Community art therapy (CAT): learning from art therapy graduate students’ perceptions

ABSTRACT

Background

In recent years, therapeutic approaches in the field of art therapy have gone beyond clinical models to include community models that emphasize the potential of art to influence communities in distress and encourage art therapists to expand their therapeutic interventions and extend their professional boundaries. Aims: This qualitative study was designed to better understand the experiences of art therapy graduate students who implemented community art therapy (CAT) projects during their internship after taking courses on CAT. It examined how they experienced the transition from the familiar clinical model to the community model.

Results

Five main themes emerged from the analysis: the students' perceptions of the differences between CAT and the familiar clinical art therapy setting, the specific role of the community art therapist, the role of the art, a sense of belonging to the community, and the power of the group in CAT.

Conclusions

The artistic process in CAT contribute to the co-creation of community knowledge through metaphorical expressions of identity and belonging. The students experienced the role of the community art therapist as a continuous dialectic between intervener-joiner who makes an impact and is also affected by the process personally. Engaging in a shared examination of the training of CAT allowed the educators and the students to achieve a deeper understanding of the challenges and the transformation required.

Implications for practice

CAT should be taught as a separate topic in art therapy programs, and CAT professionals should be trained to support and supervise students and therapists.

Plain-language summary

In recent years, the field of art therapy has undergone significant changes from traditional clinical to community models that emphasise the potential of art to influence communities in distress and encourage art therapists to expand their therapeutic interventions, extend their professional boundaries, and at times become social activists.

This study examined 11 art therapy students’ reports on their experiences as facilitators of a community art therapy (CAT) intervention in communities of their choice. The students wrote a one-page reflection on each community intervention and completed the Helpful Aspects of Therapy (HAT) questionnaire that explores helpful and hindering events in each intervention. Five themes emerged: the students` experiences of the differences between traditional art therapy and the CAT setting in terms of the specific role of the art therapist, the role of the art, a sense of belonging to the community, and the power of the group in CAT.

The students indicated that the role of the community art therapist involves a continuous dialectic between participants and the facilitator, who can make an impact but is also affected by the process personally. Overall, CAT should be taught as a separate topic in art therapy programmes and CAT professionals should be trained to support and supervise the work of students and therapists.

KEYWORDS:

• Art therapy
• community art therapy
• art therapy students
• art therapy training
• art therapy pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Research Committee Tel-Hai College.

Notes on contributors

Tami Gavron

Tami Gavron (Ph.D.) is an art therapist, a supervisor and a researcher. She is the coordinator of the graduate Art Therapy Programme at Tel-Hai College. She is a lecturer at The Graduate School of Creative Art Therapies at the University of Haifa. She is working at a private practice in the north of Israel. Her research and clinical specialisations include parent–child art psychotherapy, art-based supervision and community-based art therapy.

Sharon Snir

Sharon Snir, art therapist (Ph.D.), and researcher. Associate professor in the Art Therapy M.A. Programme, and Head of the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Arts and Spirituality: Therapy, Education and Society, Tel Hai College, Israel.

Yael Berkovsky

Yael Berkovsky, M.A., Stav Azoulay, M.A., Lia Dor, M.A., Noya Franco, M.A., Lynn Hirsh, M.A., Ayala kadosh Braun, M.A., Achinoam Kline, M.A., Keren Meir, M.A., Revital Peretz, M.A., Orli Porat, M.A., Yarden Segal, M.A are art therapists and graduates of the Art Therapy Program, Tel Hai College, Israel.