Dr. Unnur Óttarsdóttir has been invited, alongside respected art therapists, to speak at the World Art Therapy Conference 2025. She will present, 8th of February 2025, her research on memory and drawing. The potential of memory drawing, a technique developed by Óttarsdóttir, as a method for enhancing memory retention and supporting emotional well-being will be […]
Dr. Unnur Guðrún Óttarsdóttir, educator and art therapist, presents in an online webinar the lecture Enhancing Recall and Emotional Well-being Through Memory Drawing. The occasion is the findings of a memory drawing study recently published in the journal Education Sciences and in a book chapter released by Routledge. Dr. Óttarsdóttir’s research consisted of asking […]
The Faculty of Health, Business, and Natural Sciences at the University of Akureyri organized the Sjónaukinn conference, where Unnur presented a lecture titled "Joint Mirror Drawing to Facilitate Communication and Increase Well-being." The conference's theme was Innovation: Opportunities and Challenges. She shared the mirror drawing method's development, discovery, and application with the audience. At the […]
New research by Dr. Unnur Guðrún Óttarsdóttir on "Experiments on the Efficacy of Drawing for Memorization among Adults and Children with Varying Written Word Memory Capacities: A Two-Way Crossover Design," has been published in the "Education Sciences" journal (29 April 2024). For those who find it challenging to remember words, drawing them has been shown […]
Unnur participated in a conference about trauma and memory from an interdisciplinary perspective. The conference was hosted by the "London Center for Interdisciplinary Research." Unnur delivered the lecture "Memory Drawing for Children who Have Experienced Stress and/or Trauma and Have Specific Learning Difficulties" about her research on trauma, treatment, learning, and memory. She discussed how […]
Comprehensive studies show drawing facilitates memory, enhances learning and promotes well-being REYKJAVIK, Iceland, May 22, 2023 – Art Therapy Ottarsdottir, provider of a method where artistic expression is used for both therapy and education, today announced that its founder Dr. Unnur Ottarsdottir, a global pioneer of the art educational therapy method – was honored to […]
It was a pleasure to talk to Guðrún Gunnarsdóttir and Gunnar Hansson on the „Mannlega (e. Humanly) The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service last week. The introduction to the radio shows states: "Ottarsdottir’s 2000 study was the first comprehensive research project that systematically compared the impact of drawing and writing on memory functions. In short, the […]
Unnur gave the lecture "Non-verbal connection, communication, and mirroring through joint mirror drawing in art therapy and museums" at a conference in Riga that was about "Growing Together" and held at the Art Academy of Latvia by The European Federation of Art Therapy (EFAT). The lecture was about her "Reflection" artwork, which she has used […]
I had a great time in Vilnius last week where I attended the conference "MEMORY: Shaping Connections in the Arts Therapies". A variety of interesting topics were revealed at the conference, like how women e.g. in Africa, who have been abused, come together to embroider and tell their stories which empowers them so that they […]
This morning I gave the lecture "Art therapy and memory drawing for children who have specific learning difficulties and have been traumatized and/or experienced high stress" at Landspitali- The National University Hospital of Iceland, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (BUGL). Some of the participants were present and others took part online. It was really […]
Rán Jónsdóttir and Ólöf Benediktsdóttir and I opened the exhibition “Colourohm” in The Icelandic Printmakers Association gallery today. The topics of the exhibition are sound, colours and emotions. It was a pleasure to share my work “Coloured feelings“ with the audience, who added to the work through their participation, which included sharing feelings in colours. […]
With gratitude and sadness, I would like to report that my dear teacher, tutor and supervisor, Dr. Arthur Robbins, has passed away. Art was one of the pioneers of art therapy and he was a professor at the Pratt Institute where I completed a master's degree in art therapy. For over 30 years, he played […]
COMMON GOOD: DIALOGUE ON COMMUNITY ART Wednesday 16 March, 12 pm: free and open live stream with subtitles/interpretation followed by online discussion. Live stream The event is part of the collaborative project COMMON GOOD which is held by the Reykjavik Academy in conjunction with the Iceland University of the Arts, Reykjavik City Theatre, the City […]
This course is intended for qualified art therapists, art therapy students, and other qualified creative therapists from around the world. Through art making, sharing, supervision, discussions, reading, studying, and lectures the participants will gain knowledge about methods and theories of art educational therapy which includes the application of writing-images and memory-drawing. The course is for […]
This course is open to qualified Art Therapists and Art Therapy Trainees. Participants will gain knowledge about the basis of the methods and theories of memory drawing, which aids individuals in better memorising various facts related to their coursework learning. Memory drawing also facilitates processing of emotions in the same way as the art-making process […]
Memory. Unnur Ottarsdottir, 2020. (Photograph by Ottar Yngvason). Unnur Óttarsdóttir opens her exhibition Memory at tre Grafiksalur, Tryggvagata 17, Reykjavik, entrance at harbor side. The opening reception is on January 16th, 2-5pm. The exhibition runs until January 24th. The gallery is open from 2-5pm, Thursday–Sunday. Memory, memories and how fragile, abstract and unspoken memory can […]
Do you want to unleash the creativity within you and your clients? Do you want to understand how thoughts and emotions are expressed through art making? Do you want to know how you can increase strength and facilitate well-being through the process of making art? Do you want to increase your understanding of imagery and […]
Dr Unnur Ottarsdottir, art therapist, teacher and artist, will be hosting free webinars on “Processing Emotions and Memorising Coursework through Memory Drawing”, in which research findings about drawing and memory will be introduced. The webinars are open to everyone interested. The research was conducted by Ottarsdottir in two related parts. One hundred and thirty-four subjects […]
I gave a lecture on memory drawing at the 50th anniversary American Art Therapy Association Conference, 31st of October 2019, where I talked about my research on how effective drawing is for increasing memory and processing emotions. It was great to meet with so many art therapists from around the world, learn about their art […]
A quantitate and qualitative research into memory drawing conducted by Ottarsdottir in 2000 is the subject of this chapter. The study was the first comprehensive research that systematically compared the impact of drawing and writing on memory functions. The memory drawing study is therefore a milestone in the history of art therapy, education, psychology and psychotherapy. Memory drawing is […]
Celebrating 50 Years of Healing Through Art 30. október til 3. nóvember 2019 í Kansas City Marriott Downtown. Processing Emotions and Memorising Coursework through Memory Drawing Quantitative and qualitative research on ‘Memory Drawing’ (Ottarsdottir, 2018; in press) which was conducted in the year 1999-2000 (Ottarsdottir, 2005) will be reviewed in the presentation. Research about the […]
Children who had experienced stress and/or trauma and had specific learning difficulties were selected to participate in research investigating a therapeutic method comprising art therapy and education. Art Educational Therapy (AET) emerged through the research in which integrated emotional and intellectual processes are worked with simultaneously. Oli, who took part in the study, was depressed […]
Quantitative and qualitative research, into memory drawing, which was conducted in the year 2000, is reviewed in the article. The results of the quantitative research showed that drawing is effective for memorising. Nine weeks after the original memorisation the children recalled the median of five times more words that they had drawn than ones they had […]
In this chapter Unnur Óttarsdóttir explains how she used drawn diagrams in a research where the methodology of grounded theory was applied. The drawings were applied for: Creating concepts Creating in-depth understanding of phenomena Abstract description Examining the connection between phenomena, categories and concepts Building theories Facilitating creativity and intuition. Unnur Óttarsdottir (2013) Grunduð kenning og teiknaðar skýringarmyndir. (Grounded […]
