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2008
The
Exceptional Artist: The Use of the Third Hand with Clay Work in Art
Therapy
by Brandon Murdoch, Oct.
2008
My topic explores the possibilities and experiences
clay work offers to the exceptional child. I investigate the relationship
of learned helplessness to the use of the third hand in the art making
process. The social stigma associated with exceptional children is
discussed, along with a brief history and issues frequently associated
with this population. Literature covering research and techniques on the
benefits and goals of art making with exceptional individuals are
addressed. I utilize psychodynamic and humanistic theories in my treatment
approach and use a retrospective analysis with phenomenological and
qualitative methods for my evaluation. I conclude that the use of the
third hand in combination with clay as the medium of choice with the
exceptional child allows for sublimation and the increase in self-esteem.
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"Faites-Vous une belle
journée": Art Therapy and Hospitalized Cancer Patients: Quilt
Project
by Deborah Theriault, May 2008
This thesis describes the art therapy
process of patients, on an individual basis, making a quilt for the
oncology ward. The paintings in the finished quilt were spontaneous
expressions of the patients, as they responded to the question of "what
they were most thankful for". The quilt was created over a period of two
months. The quilt will be housed in a renovated room on the floor
designated as a family room. The project revealed unique insights into the
inner experience of the individual patients and into the hospitalized
community. Art therapy helped to create a holding environment and was
responsive to verbal and non-verbal cues expressed in the artwork. The
quilt piece provided an opportunity for self-expression and an opportunity
for belonging to a culture that supports community and healing. This
thesis highlights the art therapy process through the creation of this
progressive quilt. The question of this thesis is: What do cancer patients
express in the content of their artwork?
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Giving a Voice: Using Writing
to Interpret the Art and Stories of an 11-Year-Old Child with
Autism
by David Baudemont, PhD, Oct. 2008
A new analytical method based on the
writing of monologues has been used to interpret the obsessions and
compulsive behaviours of Winston (pseudonym), an 11-year-old boy with
autism. Based on a total of 30 individual sessions over two years, it may
be considered a new development in child-led, one-on-one therapeutic
methods which have been developed by a small community of art therapists
since the 1980s. It is based on a variation of the "I-voice", commonly
used by Gestalt therapists to help clients understand their own art and
dreams (Fritz Perls, 1951). Fritz Perls' principles are applied to
"decode" Winston's stories: all his obsessions are "given a voice" through
the writing of monologues by the therapist. These dramatic texts are based
both on Winston's own words and on the therapist's interpretation of his
attitude. They also take into account the evolution of each symbol over
time, as well as the circumstances in which they appear or disappear.
Whether concrete (kitties, watch, fridge, etc...) or abstract (colour,
sickness, etc...), each symbol reveals the role it plays in the child's
building of self, as well as in his system of defences. The decoding of
the child's obsessions has helped establish a mutual understanding and an
interactive relationship between the art therapist and the boy. It has led
to a gradual disappearance of Winston's obsession with feces and
significant progress in his use of symbols.
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Presenting the Self: An
Inquiry into the Function of Photographic Self-Portraits with Men in
Addictions Groups
by Jeremy Addington, May 2008
A group of men with addictions
participated in an intensive, psycho-educational, outpatient program.
Ultimately, they sought change, but to achieve this, they first
needed self-awareness and self-understanding. The program incorporated art
therapy interventions and phototherapy exercises to assist the men in
reaching these goals. The facilitator introduced three phototherapy
exercises which required making self-portraits. They then used their
self-portrait photos in artworks. My focus was to determine, "How did the
phototherapy exercises function and what was their value with respect to
the development of self-awareness?"
This was a qualitative study applying
Van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological method to the data, mainly, the
photo collages, but the research also looked at self-awareness,
self-presentation, and aspects of photography in the social and
psychological sense in order to broaden and deepen the exploration. The
results of the investigation showed enthusiastic and serious involvement
with the exercises, creative solutions in the participants' poses and
artworks, and a newfound awareness of themselves in social situations.
Although the men would have benefitted from more time to become
comfortable with the process of making their self-portraits and to reflect
on and debrief the results, the overwhelming indications were that these
interventions in an art therapeutic context were profoundly helpful to the
development of self-awareness.
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Seven Messages of Aggressive
Imagery: Receiving the Communications of Latency Age
Children
by Steve Heynen, May 2008
This study investigates aggressive
imagery in the art and play of latency-age children (7-11 years), seeking
to clarify the possible meanings and messages communicated by that
imagery. The specific question addressed is: what may be communicated by
aggression in the imagery of latency-age children? Seven key categories of
aggressive expression are identified. These categories are products of
both existing theory on aggression and phenomenological analysis of case
material. An understanding of these categories would be beneficial to any
Art or Play Therapist confronted with aggressive imagery in the creative
expressions of their latency-age clients.
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Visual Mythopoesis in the
Community Art Studio: A Case Study
by
Jean Tait, Sept. 2008
In this paper the role visual imagery
provides as a foundation for the emergence of storytelling or personal
mythmaking (mythopoesis) is examined. A single case study emerges from one
woman's experience in an open community art studio. The study has a
circular nature, in keeping with applicable Aboriginal teachings and
values of unity and relatedness. At its heart is the philosophy that
everything that exists is perceived as symbolic in an Aboriginal person's
world.
The methodology utilized to navigate
through visual mythopoesis is art-based, phenomenological and
hermeneutically oriented, with emerging archetypes tied to personal myth
formation with an Aboriginal cultural basis.
The research question is whether the
making of artwork stimulates a cultural storytelling response in the case
of an Aboriginal client. The subject of this single case study, when given
time and space outside the Community Art Studio, responded to the art
making process by relating detailed and complex stories of her memories.
The focus always contained cultural aspects and related to an Aboriginal
way of telling a story. The art became a catalyst that was used as a way
to order painful memories and contain the emotional responses to past
experiences.
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Wild Horse
Woman
by Sabine Fleschutz, May 2008
This thesis shows the development of a
student at the Kutenai Art Therapy Institute during her two years of
study. It attempts to show how vital the preparation and presentation of a
personal case study is at the end of the study for the purpose of
integration and completion. This research will attempt to answer the
following thesis question: "How can the creation of a personal case study
at the end of an art therapy training program contribute to the
integration of self?" Included in the research is a DVD, located in a
pouch inside the back cover; it is playable on Windows-based computers
only.
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