Little Windows Into Art Therapy

Drawing on her own development as an art therapist and her extensive experience of supervising new therapists and students, Schroder provides practical advice on encouraging nervous or reluctant clients, or those unfamiliar with art therapy, to benefit from artmaking. She argues for a two-way sharing of art between therapist and client.

This is not a "how-to" book but rather about the "experience" of becoming an art therapist. The text covers issues in supervision and mentorship, contains stories by art therapy students about what they are thinking and feeling, and letters to young art therapists by highly regarded professionals in the field. The reader has the advantage of ideas and responses from both a student art therapist and an art therapist with many years' experience and is clearly intended for students aiming for a career. Chapter 1 is about students as a secret society and the importance of student colleagues. The second chapter is a short history of art therapy education, while Chapter 3 is a review of some literature potentially useful to art therapy students. Chapter 4 represents Kim Newall's journal with imagery of her internship experience as a third-year graduate student in a community clinic. For Chapter 5, art therapy graduate students in various geographical sections of the United States describe their worst and best student experiences and their most important role models. Chapter 6 is about mentoring–what it is and why an art therapist should have a mentor. In Chapter 7, twelve senior art therapists, each with many years' experience, write a personal letter to the coming generations of art therapists. The letter writers are all pioneers in the field. Finally, Chapter 8 offers a selected art therapy bibliography. This extraordinary book conveys the message "you can do this and it's worth it." The text is a much needed contribution to the field of art therapy. Students for many semesters to come will be reassured, validated, and informed. Experienced art therapists will ford valuable perspectives on supervision, teaching, and mentorship.

The Art of Art Therapy is written primarily to help art therapists define and then refine a way of thinking about their work. This new edition invites the reader to first consider closely the main elements of the discipline embodied in its name: The Art Part and The Therapy Part. The interface helps readers put the two together in an integrated, artistic way, followed by chapters on Applications and Related Service. Included with this edition is a DVD containing two hours of chapter-related video content.

Foundations of Art Therapy: Theory and Applications is an essential and comprehensive introduction to art therapy research and practice that blends relevant psychological and neuroscience research, theories and concepts and infuses cultural diversity throughout each chapter. The book is divided into four parts that start with the foundations of art therapy knowledge and ends with professional practices in art therapy. Readers will learn about the fundamentals of art therapy, founders, materials, multicultural perspectives, intersections with neuroscience, theoretical approaches, art therapy and the brain, the self and the community, with specific populations (children, mental health, older adults, and trauma). The book concludes with professional practices in art therapy by exploring group concepts, community-based art therapy, and how to develop a career in art therapy. Each chapter contains practical applications, ethical scope of practice, reflection questions, and experiential exercises. This unique, practical and interdisciplinary approach provides a solid base for understanding the field of art therapy and therefore is a significant contribution to the field.

Focusing provides an effective way of listening to the innate wisdom of the body, while art therapy harnesses and activates creative intelligence. Focusing-Oriented Art Therapy: Accessing the Body's Wisdom and Creative Intelligence is a ground-breaking book integrating renowned psychologist Eugene Gendlin's Focusing with art therapy. This new, Focusing-based approach to art therapy helps clients to befriend their inner experience, access healing imagery from the body's felt sense to express in art, and carry forward implicit steps that lead toward change. Written for readers to be able to learn the application of this innovative approach, the book provides in-depth examples and descriptions of how to adapt Focusing-Oriented Art Therapy to a wide variety of clinical populations including individuals and groups with severe psychiatric illness, trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and more, as well as applications to private practice, illness and wellness, spirituality, and self-care. Integrating theory, clinical practice, and numerous guided exercises, this accessible book will enhance clinical sensitivity and skill, while adding resources for bringing creativity into practice. It will be of interest to art therapists, Focusing therapists, psychologists, counselors and social workers, as well as trainers and students.

Part III, on "Expansion," is composed of AATA Honorary Life Members who began their art therapy careers in the 1970s. During this period, art therapy training programs proliferated, so that some benefited from newly-established formal art therapy education. Others had been working in related areas, such as art and psychology, and moved into art therapy in the early 1970s. In their various venues of influence, the authors presented here are highly accomplished visionaries whose dedication to the development of art therapy has been remarkable. Through their chapters, these "architects of art therapy" chart the development of an important mental health profession; they serve as an inspiration for those involved in art therapy today and for generations of art therapists to come."--BOOK JACKET.

Arguing that the profession of art therapy has its roots in the studio environment, Catherine Moon proposes that it is now time to reclaim these roots, and make art once again central to art therapy. She suggests that there has been a tendency for art therapy not merely to interact with and be enriched by other perspectives - psychological, social, anthropological and transpersonal - but to be subsumed by them. For this reason she makes a clear distinction between using art in one's practice of therapy, and working from an art-based model. This book presents a model of art therapy where the products and processes of art constitute the core of the model, rather than serving as the impetus for adaptations of other theories of counselling or therapy. It addresses how an arts-based approach can inform the therapist in all aspects of practice, from the conception of the work and the attempt to understand client needs to interacting with clients and communicating with others about the profession of art therapy. Integrated into the book are stories about the work of art therapists, art therapy students and those who seek help in art therapy, presenting the theory behind studio art therapy and bringing it to life. Moon believes that the arts have something unique to offer to the therapeutic process which distinguish the arts therapies from other therapeutic professions. This book is a comprehensive and engaging exploration of the possibilities inherent in the therapeutic use of the arts.

one of very few books that deal with the electronic media in art therapy editor and contributors are top scholars in the field