"This book is a personal, political and philosophical exploration of doing both therapy and research: an enquiry into how the process of therapy shapes the therapist as well as the client, and how the researcher is shaped by her research. A guiding theme i"

Art, Play, and Narrative Therapy shows mental health professionals how the blending of expressive arts, psychotherapy, and metaphorical communication can both support and enhance clinical practice. This book illuminates the ways in which metaphorical representations form who we are, how we interact, and how we understand our larger environment. Author Lisa Moschini explains how to couple clients’ words, language, stories, and artwork with treatment interventions that aid empathic understanding, promote a collaborative alliance, and encourage conflict resolution. Chapters include numerous illustrations, exercises, and examples that give clinicians inspiration for both theoretical and practical interventions.

Since the initial publication of Introduction to Art Therapy Research, interest in this field has grown dramatically along with public policy demands for an up-to-date, culturally relevant evidence base on which to practice. This revised and expanded edition pays particular attention to the field’s unique and compelling questions, most current literature, and emerging trends in research, while guiding readers through the basics of qualitative, quantitative, and art-based research design. Written by a prominent figure in the world of art therapy, this pragmatic text is organized into three parts: Part I provides an overview of the basic steps in conceptualizing an art therapy research study, with an emphasis on perspectives that are intrinsic to art therapy. Chapters in Part II cover an inclusive methodological framework from quantitative and outcomes research to qualitative, practitioner-based field research, critical-participatory orientations, phenomenological and narrative approaches, and the growing influence of art-based research in art therapy. Part III offers up-to-date ethical guidelines and valuable tools for understanding and evaluating research reports, as well as practical guidance for publication in scholarly journals based on the author’s long experience as the editor of the field’s leading scholarly publication. Also included are added coverage on cross-cultural research as well as high quality examples from published, peer-reviewed art therapy research studies that illustrate material throughout the text.

`This is an important and topical book coming at a time when there is growing pressure to show evidence of good practice, in order to reassure the prospective client, and to demonstrate financial accountability. It gives valuable guidelines and examples for art therapists. The book is innovative and inspiring, and the author′s enthusiasm shines through. I end with the last line of this topical, readable, relevant book - one that encapsulates its content: ′We need the facts, we need the figures, but we need the stories and the pictures, too′ - Therapy Today `This book makes a major contribution to the field of art therapy by reviewing, in an accessible and informed manner, the issues around the development of research-informed practice. The author offers an overview of different traditions of inquiry that will be of value to practitioners as well as those actually involved in carrying out research′ - John McLeod, Tayside Institute for Health Studies, University of Abertay Dundee `This impressive book is lively, inspiring and innovative. Andrea Gilroy′s energetic enthusiasm for her subject is infectious. She breathes life into the topics of research and EBP. This rich exploration combines a rigorous investigation of the existing literature with intelligent, original and practical suggestions. A thorough, informative approach that challenges existing thinking. This is a must for art therapists - at last a book that places art at the centre of our evidence in a convincingly argued, accessible and rewarding read′ - Professor Joy Schaverien PhD Art Therapy around the world is under increasing pressure to become more "evidence-based". As a result, practitioners now need to get to grips with what constitutes "evidence", how to apply research in appropriate ways and also how to contribute to the body of evidence through their own research and other related activities. Written specifically for art therapy practitioners and students, Art Therapy, Research & Evidence Based Practice: " traces the background to EBP " critically reviews the existing art therapy research " explains the research process " links research with the development of clinical guidelines, and " describes the knowledge and skills needed to demonstrate efficacy. Drawing on her own experience as a researcher, practitioner and lecturer, Andrea Gilroy looks at the implications of EBP for art therapy and examines common concerns about the threat it may pose to the future provision of art therapy within public services. Art Therapy, Research Evidence-Based Practice addresses issues which are critical to the future development and even the survival of art therapy. Combining insightful analysis with practical guidance and examples, this is an ideal resource for practitioners and for those in training. Andrea Gilroy is Reader in Art Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The narrative turn in psychotherapy entails practitioners seeing their work as appreciating client stories and helping clients re-author their life stories. Twenty-one chapters, presented by Angus (York U., UK) and McLeod (U. of Abertay Dundee, UK) bring together different strands of thinking ab

Art therapy and all of the other creative arts therapies have promoted themselves as ways of expressing what cannot be conveyed in conventional language. Why is it that creative arts therapists fail to apply this line of thinking to research? In this exciting and innovative book, Shaun McNiff, one of the field's pioneering educators and authors, breaks new ground in defining and inspiring art-based research. He illustrates how practitioner-researchers can become involved in art-based inquiries during their educational studies and throughout their careers, and shows how new types of research can be created that resonate with the artistic process. Clearly and cogently expressed, the theoretical arguments are illustrated by numerous case examples, and the final part of the book provides a wealth of ideas and thought provoking questions for research. This challenging book will prove invaluable to creative art therapy educators, students, and clinicians who wish to approach artistic inquiry as a way of conducting research. It will also find a receptive audience within the larger research community where there is a rising commitment to expanding the theory and practice of research. Integrating artistic and scientific procedures in many novel ways, this book offers fresh and productive visions of what research can be.

This book explores how ‘the hostile environment’ of neoliberalism affects art therapy in Britain. It shows how ambiguity in art and in psychoanalytically understood relationships can enable art psychotherapy groups to engage with class dynamics and aspire to democracy. The book argues that art therapy needs to become a political practice if it is to resist collusion with a system that marginalises collectivity and holds individuals responsible for both their suffering and their recovery. It provides accounts of the contradictions that are thrown up by neoliberalism in art therapists’ workplaces as well as accounts of art therapy groups with those affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower, in an acute ward, a women’s prison, a community art studio and in a refugee camp. Written by art psychotherapists for arts therapists and other mental health workers, the book will bring political awareness and consideration of resistance into all art therapy relationships, whatever the context and client group.

Speedy provides a necessary introduction to the purposes, possibilities and processes of narrative research methods in therapy practices. Merging social science and arts-based research methods, makes this book ideal for therapy students and practitioners, as well as those providing counselling in other related professional areas.

Art therapy literature is often based either on practice in a specific setting, art material or population, or if taking a more theoretical focus, on illustrative case studies. This book provides a theory-based approach to research, teaching, and practicing art therapy, including verbal and arts based techniques, settings, art processes and analyses, and the principles of supervision, evaluation, and research. It also offers an overview and discussion of how the different orientations of psychological and social theories are interpreted and implemented by art therapy. The book provides an integrative perspective that anchors methodology within a rigorous theoretical background. Focusing on three sub-groups of Dynamic, Humanistic and Systemic-social theories, each chapter outlines the central concepts of varying sub-theories within a general heading, and their interpretation from an art therapy perspective. Ephrat Huss explores the respective and shifting roles of art, client, and therapist through each theory, demonstrating the practical implications for creating a coherent intervention that informs all parts of the setting, therapy, client evaluation, and supervision. A Theory-based Approach to Art Therapy draws on the latest research in the field and will be a valuable text for art therapy theorists, educators, students and researchers, as well as for other social practitioners interested in understanding how to integrate the arts into their practice.

Art Therapy in Australia: Taking a Postcolonial, Aesthetic Turn explores and enacts established and emergent art therapy histories, narratives and practices in the specific postcolonial context of contemporary Australia. It is the first published book to attempt to map this terrain. In doing so, the book aims to document important aspects of art therapy in Australia, including how Australian approaches both reiterate and challenge the dominant discourse of art therapy. This book is as much a performance as an account of the potential of art therapy to honour alterity, illuminate possibilities and bear witness to the intrapsychic, relational and social realms. The book offers a selective window into the rambling assemblage that is art therapy in the ‘Great Southern Land’. Contributors are: Jan Allen, Bronwyn Davies, Claire Edwards, Nicolette Eisdell, Patricia Fenner, John Henzell, Pam Johnston, Lynn Kapitan, Carmen Lawson, Sheridan Linnell, Tarquam McKenna, Michelle Moss, Suzanne Perry, Josephine Pretorius, Jean Rumbold, Victoria Schnaedelbach, Lilian Tan, Jody Thomson, Jill Westwood, Amanda Woodford, and Davina Woods.