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Art Therapy Around the World #5

world


Read a Brief article on how a Madoff victim uses art therapy.

British actor uses art therapy to tackle drug addiction.

In Napa Valley California, Aldea uses art therapy calendar to raise funds and awareness of art therapy. Read about it here.

Art therapy can improve the Quality of life for Alzheimer’s patients.

Art and music therapy are at the heart of Tender Care Human Services, in Queens and Brooklyn NY. Read more about this non-profit on the Daily News.

Read about Esther Dreifuss-Kattan, PhD, ATR and the Oncology art therapy exhibit in Santa Monica, CA.

Art exhibit at Louisa’s Cafe Bakery in Seattle featuring the artwork made by patients of Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Tiao Nithakhong Somsanith, PhD, teaches traditional Lao expressive art and craft making to young Laotians who are at risk of loosing their cultural identity. The art is then presented to tourists traveling through the Amantaka resort.

Modern art is brought to Gulu, Uganda.

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2009 AATA Conference #2

I’m sitting in the Salt Lake City airport for the next 3 hours (layover) and have access to free wifi. I thought about maybe watching some tv, but then I remembered how busy I was over the past few days, causing me to neglect to discuss the AATA conference since Thursday. I actually got more than 6 hours sleep last night, which was great, so my writing can actually make sense! Between the time difference, the 7am Masters Supervision Groups and the schmoozing with art therapists I connected with through the Art Therapy Alliance and the IATO, I was pooped.

Why does AATA schedule anything before 9am? Seriously.





Some highlights:

  • I attended a box making workshop, where learned how to fold a box from paper. I love boxes, origami and anything sculptural. This directive has tons of applications and is self-esteem building. Possible metaphors of the box can be containment, safety and inside/outside. The workshop leaders, Maureen Vita MA and Mary Donald ATR-BC, LPC did a fantastic job and they gave attendees a video of how to make the box, which they graciously are allowing me to share with you. I will be posting the video over the next couple of days.

    Thank you Maureen and Mary for helping to expand our field of knowledge for free, accessible to all who could not attend the workshop or the conference.

  • I attended a Panel entitled Inspiring Frontiers in Independent Practice: Creating an Ethical, Practical, and Successful Business hosted by P. Gussie Klorer ATR-BC, Cathy Malchiodi Ph.D., ATR-BC, LPCC, HLM, and Donald Cutcher MA, ATR-BC, LCAT. Boy, was I surprised about the facts and figures of working with managed care and public health insurance, ie: Medicaid. One stat that stood out was given by P. Gussie Klorer, who stated that Medicaid payments in her state (MO, I think?) have not been raised since 1990. Jokes about working at Starbucks followed.

    The consensus was, however, that even though it’s difficult to make a private practice worthwhile financially when working with underserved populations, it’s certainly rewarding. I’m sure we can agree that Art therapists do what they do because it’s rewarding.

    Also, Cathy discussed other ways of working as a consultant, professor, or at will, which provides different opportunities than a formal private practice.

    There was much more to the panel than what I’m prepared to write about here. I suggest that art therapists interested in private practice, attend workshops or classes similar to this panel to gauge the reality of the work in the city/state that they live.

  • Adam Blatner M.D. presented a General Session entitled Mandala Making in Clinical Practice and Everyday Life. How could I not enjoy a session that included the humorous cartooning of a rather interesting doctor discussing mandalas?

    Check out Dr. Blatner’s presentation here.

  • Going to the Drexel reunion and seeing Ron Hayes was a special moment for me. Ron recently retired from his position as faculty member of the Creative Arts in Therapy Department at Drexel University. He taught several classes to my cohort (and many others before me). We grew to love and appreciate his colorful ties, giant bottles of diet coke, his insightful and empathetic way of teaching and his jovial way of being. Other career highlights include his involvement in advocating for art therapists to become licensed in the state of Pennsylvania.

    Since moving away from Philadelphia, I have not seen him and I fear he may not make it to the next conference in Sacramento. So happy I had the chance to say hello.

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    2009 AATA Conference

    The planned meet up yesterday by the IATO (International Art Therapy Organization) and the Art Therapy Alliance at the Pyramid Bar in the Fairmont Hotel was a success! Lots of schmoozing, eating and drinking. More events by these two groups have been organized for tonight and the rest of the conference.

    Thank you Cathy and Gretchen, for organizing these events!




    Some highlights of the sessions I joined today:

  • Judy Rubin’s video Visionaries, Pioneers & Early Settlers-the Story of the American Art Therapy Association was a fun retrospective on the past 40 years of AATA’s existence. The video highlighted both conflict and support within the organization (but mainly conflict), which is to be expected when lots of strong willed people come together attempting to merge or find space for their ideas and philosophies. We are indebted to Judy for keeping records of the past. Despite the poor sound quality at times, it was exciting to see and hear influential art therapists speak, past and present, such as Myra Levick and Bob Ault.
  • I thoroughly enjoyed Christopher Belkofer, ATR, LPC’s presentation entitled The Changing Brain: Applying Clinical Neuroscience Approaches to Expressive Therapy Interventions in Residential Care. He’s a dynamic speaker who discussed art therapy’s hypothesized neurological mechanisms of change within the context of his case study.
  • The paper presentation on Ethics Documents in a Multi-Licensure/Certification Environment by Mercedes ter Maat, PhD, ATR-BC, LPC and Donald Cutcher ATR-BC, LCAT was an important addition to my understanding of how to go about figuring out how to integrate various ethical codes set forth by different credentialing organizations. Once I’m back home and have a minute, I definitely will update my past writing on the subject of ethics.
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    Spotlight on Judy Weiser

    Judy Wieser R.Psyc, ATR is a pioneer of PhotoTherapy, an art therapy technique that unfortunately too many art therapists don’t know about or understand (and she’s a fellow Canadian!). Ginger Poole from the Digital Art Therapy Group on LinkedIn conducted a brief written interview with Judy about PhotoTherapy. Judy discusses her techniques along with why it’s important for art therapists to understand and think about the impact of digital media on our lives. She points out that many art therapists over 30 are unaware of how prolific digital media and pictures are, as well as how easily they’re manipulated– blurring the boundaries of fantasy/wish and reality. Furthermore, she touches upon the idea of accessibility of one’s pictures, artwork, privacy and copyright issues.

    Part of Judy’s message, is my opinion as well— Art Therapists! Don’t get left behind! It’s getting to the point that knowing about new technology/digital media and how to integrate it into one’s art therapy practice is not an option. It’s a must. As we become more technologically dependent and integrated, not having these skills will set you apart from your younger clients, causing a schism between your understanding of your world versus theirs.

    How is it that many art therapy graduate programs are uncomfortable with exploring the use of digital media and it’s applications in terms of artx interventions? We are not doing ourselves any favors sticking to the study of structured versus unstructured media and not including digital media in the spectrum. I agree that for many organizations getting funding for new technology is difficult, but that doesn’t change the fact that on our younger client’s spare time they interact with digital and social media almost as much as they interact with the physical world (this is my observation, not taken from a statistical study). For better or for worse this is their reality. Thinking about it’s impact and discussing your observations on open forums, like the Digital Art Therapy Group is one way to keep in touch with the realities of living in a digital age.

    You’re on LinkedIn but are not a member of the Digital Art Therapy Group on LinkedIn? Go here to join.

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    Embodied Learning

    Ginger Poole posted this on LinkedIn through the Digital Art Therapy group. If you are in contact with the people involved in the Embodied Learning project, please contact Ginger. She is interested in conducting art therapy research with this technology.

    SMALLab @ Arizona State University – 2009 from aisling kelliher on Vimeo.



    This is so exciting! It makes me look forward to what is to come in terms of learning, art therapy and technology.