The International Handbook of Art Therapy in Palliative and Bereavement Care offers a multicultural and international perspective on how art therapy can be of help to individuals, groups, families, communities, and nations facing death and dying as well as grief and loss. Over 50 art therapists from around the world write about the transforming power of art therapy in the lives of those facing terminal illness, dementia, loss, and grief. They offer practical descriptions and techniques for working with adults and children to guide professionals, including those new to using art therapy and creative approaches in end-of-life care services. This international handbook is essential reading for arts therapists, social workers, medical personnel, faith leaders, and psychologists interested in a collaborative and accessible approach to working with patients and families affected by loss.

Arts Therapies in International Practice: Informed by Neuroscience and Research brings together practice and research in the arts therapies and in neuroscience. The authors are all arts therapists who have reviewed their practice through the lens of modern neuroscience. Neuroscience confirms the importance of embodiment, choice, and creativity in therapy with a range of clients. Arts therapies directly provide these. The authors demonstrate how the arts therapies can be adapted creatively to work in different social and ethnic communities, with different ages and with different states of health or ill health. Although there is diversity in their practice and country of practice, they reaffirm key concepts of the arts therapies, such as the importance of the therapeutic relationship, and the key role played by the arts modality with its effects on the brain and nervous system. This book will appeal to a wide readership, including arts therapists, expressive arts therapists, a range of other psychotherapists and counsellors, students and their teachers, and those interested in the neuroscience of human development.

With both personal and professional insight from a range of contributors, this informative guide highlights the use of art therapy in a range of settings to support military veterans. Offering a wealth of knowledge on this approach and the variety of current programs available, this is an invaluable resource for all therapists looking to provide support for this population. Chapters explore the use of art therapy in a range of different settings, including museum programs, open studio therapy and assisted living environments, as well as large group therapy at treatment facilities for active-duty service members. It also offers rare insight into the effectiveness of art therapy in supporting veterans who are processing military sexual trauma, moral injury and countertransference, filling essential gaps in knowledge within this area. As demand for this practice continues to grow, Art Therapy with Veterans provides inspiration for future programs and therapists looking to support military communities.

The Art and Art Therapy of Papermaking: Material, Methods, and Applications provides a comprehensive collection about the contemporary practices, media, and value of hand papermaking as social engagement, art therapy, and personal voice. Divided into three parts that highlight each of these areas, contributors explore topics such as advocacy, work with survivors, community outreach, medical challenges, and how papermaking can empower creative expression, stories of change, recovery, and reclamation to address trauma, grief and loss, social action, and life experiences. Previous books have covered hand papermaking or art therapy media as stand-alone subjects; this text is the first of its kind that unites and describes the convergence of papermaking in all these forms. Art therapists, art educators, and artists will find this book essential to their education about how papermaking can be a powerful process to make meaning for the self, groups, and community.

Dramatherapy with Elders and People with Dementia illuminates how targeted sessions of dramatherapy can improve the quality of life of elderly people with dementia. The book takes the reader through the dramatherapy experience of a group of people who display a ‘feeling intelligence’; a quality that softens distress at vanishing words and clouded memories. Unique in its approach, not only to dramatherapy with elders and people with dementia, it presents an essential validation of older people’s life stage development. Rather than being different or ‘other’, Jaaniste paints word pictures to show human qualities such people have in common with their dementia-free contemporaries. Readers will glean insights into the arts therapies, especially creative drama, meeting examples of elder wisdom, wit and resilience in dealing with life, but especially grief, loss, and deep questions that come with ageing. Enriched with vignettes and anecdotes based on rigorous research and measurement, the book will be suitable for adaptation by arts therapists and other allied health professionals who are interested in using person-centred, strengths-based approaches.

The second edition of Creative Activities for Group Therapy focuses on evidence-based alternatives for verbal expression in group therapy, which provides group leaders with innovative inspirational tools, techniques, and intervention strategies to address dilemmas and difficult situations and help encourage members’ self-exploration and self-disclosure. Newly organized into three categories, the book covers group basics and fundamentals, categories for activities, and a new section on diverse settings, conditions, and applications. The first section outlines use of activities, benefits to groups, and tips for effective and safe use of creative activities. Section two covers a range of creative activities for leaders to implement, such as art therapies, movement therapies, writing therapy, and includes new activities for virtual sessions. The new section then addresses activities for diverse settings such as groups in hospitals and prisons, various medical conditions and psychological states, and inclusive applications that minimize group conflict and promote emotional expression. This new edition provides mental health professionals and students, including therapists, counselors, and clinical social workers, with a wide array of methods for enriching their therapy groups and tools for implementing these activities.

The Covid pandemic has led us into an upheaval that has made us question the certainties underlying what it means to be a human being in our age; the ability to control medical and social facts through evidence. For the first-time western and developed countries have had to confront what many populations from the developing world (Africa. Latin America, etc) face on a daily basis with HIV and Ebola, etc. The Interconnectedness of Globalization has been the real disseminating catalyst of COVID 19, and many scientists wonder if this virus is the result of the Anthropocene age, with its indisputable lack of respect for the natural ecosystems. The virus has demonstrated that our frailty is only skin deep, and it has not only brought death, despair, but it has broken our interdependency as human beings, by imposing self- isolation as well as creating new ways of connections so that safety cannot imply loneliness. In this book, the coping strategies that originate from the multiple languages of care such as narrative, literature, science, philosophy, art, digital science are shown not only as reflective tools to promote health but also wellbeing amongst carers, patients, students, and citizens of our planet Earth. These strategies should be supported by the decision makers since they are low-cost investments necessary to make the health care system work. They however require a change of cultural paradigm. This book is a useful toolkit for patients, citizens and care services physicians who want to learn more on how to live better with this new world.

Art therapists work with diverse people experiencing life-changing distress that cannot be expressed verbally. From its early beginnings in the UK and USA, art therapy is now attracting international interest and recognition. To meet ever-changing needs in uncertain times, art therapists worldwide are currently advancing socially just and culturally relevant practice and research. This book presents original contributions, highlighting innovative research and culturally diverse practices that are transforming art therapy with new insights and knowledge. It captures an internationally vibrant and truly client-centred profession, and will be of interest to arts therapists, artists in healthcare, psychotherapists, counsellors, and professionals who use art therapeutically in their practice.

Narrative theory goes back to Plato. It is an approach that tries to understand the abstract mechanism behind the story. This theory has evolved throughout the years and has been adopted by numerous domains and disciplines. Narrative therapy is one of many fields of narrative that emerged in the 1990s and has turned into a rich research field that feeds many disciplines today. Further study on the benefits, opportunities, and challenges of narrative therapy is vital to understand how it can be utilized to support society. Narrative Theory and Therapy in the Post-Truth Era focuses on the structure of the narrative and the possibilities it offers for therapy as well as the post-modern sources of spiritual conflict and how to benefit from the possibilities of the narrative while healing them. Covering topics such as psychotherapy, cognitive narratology, art therapy, and narrative structures, this reference work is ideal for therapists, psychologists, communications specialists, academicians, researchers, practitioners, scholars, instructors, and students.