Art therapy is a method that has a long global history as a treatment alternative when
conventional verbal psychotherapy and even pharmacotherapy have failed to facilitate
improvement. It helps access, give form to, and integrate experiences, memories, and
emotions that cannot be directly verbalised. Art therapy is the creative expression of
the client through the use of art making and the subsequent artefacts within therapy.
Art therapy is an opportunity for the therapist to access recesses of the client’s mind
that may otherwise be hidden. This enables the therapist to utilise these revelations
and the artefacts produced strategically within therapy.
In South Africa art therapy as a profession does not have a distinct category of its own
under the Health Professions Counsel of South Africa (HPCSA), and is not included
in psychology training courses at tertiary level. In spite of this, some South African
psychologists do use it as a modality in therapy. These psychologists are the subjects
of this study. They provided important information regarding the possible uses of art
in therapy from a unique South African perspective.
The participants in this study have responded each in uniquely favourable terms to
questions surrounding the value and benefit of art as a tool of psychological therapy.
This unequivocal professional concurrence, while derived from a limited research
sample, suggests that art therapy, though severely neglected, holds enormous potential
for positive application within the South African context. The interpretations,
definitions and applications of art therapy by each of these therapists are admittedly in
no way as profound as those evidenced in the international literature examined in the
course of this study, yet a vast resource of innovative perspectives, informative
considerations along with fresh indicators towards areas for potential future research
have come to the fore.
According to the participants in this study, art therapy does not receive enough
attention in the South African psychological arena. Areas specifically identified by
the interviewees in which art therapy can play a role include: group work;
preventative work; the crossing of language barriers; providing therapy to the greater
population and previously disadvantaged groups; shortening therapy; and trauma
work.
Art therapy is not limited to age, nor by the presenting problem. It is engaging, and
facilitates effective communication. The artefacts produced can serve as historic
records of therapy, allowing the therapist and client to recollect the process. Colour
can play an important part in therapy, yet the client’s unequivocal personal
interpretation of colour should be the focus. Art therapy is not static and facilitates
therapeutic movement, client involvement and responsibility.
The art activity and artefact provides a concrete rather than verbal medium through
which a person can achieve both conscious and unconscious expression and, as such,
can be used as a valuable agent for therapeutic change. The image is tangible and
serves as constant reminder and anchor to the clients conflict or problem, yet moves it
to a safe distance outside the client.
Art therapy is implemented in many different ways within South Africa, as is the case
internationally.
Although a multicultural South African society seems to be different in many
contexts, the implementation and occurrence of art therapy appears to be fairly
unchanged, and art may be the universal therapeutic language.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/4913 |
| Date | 30 May 2008 |
| Creators | Gower, James A. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 54797 bytes, 1196062 bytes, 143078 bytes, 42035 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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