Creative Arts Therapy

Just as a child’s neurodevelopment becomes more sophisticated with life experience, somatic psychotherapy and dance/movement therapy, now in their eighth decade, are approaching a more intricate stage of growth. As each discipline grows in complexity, conflicts have risen regarding the concept of identity. The recent debate of whether dance/movement therapy is one of the somatic psychotherapies or its own discipline is a necessary and exciting “growing pain” in the evolution of embodied psychotherapy practices. This paper provides a historic overview and uses a systems theory framework to compare the disciplines with data derived from original and recent literature. Practices, education, and governance of each discipline are presented as they exist in the United States. Findings illustrate the comparison and offer clarity on the current trend toward integration. Suggestions are made for further critical thinking to develop awareness toward an evolved perspective of embodied psychotherapy practices.

Anormal Psikoloji kitabı, ruhsal bozukluklar alanında çalışan tüm profesyoneller, psikiyatristler, klinik psikologlar, psikologlar, psikolojik danışmanlar, hekimler, sosyal hizmet uzmanları, psikiyatri hemşireleri ve bu alanlarda öğrenci yetiştiren akademisyenler ile eğitim alan öğrenciler için temel bir başvuru kitabıdır.
2013 yılının Mayısı ayında yayımlanan DSM-5 ölçütlerine göre ruhsal bozukluklarla ilgili sunulan bilgilerin güncellemesinin de yapıldığı bu kitap, tüm dünyada pek çok üniversitenin psikiyatri ve psikoloji bölümlerinde ders kitabı olarak okutulmaktadır.
Kitabın her bölümünde, ilk olarak ruhsal bozukluklarla ilgili vakalar sunulmakta, daha sonra bozuklukların klinik tanıları yapılmakta ve DSM-IV-TR’den farklı olan DSM-5’te yapılan değişikliklere yer verilmektedir. Ayrıca, DSM-5’teki tanı ölçütleri, bozuklukların etiyolojisi ve epidemiyolojisi, bozukluklar üzerinde kalıtımın ve çevrenin etkileri, biyolojik ve sosyal ve kültürel etkiler, en güncel araştırmalardan elde edilen verilerle harmanlanarak sunulmaktadır. Ruhsal bozuklukların tedavisinde etkili olacak terapi yaklaşımları ve ilaçla yapılan tedaviler hakkında da bilgiler veren kitap, sahip olduğu zengin içeriği ile eşsiz bir kaynaktır.
Anormal Psikoloji kitabının; profesyoneller ve öğrenciler için önemli bir rehber olacağına, yardıma ihtiyaç duyan insanların sorunlarının çözümüne, ruhsal bozuklukların tanı ve tedavisinde önemli katkılar sağlayacağına inanıyoruz.

This article describes how a fine art teacher, an art therapist, and a social worker analyzed art works created by students taking an art course in a masters-level social work degree program. The premise of this research is that the fine art teacher, the art therapist , and the social worker hold different perspectives about art in general, and including art produced by students in this course. The three different visualizations expressed by our subjects about the art works are then broken down and compared. Our assumption is that we will find different understandings of the art based on understandings about relationships between technique, composition, content, process, and artist intentions. These visualizations intersect and thus help to redefine the role of the art as well as offering important connections between social practice and the arts.

Our journey through life is encoded in our bodies just as the rings of a tree encode the life-story of that tree. If we grow up in an emotionally supportive environment our posture will be secure, our movements fluid, and our speech expressive. We will also be at ease with our bodies, and enjoy an open connection between body and psyche.

If we grow up in the wake of emotional trauma, it is a different story. Our bodies take on the postures, movements, and ways of speaking that seem to offer us protection: we may puff ourselves up or make ourselves small, overeat or starve, yell or stutter. Once established, these bodily defences limit our experience of ourselves and the world. Additionally, they often create painful physical symptoms.

Equally damaging is the disembodiment that accompanies childhood trauma. Emotions are primarily bodily responses, so by cutting off from our bodies we can distance ourselves from unbearable pain. We are not necessarily conscious of our disembodiment, but there are consequences. We cannot pick up the subtle feelings that reflect our bodies' emotional states and which could act as a compass during life. We have little access to the images that arise in our bodies which could help to guide our journey. We see our bodies as objects and tend to blame at least some of our pain on their imagined inadequacy.

Healing trauma requires that we work directly with our bodies to release what they hold, and forge the connections between body and psyche that will enable us to live an embodied life. There are many creative ways to do this work, including authentic movement, voice-work, yoga and working with masks.

Vortrag vom 06. Dezember 2017, am Bezirkskrankenhaus Bayreuth

Anhand der künstlerischen Arbeiten einer Traumapatientin unternommene philosophische Wanderung. Von der Oberfläche her werden Themenkomplexe wie "Leibselbst", "das Böse" und "das Fremde" im Kontext des künstlerisch-therapeutischen Prozesses der Patientin betrachtet

Many descriptions are used to describe the therapeutic relationship between art therapist and client. "The term creative arts therapy refers to an arts-based therapy performed by a creative arts therapist who is credentialed under the auspices of the national organization representing that treatment modality. A creative arts therapist demonstrates aesthetic competencies in his or her respective arts modality and has received education and training in that art form before entering into the study and clinical training in one of the creative arts therapies." These can include arts therapies, expressive arts therapies, therapeutic arts, creative arts therapy (or in therapy), expressive therapies, and art psychotherapy (Micozzi 2011: 177-178). Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses art media as its primary mode of communication. Clients who are referred to an art therapist need not have experience or skill in art. The art therapist is not primarily concerned with making an aesthetic or diagnostic assessment of the client's image. The overall aim of its practitioners is to enable a client to change and grow on a personal level through the use of art materials in a safe and facilitating environment (The British Association of Art therapists 2017).

Chanting is a form of rhythmic, repetitive vocalization practiced in a wide range of cultures. It is used in spiritual practice to strengthen community, heal illness, and overcome psychological and emotional difficulties. In many traditions, chanting is used to induce mystical states, an altered state of consciousness characterised by a profound sense of peace. Despite the global prevalence of chanting, its psychological effects are poorly understood. This investigation examined the psychological and contextual factors associated with mystical states during chanting. Data were analyzed from 464 participants across 33 countries who regularly engaged in chanting. Results showed that 60% of participants experienced mystical states during chanting. Absorption, altruism, and religiosity were higher among people who reported mystical states while chanting compared to those who did not report mystical states. There was no difference in mystical experience scores between vocal, silent, grou...

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The stigma, misconceptions, and "tough it out" atttitude torwards trauma-related disorders has inspired the development of this document/digital zine, and why the first issue of Modern Minds has been dedicated to concepts relating to PTSD. I hope through the dissemination of this free magazine to broaden the definition of & destigmatize trauma-related 'disorders', encourage others to think critically & promote self-care wherby being kind to ourselves helps us to be kind to all.

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF -- TOC and book intro in downloadable .pdf] 

"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it." --John Steinbeck Scientific research confirms what people have always known: answers, ideas, and inspiration do come to us in dreams. Harvard psychologist and world-renowned dream specialist Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., offers this rich collection of examples of how the world's most creative practitioners in art, music, film, science, literature and other fields have used the revelations of their dream life to inform their work. Dr. Barrett offers insights showing us how to encourage lucid, meaningful dreaming, and how to apply the meanings of our dreams to solving problems--from the everyday to the extraordinary. This is the stuff dreams are made of. In the visual arts, Jasper Johns couldn't find his unique artistic vision until he dreamed it in the form of a large American flag. Salvador Dali and his colleagues built the startling new genre of surrealism out of dreams. Kubla Kahn dreamed the design for his stately pleasure dome; thousands of years later, Lucy Davis, chief architect at a major firm, continues the tradition of dreaming designs into life in her extraordinary buildings. Film is a fertile avenue for dreams: "Twice I have transferred dreams to film exactly as I had dreamed them," confides director Ingmar Bergman, as have Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Altman, and John Sayles. From Mary Shelley's terrible nightmare, which became Frankenstein, to Stephen King's haunting dream as a little boy, which led to his first bestseller, countless writers have consulted the Committee. Musicians from Beethoven to Billy Joel and Paul McCartney have whistled the Committee's tunes. In science, physiologist Otto Loewi dreamed the medical experiment that earned him the Nobel Prize. In sports, Marion Jones dreamed she'd broken a world record, then brought the dream to life. Gandhi translated his dream of resistance into a movement that changed the world. Since Freud, we take it for granted that our dreams reflect our past. In The Committee of Sleep, Barrett reveals how dreams can also tell us about our future potential--and how to reach it.

This paper explores the literature regarding the financial dilemmas involved in being a professional art therapist and counselor. Among the sources reviewed were two textbooks: Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions, 9th ed., (Corey, Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2015), and Ethical Issues in Art Therapy, 3rd ed., (Moon, 2015); two edited books compiling essays by several authorities in the fields of psychoanalysis and finance: The LA$T Taboo, (Krueger, Ed., 1986), and Money Talks, (Berger & Newman, Eds., 2012); and numerous scholarly articles regarding various aspects of financial decision making in the business of being a mental health provider. The literature explores how money influences the therapeutic relationship, enumerates some of the conflicts that arise, and conveys the pragmatic, yet often emotionally charged, choices that both clients and therapists must make in the course of treatment. It examines discrete meanings money may have to both client and therapist, both in similar and in different cultural contexts, and the importance of identifying those meanings. The current economic climate is addressed and how it may influence financial decisions. The overall conclusion drawn from the literature is that regardless of the financial options chosen, clear and concise communication regarding the details of those financial arrangements will ameliorate ethical dilemmas and support better therapeutic outcomes for the client and stronger financial stability for the therapist.

Core of the dissertation is a phenomenological study which examines the connection between aesthetic actions and the therapeutic relationship in art therapy. The theoretical reference points of the study are the philosophy of aesthetics and the philosophy of dialogue.
The study is based on nine narrative interviews with therapists. The interviews were qualitatively evaluated using the research methodology of the Grounded Theory. Four key categories could be generated which describe different sequences from the therapeutic process as aesthetic figures:
- Dance-like interactions which refer to the awareness of proximity and distance as well as to the spatial and dynamic conditions of art therapy.
- Music-like interactions which describe the subtle coordination of interactions between therapist and patient.
- Symbol-like interactions which concern the subject of the interactions in therapy: a story, a melody, a painting or a performance.
- Poetry-like interactions which concern those moments in therapy in which abruptly something new and unforeseen appears.
The study is integrating these aesthetic dimensions of therapeutic interactions into a phenomenology of the therapeutic relationship and is validating them as efficiently and relevant in therapy.

This chapter provides an introduction to collaborative creative arts therapies practice with clients who identify as gender and sexually diverse identities. Its objective is to examine gender identity and sexual orientation in the context of interdisciplinary therapeutic work in a community-based setting in Scotland. The authors will particularly focus on art and movement interventions, contributing relevant themes in working with clients who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or related identities (LGBT+).

The chapter reviews current research on art therapy and dance movement therapy with LGBT+ clients, identifying gaps and opportunities for further research. It follows with an exploration of the external/internal self, LGBT+ visibility and identity as key thematic areas for creative work in relation to mental health. Finally, the authors examine a case example of collaborative creative arts workshops focusing on skin as a barrier, which serves to protect, expose and transform internal and external aspects of our identity.

The authors explore interdisciplinary arts practice with a client group that has been historically marginalised and has limited representation in creative arts therapy research. It presents an affirmative stance in creating constructive experiences of therapy for LGBT+ clients, and the opportunities offered by an integration of movement and art.

Reference:
Acarón, Thania, and Alison Wren. 2019. “Under the Skin: Barriers and Opportunities for Dance Movement Therapy & Art Psychotherapy with LGBT+ Clients.” In Gender and Difference in the Arts Therapies: Inscribed on the Body, edited by Susan Hogan, 24–35. London and New York: Routledge.

[Punitive] perspectives on artistic education and aesthetic knowing in classrooms void of creative expression. And how to get it back.
(A critique and response to the question:
What impact would art education have on creative cognition in both students’ ability to problem solve and on teachers’ ability to teach with passion as co-learners?)

In response to global concerns about university students’ mental health, various whole-of-institution strategies have been developed to enhance students’ resilience and wellbeing. These strategies are essential for students who have experienced national and international challenges to their wellbeing, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these approaches do not always consider the unique challenges that undergraduate students from specific study areas experience, nor the unique strengths they can adapt to mitigate these challenges. To contribute original knowledge to the growing evidence-based approaches that promote student mental health, this research explored the wellbeing of an undergraduate student group that has not yet been comprehensively researched for this purpose: visual art students in Australian universities. Additionally, this research sought to understand visual art students’ opinions on how to foster student resilience and wellbeing while they are enrolled in Australian art courses.

Revealing a substantial amount of evidence hitherto missed by pertinent literature reviews, this article sets out to offer a critical appraisal of the empirical research literature on the contributions arts-based programmes may make to the process of desistance from crime. The article begins by focusing on evaluations of arts-based programmes run by practitioners inside prisons, and their effects in terms of three sets of developments that are thought to advance desistance: psychological and attitudinal changes; increased learning capacity and motivations; and social skills building. Our appraisal then proceeds to address the effects of arts-based prison programmes after participants’ release into the community; a theme that has received very limited research attention to date, and even less attention in extant literature reviews. In the next section of the article, we briefly discuss our own evaluation of an arts-based programme that is aimed at prolonging and enhancing desistance through providing former prisoners with opportunities to continue engaging with the arts after release. We conclude with a few short remarks as to the lessons that can be drawn from this article for the design of arts-based programmes in the field of criminal justice.

Die beispiellose Zunahme von Bildern und ihre globale Verbreitung in den letzten Jahrzehnten hat auf die Frage, wie Bilder entstehen, wie sie Bedeutung erlangen und wie sie wirken, ein neues Licht geworfen. Insofern das Bild zentrales Medium der Kunsttherapie ist, hat sie die Aufgabe und Verantwortung, Voraussetzungen für einen reflektierten Umgang mit Bildern zu schaffen. Aus einer interdisziplinären Orientierung heraus werden in diesem Band unterschiedliche Vorgehensweisen des Bildgebrauchs und ihre theoretischen Implikationen vorgestellt. Ziel ist es, den Blick zu schärfen für Gesichtspunkte einer zu entwickelnden kunsttherapeutischen Bildtheorie, die ein Verständnis der Entstehungsbedingungen von Bildern und ihrer Rolle in der kunsttherapeutischen Interaktion vermittelt.

Note: please go to lifedance.com and scroll down to subscribe to emails, if you would like to stay in touch and learn about updates and applications of this work.

This chapter presents a framework for understanding the knowledge, skills and attitudes that support effective and ethical dance movement therapy (DMT) practice across cultural boundaries. I summarise and discuss a long-term qualitative inquiry conducted through cognitive-behavioural modelling, action research workshops and interviews with health, caring and managerial professionals from over 60 countries. Drawing on my application of the model in professional development programmes, my own clinical experience and interviews with other dance movement therapists, I discuss the implications of the ensuing Transcultural Competence model for DMT theory and practice. I provide a framework for practitioners to review their own practice and development needs, propose ways in which the DMT profession can be strengthened by giving greater attention to cultural issues in training and supervision, and make suggestions for future research.

"This paper illustrates the potential uses of poetry therapy for practitioners interested in
cognitively based psychotherapies. Separate brief discussions of cognitive therapy and the
uses of poetry and poetry therapy are presented. The congruence between these two
approaches is addressed. Sample exercises and poems as illustrations are presented that
demonstrate this congruence."

Drama therapy education presents unique complexities for educators. Within the classroom, students engage with the techniques of their profession in order to learn how to utilize them with clients. However, because drama therapy is designed to work through metaphor, to subvert defenses and often to indirectly arrive at client issues, it is unavoidable that students in these classrooms will have experiences that evoke their own personal affective material. The presence of the students’ personal material can serve to deepen learning but it can also blur the line between education and therapy and detract from the intended lessons. This phenomenological study sought to answer the question: What is the lived experience of drama therapy students in these experiential learning processes that evoke and utilize their personal affective material?

Der Beitrag besteht aus sieben Versuchen sich dem Phänomen Sprache zu nähern. Aus einer anthropologischen und soziologischen Perspektive analysiert er die Sprache als Medium der Selbst- und Fremderfahrung, die sich vor allem leiblich und nicht nur im Modus des Hörens und Sprechens vollzieht. Er untersucht das Verhältnis zwischen dem Faktischen und dem Möglichen, in deren Spannungsfeld Sprache ihre Wirkung entfaltet und stellt fest, das Sprache alternativlos ist. Er weist der Sprache eine zentrale Stellung im Konzert der Künste zu und versteht sie als Ort der Intermedialität, an dem sich unterschiedliche künstlerische Disziplinen begegnen und aufeinander beziehen lassen.

Readers of literature, listeners of music, appreciators of visual art-indeed, all recipients or "audiences" in any form of the creative and performance arts-do sometimes connect with the artistic work on a deeply personal and subjective level when the work strikes a relatable chord in them. Audiences tend to find themselves and their everyday reality mirrored, or "place-able," in the work's creative or enacted reality. This subjective experience has been termed "Psychofictive Reality".

Grief is one of many heavy emotions that can be difficult to cope with, let alone interpret. This paper outlines a few creative art therapy specialties, including expressive writing and drama therapy, as a healing tool to survive and understand unexpected loss.

The Relevance of Gender in the Profession and Practice of Art Therapy: A Male Perspective

A Research Paper by: Thomas Shortliffe

The following research focuses on the relevance of gender in the profession and practice of art therapy. The profession is comprised almost entirely of women and the disproportionate gender distribution within the field was examined by asking: “Why are so few men art therapists?” “What is the experience of a male art therapy intern like” 
A heuristic approach was used to gain insight into the subject area. Accordingly, the research began with an “internal search to know” (Douglass and Moustakas, 1985) the meaning of my personal experience as a male minority among 11 female art therapy interns. A review of the literature revealed that the social construction of gender is an important consideration in many fields related to art therapy. Towards an understanding of the gender division, a review of the historical roots of art therapy was conducted. It was proposed that the circumstances in the professionalization of art therapy contributed to its present day status as a “woman’s profession”. Subsequently, a survey comprised of 6 questions was designed to sample the beliefs and attitudes of art therapists about the relevance of gender in their professional and practical experience. The constant comparative procedure (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994) was used to review and interpret the responses of 17 professional and interning art therapist participants. Results suggest that respondents do hold views about the relevance of gender in the profession and practice of art therapy. There is some suggestion that the perceptions of men and women differed in qualitative ways in response to the question: “why are there so few men art therapists?’ The results are discussed.

This qualitative studies investigates the helpful
aspects of using digital creative arts therapy during the
Covid 19 Crisis. Thirty participants: 10 practitoners who
employed online creative arts therapy and 20 clients
involved for this study. Practitioners attended series of
online training to use digital creative arts therapy for
psychological supports project, followed by online
supervision via Zoom. After conducting four-to-six online
psychological therapy using creative arts therapeutic tools
with individual client, participants then joined online
group supervision through digital technology apps such as
Zoom or Webex. In-depth interviews were conducted
using qualitative investigation with both practitioners and
clients , Data were analized using thematic analysis
method. The results revealed seven themes as helpful
aspects : facilitates remote communication, easy storage of
digital art media, develop a variety of digital creative arts
tools, managing home-based therapy, improvement in
digital technology skills, foster distance psychological
supports, and increased global learning. The finding
indicates the need for innovative technology for online
creative arts therapy to provide long distance practices
and clinical supervision that will increse clients to access
psychological therapies when they’re unable to meet face
to face.

This essay forms the theoretical part of my investigation of an automatically produced, surreal, self-portrait watercolour painting, one of my few scattered attempts at painting. Recently, I’ve been lucky enough to have practiced watercolour painting using the automatic technique, whilst studying Psychoanalysis and Art theory at Birkbeck College. I have studied psychoanalytic psychology for several years there, and am currently in psychoanalytic treatment, of which this self-portrait is playing an integral part. Here then, bringing together artistic practice, psychoanalytic theory and analysis, I am continuing a creative psychoanalytic therapeutic process of looking into an automatically produced self-portrait. This essay gives me the opportunity to record my learning experiences of the automatic approach to watercolour painting, as well as record psychoanalytic insights about my healing process. I hope it illustrates how an individual brings their unconscious, as well as their conscious awareness, to a psychoanalyst and to artistic practice..........

When I wrote Problems of Identity: Deconstructing Gender Issues in Art Therapy in 1997, it was the first investigation of the topic in the arts-and-health literature. In that essay, I set out my rationale, explaining why awareness of representations of gender is an important topic for mental health practitioners and art psychotherapists in their practice. In this chapter, I survey and critically appraise my research and practice in this field since then. My appraisal includes an exploration of key concepts and contributions, especially about the usefulness of a focus on gender representation, power, and identity, and its importance for mental health. This work falls into an area that Facer and Enright (2016, 84) have called “cognitive justice” which concerns new forms of theory emerging from and reflecting previously marginalised views and perspectives. They note that such perspectives are often explicitly political, and they question the dominance of hegemonic forms of knowledge and produce reflective epistemological critiques of disciplinary norms.

Reference to cite this chapter: Hogan, S. 2018. Gender Representation, Power and Identity in Mental Health and Art Therapy in Hadley, B. & McDonald, D. (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Disability, Arts, Culture & Media. Abingdon, Oxford: Routledge. pp.137-148.

Therapy can be confusing: two people converse in a private room, one in distress, the other described as a helpful expert. At least one of the two is likely to express thoughts and feelings usually kept secret. In other circumstances, the exchange of such intimacies may herald a more physical relationship. For therapists, however, the professional relationship explicitly precludes such contact. The BACP Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy,1 for example, requires that practitioners must not abuse their client’s trust in order to gain sexual, emotional, financial, or any other kind of personal advantage. Sexual relations with clients are prohibited, along with sexualised behaviour.

While psychotherapists and counsellors generally acknowledge that sexual attraction is a common and often ordinary human response to another, they also recognise that acting on such feelings in therapy will quickly become problematic. The early psychoanalytic community had to confront and respond to such instances as Jung’s relationship with Sabina Spielrein.2 Rosie Alexander’s3 description of the times she sat on her therapist’s knee and felt his erection, elicits a mixture of emotions in the reader, not least shock, and the narrative is saturated with a sense of betrayal.

There have been several types of research investigating boundary breaches and sexual boundary violations.4 In spite of these, however, there is little certainty about how common sexual boundary violations are, as the sources of information about them (confession, client reporting, complaints to organisations, and knowledge of colleagues’ conduct) are all vulnerable to error. Further studies have attempted to identify characteristics of transgressing therapists and the factors that contribute to such events (see Moggi et al5 for an example), and to understand the effects on clients who have experienced therapist-client sex.6 If sexual feelings are ubiquitous and sexual attraction a real possibility in the context of the therapy relationship, how are these managed in therapy? Complaints about sexual boundary violations form a small proportion of complaints about therapists and health professionals.4, 7, 8 Is it the prospect of opprobrium from colleagues or the threat of sanctions from regulatory agencies that contains the relationship within professional boundaries? Do reported violations represent only a small proportion of actual sexual boundary violations? .......

Over the years my work has taken me into a deeper investigation of how to re-inhabit ourselves and live a life guided by embodied wisdom, responding to the question: "Once we have experienced wounding, trauma, or loss that has resulted in a subjective experience of having left the body, how do we get back in?" My long-term work as a dance therapist with a depth analytic approach that integrates somatic processes, Jungian dreamwork, and creative arts therapy approaches has taught me that there are many roads to healing. My concern is that having been raised for so many generations according to patriarchal images of spiritual "ascent," together with the quest for personal and individualistic power, our technologically advanced and acquisitive culture has caused us to nearly forget its vital counterpart: the feminine path to individuation through "descent."

The purpose of this research was the creation and exploration of a method that integrates dialectical behavior therapy skills technique of core mindfulness into the structure of the individual art therapy setting. The research reviewed the study of Helen,a young woman diagnosed with an eating disorder, and her use of a mindfulness art journaling technique over the course of six weeks. The research also tracked the artistic development of Helen by examining her relationship to the art-making process over the entirety of her seven individual art therapy sessions. The analysis of interviews with clinicians specializing in dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive behavior therapy and expressive therapy were used to inform this thesis. The culmination of the research was the presentation of a dialectical behavior therapy-based individual art therapy protocol and a review and analysis of its clinical implementation with a further look at implications for group art therapy.

This article introduces innovative methods of skill-building and fostering sustainable practice in professional development and workplace wellbeing, presented here through the embodied decision making model. The model helps identify body-based stressors, assess environmental factors and clarify needs and priorities in order to map potential courses of action/non-action through an examination of embodied processes. It illustrates a non-linear, dynamic process with theoretical basis on movement analysis systems and developmental frameworks. Gaps in current decision-making research on individual differences are identified, sustaining that body-based factors remain absent and require further examination. An original contribution of this article is to explore the connection between decision-making and embodied self-reflexivity in professional practice. Data gathered from professional development workshops are applied thematically to illustrate the potential for practice-based embodied frameworks. The term 'variables of insight' is introduced as an exploration of micro-and macro-processes in the stages embodied decision making as an innovative vector of analysis that substantiates the relevance of movement and symbolic content in reflexive practice. The article concludes that dynamic models, which account for individual differences and maintain an integrated view of body-mind, can challenge the notion of decision-making as a standardised and cognitive-focused process, while maintaining an inclusive and diverse client-centred stance.

Art therapy literature is often based either on illustrative
case studies focusing on a specific setting, theory, or
population, or on a more general overview. Although this
practice grounded fundamental approach is invaluable,
little attention has been given to theory and research. This
book provides a theory-based approach to research,
teaching, and practicing art therapy, discussing how the
different respective theoretical orientations of psychology
and social studies are interpreted and implemented by art
therapy.
This book draws on the latest research in the field and will
be a valuable text for art therapy theorists and researchers,
as well as practicing arts therapists.