Date of Award
Winter 1-8-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
PHD - Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Expressive Therapies
First Advisor
Jason Butler, PhD
Second Advisor
Valeria Blanc, PhD
Third Advisor
Dr. Johanna Czmanski-Cohen
Abstract
This phenomenological and arts-based study engaged art therapists in dialogue about experiences of embodiment and touch. Dialogue was centered on lived experience of their bodies during art making with clients and themselves. Attention was given to in vivo experiences of self-touch and art materials. Data were collected through focus groups with a purposive sample of art therapists
(N = 14) in-person and online. Groups included experientials with self-touch, body sensing, and body mapping. Data were collected from multiple sources including video, interview transcripts, and art work created in the groups. As participants shared their experiences of embodiment through the data, numerous findings were identified. These included that art therapists did have experiences of embodiment, many had body-based training external to art therapy, and they promoted embodiment in their art therapy sessions through mindfulness, breathwork, and choice with materials. Other findings supported research that embodiment can include sound, movement, and touch. Limitations to embodiment included trauma, lack of understanding by other clinicians, and lack of a common language. Touch was experienced as both taboo and integral to embodied art therapy. In vivo artmaking with touch and body mapping promoted insight and an expanded sense of the participants’ bodies. These findings introduced dialogue about lived experiences of embodiment among art therapists to the literature and have implications for clinical practice, theory, and education.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Language
English
Number of Pages
302
Recommended Citation
de Bethune, Mia and de Bethune, Mia T., "The Role of Embodiment in Art Therapy" (2025). Expressive Therapies Dissertations. 138.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_dissertations/138
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The author owns the copyright to this work.