Journal of Applied Arts & Health - Innovation in the Arts in Therapy, Mar 2023

The innovative essence of El Duende one-canvas process painting (EDPP) is in the ongoing experience of having continual encounters with change processes on one surface over time. The dynamic between what stays and what is lost is explored from multiple perspectives. Progressive photographs reflect a visual sequence of transformative states for therapists, clients and trainees to experientially learn through their own art processes. Subsequent research explored the impacts of this unique process, guided by art-informed discovery and the primacy of an artist’s vision. Five phases and four core elements of the paradoxical method emerged as scaffolding to explore the inevitability of change. The use of art-based research is central to each phase of the practice discoveries described. The importance of one-canvas process painting is highlighted in relation to reflective practice in art therapy. The approach’s contributions towards art-based supervision and as an ongoing form of response art are also considered.

This article provides research-informed insights on the use of social action art therapy within the context of working with diverse communities to imagine future responses to climate crisis at a local level. We present creative responses produced by participants of a study conducted within a community arts space. The work described is inspired by the work of art therapist Savneet Talwar and social ecologist Murray Bookchin. The creative responses come in the form of photographs of objects made by participants and sets of statements that emerged when these objects were used to initiate conversations about the imagined future of the city that participants were located within. This article’s aim is to evaluate the role of social action art therapy and art-based research within the context of the enhancing of collective political imagination in the service of democratically decided and socially just adaptations to climate crisis.

The terms working alongside, parallel artmaking, painting together and joint activity have been used to describe an innovative and experimental phase in art therapy practice that involves the art therapist’s arts-based response towards the client either in one-to-one or groupwork contexts. This method involves the art therapist’s artmaking within the relational dynamic and is done so to extend an arts-based connection with the client and further non-verbal communication through visual arts media. The approach described enables the therapist to enter a shared creative space using art as an improvised method to connect, interact, reflect or mirror the client’s art process. This article explores the scope of this practice approach and the importance of visual empathy, its contribution to clinical formulation and the role of clinical supervision in reflecting on the artwork to gain access to intersubjective experiences between the therapist, the client and their creative collaboration.

This article focuses on a blended art-based practice that uses a combination of face-to-face, online, mobile and e-mail text-based methods. Blended art therapy alternates between digital and face-to-face formats complementing each other allowing clients to become autonomous and adapt to changing life circumstances. The approach encourages clients to take an active role in the distant treatment while undertaking continuous home art engagement tasks in between sessions. Switching between different digital, virtual and terrestrial formats will be described in this article. The outcomes discussed indicate certain client groups may benefit from a blended method approach. Attention will be given to the experiences of sensory perception, intimacy and relational proximity, during the virtual phases of the work. This article will also highlight observations in relation to the ways in which attachment dynamics have been identified and worked with in the face-to-face phase of therapy.

This article describes the Art Table at a drop-in centre for asylum seekers and refugees. It shows how a non-verbal approach can offer an opportunity for members to experience self-expression, companionship and healing in a safe space. This is illustrated by four stories of members and their artwork. The structure, approach and materials are described, followed by a discussion as to whether this work should be defined as art therapy or art and well-being. Issues specific to refugees are highlighted. The article concludes by highlighting the importance of community building and relational social justice.

Review of: Social Action Art Therapy in a Time of Crisis, Jamie Bird (2022)

London: Routledge, 268 pp.,

ISBN 978-0-36769-621-4, p/bk, £26.99

Review of: Integrative Arts Psychotherapy: Using an Integrative Theoretical Frame and the Arts in Psychotherapy, Claire Louise Vaculik and Gary Nash (Eds) (2022)

Abingdon: Routledge, 250 pp.,

ISBN 978-0-36772-636-2, p/bk, £24.99