburg was one of the first major theoreticians of art therapy, naming her approach "dynamically oriented art therapy". Once Kwiatkowska had achieved a strong foundation for psychological theory and treatment she became interested in research of art of the mentally ill. Kwiatkowska established herself in the profession of art therapy through her vocational credentials. After studying, Kwiatkowska took a job at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington D.C. where she primarily worked with individuals who had schizophrenia. Kwiatkowska began work as an art therapist there; however, she had no official title, which allowed her the ability to design her own program. This freedom enabled Kwiatkowska to explore the influence of anti-psychotic medication on the artistic expression of patients with schizophrenia. Kwiatkowska’s research with art and schizophrenia began to get her recognized by many prominent organizations. This recognition led to her position with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which arguably is where her most significant contribution to the field of art therapy took place. NIHM gradually began to incorporate family therapy as a means for admission into the facility, so there began to be more family’s present on the ward. In several cases members of the family would request to see a family member’s artwork. Gradually, some family members sat in on an art therapy session and occasionally got involved with the art making process. Consequently the creation of family art therapy was an accident. Kwiatkowska leaned through trial and error what was successful or damaging to family interaction and therapeutic art making. Kwiatkowska discoveries lead to her ongoing development of a structured evaluative art procedure used specifically for families. The formulation of the family art therapy procedures stemmed from recurrent themes that a variety of families tended to create. She expanded on the themes to explore interaction and communication within the family. Kwiatkowskaidentified six art methods requested in the family evaluation, they are:


 * 1) A free picture.
 * 2) A picture of the family.
 * 3) An abstract family portrait.
 * 4) A picture started with the help of a scribble.
 * 5) A joint family scribble.
 * 6) A free picture.

After working at NIHM for fourteen years Kwiatkowska took a position at George Washington University as an art therapy professor in their graduate program and for a period of time Kwiatkowska flew internationally between Washington and Brazil to teach art therapy.

Books by Hana Kwiatkowska

 * “Family Therapy and Evaluation Through Art.”


 * "Art Therapy in the United States." Ulman, E., Kramer, E., & Kwiatkowska, H. Y. (1977). Art therapy in the United States. Craftsbury Common, VT: Art Therapy


 * Chapter in, "Art Therapy" entitles "Family art therapy: Experiments with a new technique." Kwiatkowska, H. Y. (1975). Family art therapy: Experiments with a new technique. In Ulman, E., Dachinger, P. (Eds.), Art Therapy (pp. 113-125). New York, NY: Schocken Books