Art Therapists’ Perceptions of What Happens When They Create Art Alongside Their Clients in the Practice Of Group Therapy

Author

Laura Teoli, Lesley UniversityFollow

Date of Award

Spring 3-8-2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PHD - Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Expressive Therapies

First Advisor

Shaun McNiff

Second Advisor

Mitchell Kossak

Third Advisor

Patricia Fenner

Abstract

Although case studies and personal accounts since the founding of the art therapy field discussed creating art alongside clients as a valuable practice, few systematic studies have explored this method. This collaborative art-based dissertation explored art therapists’ perceptions of two research questions: (1) What happens when art therapists create art alongside their clients in their group art therapy practices? and (2) What is gained and what is lost when they engage in this practice? Four group art therapists (3 females, 1 male) with 5 to 31 (median 8.5) years of experience contributed as co-researchers. They participated in 6 hours of semistructured interviews that incorporated art-making and discussion. As the researcher, I used personal response art-making, creative writing, painting, and poetic responses to gain a holistic sense of the inquiry and generate four video summations. These summations identify and present the individual co-researchers’ ideas, thoughts, gestures, phrases, and concepts related to the research questions. Finally, I created a culminating video to synthesize outcomes from work with all co-researchers. The outcomes suggest that creating art alongside clients affects four interrelated aspects of group art therapy: (a) developing an egalitarian group environment, (b) expressing authentic leadership, (c) augmenting therapist presence, and (d) boosting group member engagement. Three potential challenges of the alongside approach are (a) delayed therapist responses, (b) intimidating clients with artistic skills, and (c) decreased ability to recall sequential details related to construction of imagery. Further, methods to transform these risks into positive therapeutic encounters and benefits of creating art alongside group members emerged in more detail than in previous four essential skills: (a) multitasking, (b) shifting awareness, (c) letting go of control, and (d) media awareness. The dissertation adds the term companioning art-making to the literature. This inclusive term emphasizes the practice of authentically making art in the presence of group members.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Language

English

Number of Pages

194

Recommended Citation

Teoli, Laura, "Art Therapists’ Perceptions of What Happens When They Create Art Alongside Their Clients in the Practice Of Group Therapy" (2019). Expressive Therapies Dissertations. 82.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_dissertations/82