Multicultural Family Art Therapy

How does the family art therapist understand the complexities of another’s cultural diversity? What are international family therapist’s perspectives on treatment? These questions and more are explored in Multicultural Family Art Therapy, a text that demonstrates how to practice psychotherapy within an ethnocultural and empathetic context. Each international author presents their clinical perspective and cultural family therapy narrative, thereby giving readers the structural framework they need to work successfully with clients with diverse ethnic backgrounds different from their own. A wide range of international contributors provide their perspectives on visual symbols and content from America, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, Israel, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Trinidad, Central America, and Brazil. They also address a diversity of theoretical orientations, including attachment, solution-focused, narrative, parent-child, and brief art therapy, and write about issues such as indigenous populations, immigration, acculturation, identity formation, and cultural isolation. At the core of this new text is the realization that family art therapy should address not only the diversity of theory, but also the diversity of international practice.

Whether working in urban areas with high levels of cultural diversity, providing art therapy to 'unique' populations such as prisoners or asylums seekers, or introducing art therapy programs to parts of the world in which it is not yet established, it is essential that therapists understand the importance of practicing in a culturally sensitive manner. This comprehensive book considers how culture impacts the practice of art therapy in a variety of settings. With contributions from experienced art therapists who have worked in diverse environments, this book attempts to understand and highlight the specific cultural, subcultural and ethnic influences that inform art therapy treatment. It addresses variable factors including setting, population, environment and ability, and how they influence art therapy approaches. It also considers how cultural differences can impact physical art making through choices of color, symbol and metaphor. Each chapter provides a framework showing how art therapy techniques have been used in order to successfully work with distinct populations. This book will provide practitioners with ideas for how to adapt art therapy training and approaches to suit the setting and meet the needs of a vast range of populations. Full of informative case studies, this book will be invaluable reading for art therapists and students of art therapy.

Family Art Therapy is designed to help the reader incorporate clinical art therapy intervention techniques into family therapy practice. Expressive modalities are often used in work with families, particularly visual art forms, and there is already considerable evidence and literature that point to a positive link between the two. This text is unique in that it draws together, for the first time in a single volume, an overview of the evolution of the theories and techniques from the major schools of classic family therapy, integrating them with practical clinical approaches from the field of art therapy.

An integrated guide to the entire range of clinical art therapy. Its scope is immense, covering every age range in a variety of settings from schools and outpatient clinics to psychiatric hospitals and private treatment. Of special value are the extensive case studies and 148 illustrations.

Professionals engaged in art therapy discuss aspects of practice which are affected by an environment of increasing cultural diversity. Some contributions examine problems faced by members of ethnic minorities who are caught between assertion of their cultural identities and assimilation into a different social milieu.

This volume describes art therapy interventions for particularly dysfunctional families and explains the connections between the process of creating art and the curative process in meeting these families' needs. The first chapter examines distressed family systems, and psychotherapy in relation to the uses of art therapy. Subsequent chapters present a crisis intervention model for family art therapy and demonstrate the applications of this model with single-parent families, families affcetd by alcoholism or sexual abuse, and families of political refugees and disaster victims. More than 70 samples of the art produced by these families are reproduced and analyzed.

This work reflects the author's three decades of clinical practice with children and their families, and adults and their families. Written for students and professionals, this book integrates the two approaches: art therapy and family systems. Although much has been written on art therapy and much, much more literature exists on family therapy, few integrate the two theoretical approaches. The structure of this book reflects the author's personal approach to art. Her art media are painting and combining found objects. The overall theme of family can quickly be seen within it, but this theme is overlaid with art, archetypal patterns and meanings, and symbolic enactments. It is also interfaced with personality development, and in this 'era of the brain,' with neurobiological research. The introduction begins with a brief introduction to Randy and his Dad and Stepmother. Chapter Two begins with the question: 'What is a family?' Chapter Three introduces the reader to the 'Cycle of Love' and the family influences in personality development, seen in personality theorists and theories (e.g., Freud, Jung, attachment and object relations, Eriksson, and Piaget). Stories about Michelle, Elizabeth, Tucker and Carl provide theoretical examples. Since more and more family therapy practice includes violence associated with the unfilled basic human needs of nourishment and nurturing, Chapter Four, 'The Cycle of Violence,' begins with a discussion of violence and its effect on early childhood environments. Chapter Five continues the theme of violence within families, and Chapter Six, 'The Cycle of Healing,' includes a discussion of resilience illustrated by a variety of stories from an integration of family and art therapy. Appendix A is filled with the practical 'how to's' of family art therapy. Appendix B includes the 'how to' interventions, and Appendix C includes key terms and concepts of a select group of family therapy theorists.