en خانواده و گروه درماني Family and group therapy پژوهشي Original Research Article <p style="text-align: justify"><b>Objective:</b> The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of expressive arts therapy on decreasing anxiety of orphaned girls living in family-like centers of Mashhad, Iran. </p> <div style="text-align: justify"><b>Methods:</b> One week prior to final examinations, participants were randomly assigned to either an expressive art-making group or a control group. The State-trait anxiety inventory was administered before and after participation. Expressive art making activities included painting or coloring predesigned Mandalas, free-form painting, collage making, still life drawing, and modeling with clay. </div> <div style="text-align: justify"><b>Results: </b>The mean state anxiety score between pre-activity and post-activity decreased significantly in the expressive art-making group, whereas no difference was found in the control group. Similarly, the mean trait anxiety score between pre- and post-activity in the artmaking group was significantly lower, and no difference was observed in the controls. </div> <div style="text-align: justify"><b>Conclusion:</b> These findings suggest that a brief period of expressive art making can significantly reduce a person’s state of anxiety, which may have implications for art and art therapy programs that offer methods for helping orphaned children coping with stress.</div> Expressive art group therapy, Anxiety, Orphaned children 109 116 http://jpcp.uswr.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-130-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Shiva Zarezadeh Kheibari شیوا زارع زاده خیبری No Department of Clinical Psychology, Semnan University دپارتمان روان شناسی بالینی دانشگاه سمنان Mohammad Ebrahim Hokm Abadi محمد ابراهیم حکم آبادی No Department of Clinical Psychology, Semnan University دپارتمان روان شناسی بالینی دانشگاه سمنان Ali Mohebi Anabat علی محبی No Department of Clinical Psychology, Semnan University دپارتمان روان شناسی بالینی دانشگاه سمنان Shima Shakiba شیما شکیبا No Assistant Professor, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Science Seyedeh Fatemeh Hosseini Largany سیده فاطمه حسینی لرگانی hosseini_largani@yahoo.com Yes Department of Clinical Psychology, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran. دپارتمان روان شناسی بالینی دانشگاه سمنان