Field Notes: Trends in Art Therapy
Art therapy has been a part of our children’s services for a number of years. This year, our art therapy programming will be headed by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), one of fifteen 2007-2008 interns with the Children’s Intervention Program and a graduate student of Art Therapy and Counseling at Prescott College (Prescott, Arizona). According to Claire, “there are three broad trends in the art therapy discipline.”
The American Art Therapy Association describes art therapy as “an established mental health profession that uses the creative process of art-making to improve and enhance the physical, mental and emotional well-being of individuals of all ages. It is based on the belief that the creative process involved in artistic self-expression helps people to resolve conflicts and problems, develop interpersonal skills, manage behavior, reduce stress, increase self-esteem and self-awareness, and achieve insight. Art therapy integrates the fields of human development, visual art (drawing, painting, sculpture, and other art forms), and the creative process with models of counseling and psychotherapy.”
As recently as a decade ago, art therapists interpreted client creations following a psychodynamic approach with limited or no involvement by the author. The therapists would assess the work against their own theoretical backgrounds. “The current humanistic approach values the uniqueness of the individual creating the artwork,” Claire said. “The client herself explains or interprets her creation.”
Another shift in art therapy has been from directive-based to client-driven approaches. “Typically, the therapist would come to the session with an assignment for the client: let’s draw a family at home, for example. The current trend is to let the client create whatever he wants. The therapist can participate in the creative process, but it is always the client who leads the creation.” The third major trend has been toward incorporating spiritual elements into therapy.
Asked where her interests within the art therapy field are, Claire said, “I’m interested in multimodal approaches. I went to a workshop where I first created a doll, then wrote a fairy tale featuring the doll, and finally I acted out the fairy tale. So you could say I prefer the middle of the road between directive-based and client-driven approaches. A loose structure, if you will.” Claire also wants to focus on painting, both through “witness writing”, in which the client paints a piece and then writes about what she painted, and through “open studio”, where clients can come to paint and, if they wish, share their experiences and interpret their work. Reflecting on the upcoming year, Claire said, “because of my specialization and affiliation with a low-residence college, it took me a long time to find this internship. I’m very excited about this year.”
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Director of Development and Communications
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Champion eNewsletter 1.1 (July 2007): More stories
