Exploring the potential of AI-assisted self-representations in identity-focused art therapy

Abstract

Aim: Generative text-to-image technologies offer new opportunities for individuals to visually articulate internal experiences. While traditional artistic self-portraiture has been extensively associated with self-insight, its AI-assisted equivalent remains underexplored. This study investigates the experiential and assessment potential of AI-generated self-representations and assesses their applicability within contemporary digital mental health frameworks.

Methods: Five participants (aged 18–58) engaged in a 45-minute image generation session using Midjourney, producing approximately 500 images. This was followed by semi-structured interviews analyzed via interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). This study is idiographic and exploratory, drawing on the principles of IPA. Our aim is an in-depth explication of lived experience and shared experiential layers across cases. The findings should therefore be read as hypothesis-generating and as groundwork for future, larger-scale and mixed-methods evaluations and potential telepsychology integrations.

Results: Three group experiential themes: (1) images as functional tools (e.g., as sources of comfort or aspirational vision boards); (2) self-reflective space (facilitating spontaneous self-disclosure and novel insight); and (3) modalities of self-definition (symbolic representation and narrative arc). Participants described the process as highly engaging and reported enhanced self-efficacy.

Conclusions: AI-assisted image generation presents a flexible and user-centered modality for psychological reflection, with potential to augment art- and narrative-based therapeutic interventions. Ethical measures (e.g., anonymized data handling, withdrawal options) proved viable. Further research should explore larger, diverse samples and examine integration within telepsychology platforms to assess clinical utility.

Keywords

artificial intelligence / art therapy / self-representation / narrative identity

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