The journey of an art therapist turned education technology expert
This video, by Rita Loyd, was submitted to an online film festival on culture unplugged. In Search of Self Love explored the creative process, and how it helped Rita in her introspective and spiritual journey towards discovering her meaning of self-love.
Carol McCullough-Dieter recently came out with a new website/service called, Find Art Directives, which allows professionals to browse and organize art therapy directives. What a great idea! I checked it out recently, and noticed that the information available on the site is rather sparse, but as people begin using the site and imputing the directives they know of and use, the site will certainly become more useful.
That being said, the usability of the site still needs a bit of work. For example, looking around, it was difficult to figure out how to add a directive to the database, which is a bit of an issue for a database driven website! Here’s how you do it: once you’re logged in (you must request a user name and password to enter the site), go to My Favorites, and in green you’ll see Create a New Directive. Personally, I think Create a New Directive should be it’s own tab, on the top of the website, since without people adding info to the database, the website will be inadequate.
I’m also disappointed with how limited the choices are when adding an art directive. For example, the media types offered (in a check box format) is limited to traditional media only. No photography. No digital media. No fiber art. Also, the number of diagnoses available to check off is extremely minimal. Only substance abuse/dependence, PTSD, borderline, depression and sexual abuse. What about developmental disability? Bipolar? Schizophrenia? OCD? Maybe the answer to covering a wide range of topics is allowing the person who is imputing the info about the art therapy directive to had his/her own tags manually, while a list of commonly used tags are available just below—similar to what’s found on a WordPress blog when you’re writing a post.
With a few tweaks to the website, I think Find Art Directives will be a useful resource for art therapists. I remember one of my art therapy internship supervisors had a box of index cards with art therapy directives written on each, making it easier to keep the group ideas coming. This is especially important when working with the same population over a longer period of time, keeping art therapy groups fresh and exciting.
Check out this slide show offered by Discover Magazine.
Also, here’s a link to the book by Jill Mullin—the inspiration for the slide show.
Turn your artwork into sound using this iPhone ap.
“The app is easily graspable and intuitive, allowing someone with no musical or drawing background to lauch it and start exploring. At the same time SWS goes deep and encourages musicians and artists alike to explore new ideas in their craft.”
Check out this discussion on the Art Therapy Alliance page on LinkedIn (you must be a member to view):
Carly Sullens asks,
I am wondering about art therapists who are also artists who sell their work. What do we need to be aware of as clinicians when clients or interested or even buy our work?
This question generated a lively discussion about art therapist, their artwork and ethics.
As you may have noticed I have an artwork page on my blog. This is my response to the Carly’s question, although my focus is not on clients buying my artwork, but rather, seeing my artwork as a part of this blog:
I write a blog and have an artwork section, where I posted several personal pieces relating to my personal identity and struggle—mainly having to do with health related issues.
When I was studying art therapy, the program I attended emphasized psychodynamic theory, in which the blank slate was very much encouraged. As I began practicing art therapy, however, I found myself naturally gravitating more towards the humanistic side. I wondered whether, if I was the client, would I be able to relate and be open with someone who was never somewhat open with me about their perspectives and struggles? Also, because I’m young, which some people interpret as having minimal life experience, I find it important (at times) to reveal a small part of who I am in order to gain trust and encourage a therapeutic connection. That being said, I don’t advertize my blog to the clients I work with, and none have mentioned my writing or artwork to me. Similar to what others have said, if my clients asked about my artwork, I would process this, just as I would process anything else they brought into the session.
Another reason I made an artwork page on my blog is that I wanted to show other art therapists a piece of who I am, hopefully making a connection to my readers. I realize that some people who look at my blog are also prospective students or people who are interested in seeing an art therapist for their own therapy. The artwork page, along with my writing, may help to demystify what art therapy is without showing the artwork of the clients I work with, which is another huge ethical grey area—one that is worthy of it’s own discussion.
If down the road it seems that my ethical judgment was unfounded, it would certainly be a learning experience and something to be shared with other art therapists. In this world of technology and social networking the concept of privacy is changing, and so is the idea of separating personal and professional lives. Everyone with an internet presence now lives in a “small town”, since everyone can access multiple dimensions of everyone else’s lives with the click of a mouse (or, if you have an iPad, a press of the finger).
We may not be able to foresee all the pros and cons of this topic until years down the road, when more learning/experience has developed. However, the first step towards a deeper understanding of this question lies with these types of discussions. Thank you Carly!
Recently on Project Runway, one of the challenges was to design your own fabric using an HP tablet PC. What I found most interesting is how many of the contestants used paint brushes to work on their tablet, rather than a stylus.
Check out the clip below. The drawing part comes at approx 5 minutes into the show.
