The Search for The Art Therapy Method: One or Many?

Abstract

Art Therapy may be described as a therapeutic method that employs the use of “images” to facilitate “communication” in the therapeutic setting (Case & Dalley 1992). We may visualize an art therapy grid, where the image making process (the vertical axis) is facilitated in different ways, and the communication (the horizontal axis) moves along a continuum, from intra-psychic to interpersonal. This articulation makes the art therapy method very flexible, suitable to respond to different needs of the clients, through different interventions. In this presentation I illustrate three types of art therapy interventions, which I have carried out in different institutions: 1) A “non-directive” open studio; 2) A “structured” art therapy group 3) Short-term “Individual art therapy”. I intend to show how these interventions, which sound very different, share the essence of the “one” art therapy method, using images and communication at different levels, in the art therapy setting.