Art Therapy a Research Based Map of the Field

Karkou, Vicky & Sanderson, Patricia (2006). Arts Therapies – A Research Based Map of the Field. London, UK: Elsevier (307 pages).

Reviewed by Lucy O'Grady, University of Bergen, Norway

The human relationship between music therapy and other arts therapies is not a 'hot' topic at this bespeak in the development of music therapy-specific literature. Autonomously from some focused exploration of the issue from Smeijsters and Cleven (2006), Faire and Langan (2004) and myself (O'Grady, 2010), it may exist off-white to say that music therapists are at this fourth dimension sufficiently occupied with the complexities of their ain discipline, let alone the complexities of the arts therapies as a whole. Possibly a 'hotter' topic at this point in music therapy is that of developing indigenous theory and this is where a research-based map of the arts therapies could be a timely contribution. In guild to discover what is unique to music therapy, we may be well-served to ask what is shared and what is different across all arts therapies. The book, Arts Therapies – A Enquiry Based Map of the Field, is based on this very premise.

The book really should be called Arts Therapies 'in the Britain' – A Research-based Map of the Field since it is based on interviews and survey questionnaires of over 580 arts therapists practicing in the Great britain. However, it is only the title which is slightly misleading since in their introduction the authors admit this scope which is divers both by the enquiry sample and reference to predominantly British literature. The authors define the arts therapies field as consisting of iv separate disciplines: 1) Music Therapy (MT), 2) Art Therapy (AT), three) Drama Therapy (DT), and iv) Dance Move Therapy (DMT). The authors claim to be the starting time to effort to delineate through empirical research the commonalities and the differences between these four arts therapies in terms of theory and practice. The authors besides acknowledge the methodological complexity of doing so, however they propose that it is worth the endeavor in club to clarify misconceptions, advance the progress of the profession(s) and to promote collaboration betwixt unlike arts therapists while strengthening the theoretical positions of each discipline. The authors are articulate that their book does not correspond a proposition that all iv arts therapies should become one; instead, there is the clear implication throughout that each arts therapy tin exist strengthened through consideration of the other. Through these ambitious aims, the authors identify iii master audiences for the book: arts therapists, lay readers, and other health professionals.

The book is divided into two main sections, with four capacity in each. Section 1 considers the field as a whole in terms of its historical development, boundaries and definition, common features and mutual theoretical frameworks. Section ii addresses the arts therapies every bit carve up modalities and focuses on the uniqueness of each subject field, illustrating through instance examples presented in tabular array format. The authors state that they exercise non intend to offer in-depth accounts of each discipline in this section, but enough that the reader may accept "the possibility of a first, comprehensive understanding of the field" (p iv). Each chapter follows a clear format, with the overall structure and primal problems highlighted at the beginning of the chapter and much of the text illustrated through tables and diagrams.

Chapter 1 presents an overview of the professional evolution of the arts therapies as a whole. The role of western traditions in the development of arts therapies is largely emphasised, while the employ of the arts past shamans and inside ethnic cultures is mainly relegated to pre-celebrated times. The emphasis on western historical influence is reiterated in chapter 2, where arts therapies are delineated from traditional therapies such equally acupuncture based on the assumption that "arts therapies are a product of western lodge" (p. 36). This rather simplistic emphasis and brevity of discussion begins to clarify just how large and potentially over-ambitious the scope of this book may be. In this sense, the get-go chapter seems virtually to serve the lay person or the beginner-reader. A potentially more interesting word for arts therapists in affiliate ane concerns how up until now the different disciplines have been separate due to the fearfulness that merging them would develop practices with questionable depth in understanding the art course and thus questionable therapeutic value. This idea is supported recently past Gold, Wigram & Voracek (2007) whose statistical analyses indicated that clients showed greater wellness improvement when music therapy was limited to subject field-specific music therapy techniques and did not include media from other arts therapies disciplines. The authors of the book note exceptions to the current condition of separate arts therapies disciplines through the 'expressive arts therapies' movement in the USA and the Plant for the Arts in Therapy and Teaching in the Great britain. They exercise not mention the Netherlands equally another major exception to the rule, where the unlike arts therapies are served past the professional person Dutch Association for Creative Therapy (Smeijsters & Vink, 2003). Withal, the first chapter in the book highlights an interesting tendency across the arts therapies, in that the most common surface area for arts therapists to work in terms of customer difficulties is with emotional\behavioural issues (59%).

In Chapter 2 the authors hash out the boundaries of the field in relation to the therapeutic arts (arts in health), arts instruction, other therapies and other health practices, a discussion which then culminates in a definition of the arts therapies every bit a whole field. One of the differences between the therapeutic arts and the arts therapies, reiterated throughout the chapter, is that the therapeutic arts emphasise the production while the arts therapies value instead the process. This is arguably an outdated assumption and an unnecessary split betwixt process and product, since there are examples of artists working in wellness who too recognise the importance of process and attempt to balance the two (O'Grady, 2010). The privacy and inward processes of arts therapies also as their dyadic or pocket-sized-group constituents are besides emphasised in this chapter, which is interesting to consider in the light of Customs Music Therapy discourse where "out and around processes" (Stige, Ansdell, Elefant & Pavlicevic, 2010) are also valued and whole communities may be worked with (Stige, 2002). After discussing the boundaries of the field, the authors in this affiliate examine past definitions of each arts therapy and track changes in emphases over time. For example, from 1989 to 2004 MT definitions are interpreted as irresolute from a humanistic emphasis to more of an credence of a diversity of approaches and practices. Chapter two culminates bravely by presenting a definition of the arts therapies every bit a whole field.

The third and fourth capacity are amongst the most valuable in the book considering of the interesting commonalities they present. In affiliate 3 the authors advise that in that location are five main assumptions common to MT, AT, DT and DMT: one) the 'arts' are defined in broad terms, 2) there is a focus on the process, 3) there is a belief in the preverbal evolution of engagement in the arts, 4) the arts are holistic and, v) the arts offer therapeutic potential. Furthermore, the authors suggest that the main features across the arts therapies are an accent upon creativity; imagery, symbolism and metaphor; non-verbal communication; the triangular human relationship between the customer, the art-form and the therapist; the therapeutic human relationship equally both transferential and existent; and finally, the formulation of therapeutic aims that reflect overall psychotherapeutic orientations of either behaviourism, humanism or psychoanalysis. This last idea is developed further in chapter four, where vi theoretical trends are identified across MT, AT, DT and DMT:
1) Humanistic, two)Psychoanalytic\Psychodynamic, 3) Developmental, 4) Creative\Creative, 5) Active\Directive – which the authors relate to Wheeler'southward (1983) first level of music psychotherapy as well as to behaviourism, and 6) Eclectic\Integrative. The prevalence of these particular theoretical approaches for unlike customer groups is identified. For example, the psychodynamic\psychoanalytic arroyo is predominantly used for clients with mental health bug. In terms of developing indigenous theory in music therapy or beyond the arts therapies, the artistic\artistic theoretical tendency is perhaps the most relevant simply is also presented by the authors equally the least theoretically developed and then far.

As an arts therapist (music), I find the second section less interesting to read. Mayhap this is because the focus upon the idiosyncracies of each particular arts therapy in terms of its pioneers and their myriad collection of various and sometimes unrelated theoretical ideas renders information technology difficult for me to gain a coherent, concise film of the uniqueness of each arts therapy. I cannot imagine which of the identified audiences would do good most from this section. Instead, I find the introductory page to each chapter where cardinal bug are highlighted the most helpful and interesting part of Department 2.

The idiosyncracies of MT are addressed get-go as Chapter 5. In this chapter it is interesting to larn that in some means MT leads the arts therapies, since information technology was the offset discipline of the arts therapies to course a professional body and also receive early on recognition. The authors explain that this may be in part due to the high value accorded to music in western traditions compared with other art-forms. It is also interesting to learn that music therapists in the UK predominantly work through improvisation and with children who have learning difficulties. The authors link this to the early on pioneers of music therapy in Great britain, Alvin and the Nordoff-Robbins partnership. The authors also highlight their findings that there are insufficiently few music therapists working with people whom they label 'normal neurotics' and few in private practice. They also emphasise the divide between active and receptive techniques in music therapy equally well as the importance of the 'iso' principle, an idea which dates back to Plato and that, in music therapy, relates to matching a person'south mood with music. Of interest to the move to develop ethnic theory in music therapy, the authors also suggest that "MT, in comparison with other arts therapies, draws less heavily upon related fields in order to provide a theoretical justification of its practice" (p. 124). Example examples, presented in table format, from Oldfield, Bunt, Ansdell, Sobey, Levinge and Odell-Miller are used to highlight unlike theoretical approaches to music therapy that take developed from Alvin, Nordoff and Robbins, and Priestley. The authors also briefly discuss GIM and behavioural approaches to music therapy only suggest that these are less popular in the U.k.. A similar format is used for the following 3 chapters, of which I will only highlight a few points concerning the relationship betwixt the arts therapies. This is because for those readers who are interested in learning almost each discipline in particular rather than how they chronicle to each other, I recommend reading this book or, for more depth, other books that are focussed on the item arts therapy discipline of interest.

Affiliate vi presents AT as a unique arts therapies discipline. The authors highlight how art therapists in the U.k. emphasise psychoanalytic\psychodynamic thinking and value much less an artistic\creative theoretical framework. The authors also discuss the heated debate in AT surrounding directive vs. non-directive approaches which stems from the move to distinguish AT from the more than directive use of arts in occupational therapy.

Affiliate 7 focuses upon DT as a unique arts therapy. It is interesting to learn in this chapter that a relatively large proportion of DTs in the Uk work with people who exercise not present an credible difficulty (more than 10%). The authors propose that this may be partly due to the exact nature of DT which makes information technology better suited to clients with some caste of cognitive\physical\emotional skills. It is likewise interesting to acquire that DTs place more accent on humanistic theories and creative\creative principles and are less in agreement with psychoanalytic\psychodynamic thinking than other arts therapists. In chapter eight, information technology is interesting to learn that DMT is the near recently established arts therapy in the UK and that these arts therapists place a insufficiently higher value on humanistic understandings of their work.

The authors offer a concluding chapter in which they suggest that arts therapists from each split up subject area tin can expect to the strengths of the other disciplines in club to piece of work on the weaknesses of their ain. For instance, they propose that "MT tin offer knowledge and experiences of undertaking all-encompassing inquiry piece of work in MT practice and creating a public contour that tin exist useful for all arts therapists. In terms of clinical practise, the relative aversion of music therapists to eclectic\integrative principles can remind arts therapists that within a postmodern era that values diversity, it is important to retain a clear sense of professional person identity that is non in danger of fragmentation or diffusion and at the same fourth dimension does not lose essential flexibility" (p. 276). Furthermore, the authors' conclusions point toward the need to explore commonalities and distinctive practices amongst dissimilar arts therapies in gild to begin to develop indigenous theory for each subject field.

Due to the ambitious scope and diversity of intentions underlying this book, the three identified audiences (arts therapists, lay readers and health professionals) are not consistently addressed throughout. Different audiences may prefer unlike parts of the volume. For example, chapter 1 may exist particularly useful for lay people or prospective arts therapies students, whilst chapters iii and 4 may be of most involvement to arts therapists who are wondering how they might collaborate with other arts therapists. The 2nd section may also serve this purpose just is probably most useful for other health-care professionals who are questioning the relevance of the arts therapies to their own work or which arts therapy may exist particularly appropriate in their workplace. I suggest that the key issues highlighted at the starting time of each chapter in the 2nd section will be the most helpful in this regard. More obviously, this volume will probably be of about interest to arts therapists, lay readers and health professionals in the U.k., nevertheless it is also a useful starting bespeak for considering the commonalities and differences amongst the arts therapies in other parts of the world. For music therapists in any country, the fact that this volume is grounded in inquiry makes it a useful tool for continuing the development of ethnic music therapy theory and for considering our role in the development of indigenous theory for the arts therapies every bit a whole.

References

Faire & Langan (2004). Expressive Music Therapy: Empowering Engaged Citizens and Communities. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved February 8, 2010, from http://world wide web.voices.no/mainissues/mi40004000159.html

Aureate, C., Wigram, T., & Voracek, M. (2007). Predictors of change in music therapy with children and adolescents: The role of therapeutic techniques. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Enquiry and Practice, 80m 577-589.

Smeijsters, H., & Cleven, Thousand. (2006). The handling of aggression using arts therapies in
forensic psychiatry. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 33, 37-58.

Smeijsters, H., & Vink, A. (2003). Music therapy in the Netherlands. Voices: A earth
forum for music therapy, Retrieved 01/10/2009, from voices.no/land/monthnetherlands_september2003.html

Stige, B. (2002). Culture-centered music therapy. Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers.

Stige, B., Ansdell, G., Elefant, C., & Pavlicevic, M. (Eds.). (2010). Where music helps:
Customs music therapy in activeness and reflection. Surrey: Ashgate.

Wheeler, B. (1983). A psychotherapeutic classification of music therapy practices. Music
Therapy Perspectives, ane(2), 8-sixteen.

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Source: https://njmt.w.uib.no/2010/08/06/arts-therapies-%E2%80%93-a-research-based-map-of-the-field/

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