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 […]
