Art Therapy Workshop as an Offer for a Young Educator: From the Perspective of an Art Therapist/Theater Therapist

Today’s educators experience more anxiety, stress and burnout than ever before, which is why there is growing interest of this professional group in art therapy projects that focus on supporting the development of personal and interpersonal skills. Art workshops are in demand in particular among education students, who experience a certain range of emotional stress when they encounter things that astonish them and cause an invigorating shock. Thus, they can understand how to deal with various emotions, both their own and other people’s especially when they have deficiencies in this field and they are seeking improvement. As a result, students—future teachers—become more aware of their own strengths and weaknesses and more actively manage their well-being and commitment to self development.

Chains of art offer connection and care

Art Therapist Tova Speter shares a sample from Translations: connected art reflecting empathy (c.a.r.e.), a creative example of how engagement in a collaborative art experience can help people feel connected despite being physically isolated. This community art experience was launched in response to the isolating effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Over 100 artists participated in nineteen chains of six linked artistic expressions translating the words of the community through art. The six links in each chain offered a creative way to connect, which offset the 6 feet of physical distance we were advised to keep from each other in order to care for each other. This project highlights how art can hold and communicate intention and feeling across modalities as it offers connection and inspiration to a wide audience.

The pandemic and children's wellbeing

As a qualified art therapist working in Hertford and Cambridgeshire schools, I have seen firsthand the impact the pandemic is having on children and young people's mental health and wellbeing.

Relationships Between the Therapeutic Alliance and Reactions to Artistic Experience With Art Materials in an Art Therapy Simulation

In art therapy, art-making plays an important role in the therapeutic relationship. To better understand the triangular relationship between the art therapist, the client and the artwork, this study investigated the association between the therapeutic alliance and reactions to artistic experiences with art materials in an art therapy simulation. The simulation consisted of a series of 6–8 sessions in which art therapy students were divided into teams composed of a permanent observer (art therapist) and creator (client). The client's role was to self-explore through art- making, and the art therapist's role was to accompany the client. Thirty-four students, all women, who played the art therapist role, and 37 students (one male) who played the client participated in the study. Of these participants, there were 24 pairs where both participants filled out all the questionnaires. A short version of the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) was completed by the clients and the art therapists on the second session (T1) and on the penultimate session (T2). The clients also completed the Art-Based Intervention Questionnaire (ABI) at T2. Significant positive correlations were found between indices of the WAI for the art therapist and the client and the clients' reactions to the artistic experience with art materials on the ABI. The evaluation of the emotional bond between the art therapist and the client at the start of the simulation significantly predicted the client's reactions to the artistic experience with art materials at the end of the simulation and explained 45.4% of the variance for this variable. These findings highlight factors related to the development and influence of the therapeutic alliance, as well as the role of the artistic experience in art therapy and lay the groundwork for further research.

Navigating Privilege and Colorism

Discussions about cultural responsiveness for mental health practitioners often perpetuate colonizing frameworks. By centering White therapists’ awareness of power and privilege when working with people of color, dominant paradigms in the field can overlook the experiences of practitioners of color and the relational dynamics of engaging shared racial/cultural backgrounds. Interrogations of Whiteness are necessary to prevent harm in the predominantly White fields of the creative arts therapies, yet this discussion should not overshadow discussions about the experiences of practitioners of color who encounter issues of colorism and citizenship in working with communities of color. This self-reflexive essay describes how a Black Dominican-Haitian woman art therapist, who was raised in the United States (U.S.), recognized a need to explore her own political awareness while working with female participants at a youth organization in the Dominican Republic (D.R.). The author discusses the use of art to critically interrogate issues of colorism, citizenship, and privilege that arise during her time in the D.R. Recommendations are presented to support arts therapists of color to engage their perceptions of citizenship and colorism while providing mental health services to communities of color.

What are You All Going to Do to Keep Black Women in Art Therapy?

In this viewpoint, the authors describe their impressions of a 2018 conference and the significance of participating in a learning environment that centered on arts therapists of color. Collectively, two art therapy educators, a music therapy educator, one new professional art therapist, and one art therapy graduate student, question the maintenance of professional norms that have at times motivated BIPOC students and practitioners to leave the creative arts therapies in search of other professional places to thrive. The article concludes with a Womanist Manifesto for Arts Therapies Education.