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

[Alicia Duff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book consists of three chapters separating the foundations. Chapter one introduces the philosophy of expressive arts therapy. We touch on Descartes, Aristotle, Nietzsche and Plato as well as others. The metaphor of Dionysus and Apollo is recalled and the Dionysian conception of poiesis becomes the basis for the theory of expressive arts. Therapy is a time out of time, a pause in everyday life in which habitual behaviors, attitudes and beliefs can be examined and transformed. In order for the therapeutic change to occur, there must be a process of destructuring in which one's old identity comes into question and is taken apart. If patients can find meaning of their associations on their own, then this meaning could not have been unconscious one that is assumed to underlie their thoughts on the other hand, the analyst ( art therapist) cannot substitute his or her own understanding for the patients; if meaning does not come from the latter then it will carry no convictions with it. The patient must somehow be led to see what the analyst knows. Chapter two lays down the foundations for a theory of practice. The arts and play are bridging existential phenomena that unite initial characteristics, imagination and dream world in a way that is not possible in other activities. The cycle of feedback and sequence of observations is ordered. The final chapter shares various individual stories and their significance. Its discussed that the role of the supervisor (art therapist) is considered a key component of training and one of the forces that promotes a reformation of identity in the training of the expressive art therapists. A major goal of supervision is to encourage the students to continue to tune themselves as instruments for therapeutic practice. the challenge for the supervisor is to dance with the student in such a way that determining who is leading and who is following is almost impossible.

[akemi · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.