A brief definition of group interactive art therapy
It is, astonishingly, more than 20 years since this book was first published. In that time, many of the people who were so central to its conception and birth have died. Some of the countries where I developed the model have experienced major change and even civil war. It has thus been a particularly difficult and painful emotional experience to return to the original text and to do the necessary revisions. The world has changed, the structures of and the language of health and social care have changed, and so have I. I was glad to be able to write a brief but updated paper for Cathy Malchiodi’s Handbook of Art Therapy (Waller 2003 and second edition 2012: 353–67) which gave a chance for some of the feedback from colleagues, a new case study and my own reflections to be included. This helped in the current task, to review and add to the original 1993 manuscript, to update the literature and to include thoughts on the kind of training and experience needed to practise the model, developments of the model in a social context and how it can be adapted for research. I have though left most of the original Case Examples intact as they continue to illustrate the theoretical points.
The model of ‘group interactive art therapy’ is based on concepts from group analysis, interactive (or interpersonal) group psychotherapy, systems theory, process sociology and art therapy. It is an evolving model which in its theoretical base incorporates the work of Foulkes, Stack Sullivan and Yalom; and latterly Agazarian and Peters and Astrachan, who have introduced a ‘systems approach’ to group psychotherapy. A period of study in the mid-1990s at the University of Leicester’s Centre for Research into Sport headed by Professor Eric Dunning (famous for his studies of football) was the unlikely location I discovered for bringing together the ideas of many of the above people and theories which are so important to me. Being very interested in sport and responding to an advert for a distance-learning MSc in the Sociology of Sport, I discovered the Centre’s commitment to the process or figurational model of sociology developed by Norbert Elias, a colleague of Sigmund Foulkes, who as we know was a very prominent figure in the evolution of group analysis in Britain. I had used a process model of professions in my PhD thesis, completed in 1990, without being fully aware of the connections between Elias, his former student and colleague Eric Dunning, and Foulkes. I had also done my group analytic psychotherapy training under the eagle eye of Dr Ilsa Seglow, without knowing that she had been a student of Elias’ and written her PhD on ‘The profession of Actor’. Later I found that Earl Hopper, who has developed Bion’s theories of Basic Assumptions, was a student of Eric Dunning! So I can truthfully say that the model of group interactive art therapy continues to evolve, with both conscious and unconscious influences and a fair measure of serendipity. These kind of discoveries are such a part of the creative process, and they are at the heart of both art therapy and group psychotherapy as I understand them.
Group interactive art therapy draws on fundamental principles of art therapy. These are: that visual image- (or object-) making is an important aspect of the human learning process; that image-making (and this includes painting, drawing, clay-work, constructions, etc.) in the presence of a therapist may enable a client to get in touch with early, repressed feelings as well as with feelings related to the ‘here-and-now’; that the ensuing art object may act as a container for powerful emotions that cannot be easily expressed; and that the object provides a means of communication between therapist and patient. It can also serve to illuminate the transference (that is, feelings from the past which are brought into the here-and-now and influence the way that we experience others) between the therapist and patient.
I began the exploration of this model by giving an idea about the way in which concepts of group psychotherapy and art therapy have evolved from about the 1940s. I included discussion of the work of art therapists who have written about groups, particularly the group analytic or interactive models. I have drawn attention to the early debate in art therapy literature about ‘directive and non-directive’ approaches to art therapy and their relative merits, which was launched by McNeilly in 1983, and shown how this gave rise to an interesting discussion about the role of theme-centred interaction in art therapy groups and about structuring the group’s time between image-making and talking. I have discussed more recent texts which explore using art therapy in groups. Throughout the first edition I drew fairly extensively on those authors who have presented and developed the ‘interpersonal’ approach to group psychotherapy (for example, Yalom, Ratigan and Aveline, Bloch and Crouch) and this has not changed in the revised edition.
Introducing art therapy to an interactive group changes the dynamics of the group. I have pointed out aspects of the interactive group which are generally held to be curative and described how art therapy may enhance its treatment potential. At the same time, the introduction of art materials makes specific demands upon the conductor and the group members and I have explored what I feel are the main issues involved in the leadership of an interactive art therapy group, expanding in this edition on particular skills that are needed to ensure the effectiveness of the model.
The theoretical elements of the book are illustrated by examples from practice – my own and others – to show how the model can be adapted for use with trainees from different backgrounds (medicine to art) and clients (from more or less well-functioning adults to people with learning difficulties and progressive illness).
As one of the most important learning experiences for me has been in working abroad in societies and cultures very different from that of the UK, and I firmly believe that therapists need to be aware of their own cultural and racial biases, I have tried to give the book a ‘cross-cultural’ flavour. I have tended to use ‘client’, ‘patient’, ‘participant’ and ‘member’ to describe group members, depending upon the context of the group.
Names of all participants and, in some cases, the location of the group have been changed in order to protect confidentiality.
I would like to acknowledge the following, with grateful thanks: Sadly, in the past 20 years the following friends have died:
Dr Maria Belfiori (Director, Art Therapy Italiana, Bologna)
Fr Mario Picci (President Centro Italiano di Solidarieta, Rome)
Juan Corelli (Vice-President Centro Italiano di Solidarieta)
Dr Irene Jakab (President of the International Society for the Study of the Psychopathology of Expression and Art Therapy – SIPE, New York)
And my husband, Dan Lumley, who had worked with me on many occasions, taking the photographs, leading the art practice workshops and providing a warm and down-to-earth presence.
All the group members and interpreters,
Centro Italiano di Solidarieta, Rome,
Art Therapy Italiana, Bologna,
Inper, Lausanne,
Fausto-Sergei Sommer, Bern,
Centre for Arts and Therapy, Athens,
Medical Academy, Sofia, Bulgaria,
Department of Psychiatry, University of Zagreb,
Teresa Boronska,
Netherne Hospital, Coulsdon, Surrey (photograph of the studio),
Nick Tipton (photograph of the Art Psychotherapy Unit hut),
Juan Corelli,
Nizetta Anagnostopoulou,
Professor Mike Crawford and Professor Helen Killaspy, Matisse Group Art Therapy research project,
Professor Jenny Rusted and Dr Linda Sheppard, Apollo Group Art Therapy and Dementia research project,
Barry Falk, Finlay McInally, Tony Gammidge, Art psychotherapists and researchers,
Dr Khalid Ali, Art therapy in stroke rehabilitation research project, members of the art therapy group who made the Juggling Clown image on the front cover, and the film Circus Dreams,
My friends Dr Istvan Hardi and Dr Guy Roux whose support and encouragement for the past 30 years has been invaluable.