Evidence-based practice and creative therapies: is it possible and do we need it?

Abstract

Dr Andrea Gilroy, an art therapist, educator and researcher from the Art Psychotherapy unit, University of London, Goldsmiths College, challenged the idea that quantitative research should be the dominant paradigm for research in the arts therapies. She acknowledged that in an age of dwindling resources, evaluating the efficacy of practice is important in order to give the best possible care to patients. She took issue, however, with the principles and assumptions of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and questioned their wholesale transfer to EBP in psychiatry, and hence to the arts therapies.