The Routledge International Handbook of Art Therapy Practice

About this webinar

This webinar will celebrate the publication of 'The Routledge International Handbook of Art Therapy Practice'. This book offers a snapshot of the international state of the art in art therapy. The range of work included does not come from one school, theoretical approach, or one type of creative practice, but instead shows the inherent ability of the art therapist to see what is present and to adapt, flexibly and creatively, to meet the unique needs of people and contexts. 

The below chapters will be briefly covered in this webinar. 

Early relational intervention through dyadic art therapy with infants and caregivers.

This chapter looks at the context for art therapy intervention in infancy, its theoretical underpinning, the particularities of the model, and the growing evidence base. Shaping our understanding in this chapter is a single case study of a parent-infant dyad, following their journey through art therapy, within the context of the theoretical understanding of those interactive processes that form the building blocks of secure attachments. Building on the Art at the Start project’s previous observation studies of dyads during art therapy, we use the detailed video footage of this particular dyad as an example, to break down their changing experience and the back and forth ‘conversation’ between them, exploring how this developed over the course of art therapy.

Outdoor Art Therapy in Scotland

This chapter is about outdoor art therapy in Scotland. It describes the historical and theoretical basis for outdoor therapeutic practice and suggests how this work can be undertaken in a safe and ethical way. It explores some of the unique aspects of outdoor art therapy, such as working with a dynamic live environment and in-situ materials. It illustrates how this practice has the capacity to develop a greater connection to self, other, place and nature. The chapter explores how outdoor art therapy may be a clinical offer well suited to the social and environmental context of Scotland. In particular, it explores how this approach may be relevant in areas identified as “deprived” on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), because of its capacity to increase access to psychological healthcare. The chapter suggests that outdoor art therapy may also have wider societal value in the face of the climate emergency, by enhancing ecological sensibility.

The museum as a driver of metaphors for reflection and wellbeing

Is it possible to work metaphorically in the museum and create an art-therapeutic space? What characteristics should this space have - physical and symbolic? How should the visitor-customer- participant be accompanied? Is it possible to create a meaningful experience that generates benefits from art therapy? This chapter attempts to reflect on these and other questions, going back to art-theoretical concepts, such as the definition of metaphor, to propose how art (in its potential to unlock meanings and discover new relationships), can offer the extraordinary opportunity to contemplate, in a sustained way and accompanied by the art therapist, the artwork beyond its iconic or iconographic characteristics. The work of art has the potential to become a transitional object, transformational - in the words of Bollas -, and to enable the possibility of disarticulating fixed meanings and rearticulating other possible ones. The museum, on the other hand, possesses the unique properties to offer a safe and potential space for such operations of disarticulation and generation of possibilities to occur. After a theoretical reflection, this chapter invites the reader to share an experience that, since 2021, has been carried out in a cultural centre in Madrid, Spain, through contemporary art, and demonstrates, through this case study, the potential benefits of museums as non-traditional tools for wellbeing and health, through art therapy.