How do people use art therapy to wrestle with strange experiences, loneliness and poverty?

I work alongside people in group and individual art therapy. Some of them have agreed to let me share parts of their stories and their artwork in our collaborative efforts to identify what is helpful. I am inspired by the way... [ view full abstract ]

I work alongside people in group and individual art therapy. Some of them have agreed to let me share parts of their stories and their artwork in our collaborative efforts to identify what is helpful. I am inspired by the way art therapy has been used to grapple with aspects of living that are hard for us all.

The objectives of the paper are to consider:
I. collaborative ways of working with psychological disturbance in art therapy;
II. how distress is made worse by material difficulties and how acknowledgement of this may be helpful.

In art therapy I have seen and heard thoughtful accounts of strange experiences and good ideas about what to do with them. However, too many people wince at the sense of their own loneliness, and for too many the fear of benefit sanction is palpable. There is hope in the images and in our conversations, but it can seem like a hard won wrestling match to arrive at a place of hope.

Art Therapy uses a range of approaches and settings. Crudely the history of art therapy has ranged from psychological models which use the couch to those based in garages on council estates, and in container lorries in refugee camps. It is possible to respond in many settings to a person’s imagination and whatever art form results. It is also possible to respond using different psychological models, perhaps most helpfully when acknowledgement of difficult material circumstances is part of the conversation.

Chris Wood (PhD) I am an educator with the Art Therapy Northern Programme and an Art Therapist in different settings. I am also research fellow with the University of Sheffield. I am interested in art, popular culture, mental health, urban living, and politics, and in the ways in which people manage to live well.