Principles and Practice of Expressive Arts Therapy: Toward a Therapeutic Aesthetics

by Paolo J. Knill, Ellen G. Levine (Contributor), Stephen K. Levine (Contributor)

Challenging traditional therapeutic approaches to the arts in which art is often secondary to a psychological model, Principles and Practice of Expressive Arts Therapy provides a coherent theoretical framework for an expressive arts therapy practice that places the process of art-making and the art work itself at the center. This book lays the philosophical foundation for a fresh interpretation of art-making and the therapeutic process by re-examining the concept of poiesis. The authors clarify the methodology and theory of practice with a focus on intermodal therapy, crystallization theory and polyaesthetics, and give guidance on the didactics of acquiring practical skills. Case studies of clinical practice and guidance on supervision and training in intermodal expressive arts therapy complement the theoretical chapters. Combining philosophy, theory and practice, this book is an essential text for students and academics in the field and for practicing expressive and specialized arts therapists.

Genres: Art, Psychology, School, Grad School

264 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2004

About the author

Paolo Knill was a scientist, artist, and therapist. As a professor at Lesley University (Cambridge, Massachusetts), he helped found the graduate program in Expressive Arts Therapy.

Reviews

[xenia]

Therapy as poiesis: active self-reflective engagement with one's being-in-the-world, a mutual shaping of both world and self, from a decentred position that allows for the emergence of unimagined potentialities in and through artwork -- the third analytic -- the intersubjective field/thing/process between client and therapist. Poietic struggling towards ever increasing complexity that denounces the modernist desire for ideal egoic mastery. Anti-Hegelian materialism, that posits the actual before the virtual: that the work of art emerges before thought, or perhaps, makes thought emerge. Dionysian scattering and remaking.

A bit dry and redundant by the halfway point. Some fun stories of students making clay dicks at the end.

[Peaches]

I tried to read this book once for a class and it was so dull that I stopped and forgot I tried, then tried again today. It's just so dense and dull when EXA should be exciting.