Authors:Philippa Brown, Helen Omand Abstract: After a period of absence ATOL is delighted to be back with this new issue. As some readers will know, we have been taking part in the direct-action boycott of academic publication and research by Goldsmiths University, our hosting website, in support of the University College Union (UCU) and as part of the industrial action in Higher Education. The boycott of research platforms has now officially ended, although strikes are currently ongoing and now echoed outside of academia in increased industrial action across public sector workplaces. Since our last publication in 2020 the world has sustained turbulent and difficult times. There have been military conflicts globally, a pandemic bringing loss and uncertainty, increased inequality and polarity in divisions of wealth, and multiple catastrophes caused by climate change. As editors of this issue, and as two art therapists based in the UK, we note the current cost of living crisis, the detrimental effects of austerity, cuts to services and Brexit. This shifting and uncertain landscape has resulted in challenges for art therapy practices. The writing in this issue reflects that of art therapists who seek to adapt to changing global contexts. PubDate: 2023-04-03 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.atol.v13i1.1698 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Carolyn Krueger Abstract: Drawing from art therapy literature relating to cultural diversity and socio-political justice, as well as from my personal experience as a white German practitioner, in this text I explore the potential role of art therapy in the context of global mental health provision. The paper considers the impact of Western psychological concepts on therapeutic settings, and power dynamics between different countries and cultures, and suggests the relevance of non-Western and Indigenous knowledge and practices for mental health when working in diverse communities. A past project in Nepal will be examined in the light of relevant art therapy literature, and through this, the paper explores the role of art and art therapy in promoting socio-political justice and different cultural approaches to mental wellbeing and healing. Keywords: art therapy, global mental health, socio-political justice, cultural diversity, psychosocial, Nepal PubDate: 2023-04-03 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.atol.v13i1.1704 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Carolyn Krueger Abstract: Ausgehend von kunsttherapeutischer Literatur zu kultureller Vielfalt und soziopolitischer Gerechtigkeit sowie von meinen persönlichen Erfahrungen als weiße, deutsche Therapeutin, untersuche ich in dieser Arbeit die potenzielle Rolle von Kunsttherapie im Kontext der globalen mentalen Gesundheitsversorgung. Der Artikel befasst sich mit dem Einfluss westlicher, psychologischer Konzepte auf das therapeutische Setting und mit Machtdynamiken zwischen verschiedenen Ländern und Kulturen. Dabei wird die Relevanz von nicht-westlichem und indigenem Wissen sowie entsprechenden Praktiken für mentale Gesundheit in der Arbeit mit einer diversen Klientel nahegelegt. Ein früheres Projekt in Nepal wird im Licht relevanter kunsttherapeutischer Literatur betrachtet. Dabei wird die Rolle von Kunst und Kunsttherapie in der Förderung soziopolitischer Gerechtigkeit und unterschiedlicher kultureller Ansätze für psychisches Wohlbefinden und Heilung untersucht. Stichworte: Kunsttherapie, globale mentale Gesundheit, soziopolitische Gerechtigkeit, kulturelle Vielfalt, psychosozial, Nepal PubDate: 2023-04-03 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.atol.v13i1.1705 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Catherine Keyzer Abstract: This article reflects on an art approach referred to as ‘Play Ground’ that evolved over six years in four Aboriginal pre-schools in regional NSW, Australia. It focuses on one of the pre-schools and proposes a culturally sensitive, collaborative play space that allows for individual and group expression within the safety of the art therapy setting, reaching beyond the work with the children, including teachers, families, and Community. Art therapy theory and processes, my art practice, and a reflective psychodynamic orientation guided my thinking and helped in navigating uncertain terrain and in understanding the continuing traumatic social framework of this school and community in the aftermath of colonisation. Western psychological knowledges offer a way of understanding the work, however, the author embarks on an ongoing search for a meeting place and point of exchange and learning in the intercultural space, within the socio-historical context of this Aboriginal Community School. Winnicott’s idea of ‘potential space’ (1971), as an intermediate area of experiencing, is embedded in Play Ground but also brought alive in the encounters and knowledge sharing between cultures - in the classroom, the staffroom, ‘under a tree’ - and may offer a between-worlds area of reverie and place of meeting. Keywords: Aboriginal, intercultural, trauma, clay, play, uncertainty PubDate: 2023-04-03 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.atol.v13i1.1706 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Jessica Collier Abstract: With the appalling military invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, foremost in my mind when reading this important book was the inevitable connection between conflict, exploitation and the use of rape as a weapon. Increasingly, reports are revealing the danger of abuse and assault that women and children are subject to when exposed to war and violence. Refugees fleeing military hostilities become significantly more vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers. This applies especially to women who are trafficked for sex when war is raging, but the risk increases merely with the presence of any military force (Nikolic-Ristanovic, 2003). The systemic and structural use of violence against women is inherent in a patriarchal society and results in women and children being victimised and their bodies used for profit in huge numbers globally. Art Therapy Treatment with Sex Trafficking Survivors: Facilitating Empowerment, Recovery and Hope is edited by experienced art therapist Mary K. Komatiani and covers work undertaken with this complex population by art therapists, social activists and psychologists in North America, Nepal and India. The book is divided into three parts. PubDate: 2023-04-03 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.atol.v13i1.1700 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Nicki Wentholt Abstract: Edited by Uwe Hermann, Margaret Hills de Zárate, and Salvo Pitruzzella this book is the first of a series to be published on the Arts Therapies and Mental Health of Children and Young People. The editors have carefully compiled contributions from England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy, Israel, and Trinidad Tobago. The book consists of an introduction followed by nine chapters with all the Arts Therapies disciplines represented. The relevance and urgency of the book’s theme, the mental health of children and young people, is immediately illustrated in the introduction, which is written by two of the three editors, Margaret Hills de Zárate and Uwe Hermann. The editors sketch the global context, the effects of globalisation, and the necessity for the Arts and Arts Therapies to be employed in the support of vulnerable and underprivileged children and young people. PubDate: 2023-04-03 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.atol.v13i1.1699 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Diana Velada Abstract: ‘…it is very hard to root in a constantly shifting world. In the studio we tap into a primal source, asking not only ‘who are we'’ but also and more insistently ‘how can we be “at home” in movement’ Kapitan (p.56). Here is a fine manifesto for the re-evaluation of studio art therapy, what defines it, its history, its significance, its variance with more clinical or psychoanalytic approaches, which for many art therapists has for some time been pre-eminent, and its future. This perspective is highlighted by Dalley in the forward when she says this book revisits ‘the healing power of art as a foundation of art therapy practice’ While a studio might be thought of as a dedicated ‘art-making’ space, somewhat set apart from the ordinary demands of daily life, editors Brown, C. & Omand H. point out in their introduction that this reflects a rather privileged European and North American idea of art, rather than understanding it as ‘being embedded in communal craft activities, architecture, or religious practices for example’. PubDate: 2023-04-03 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.atol.v13i1.1702 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Christopher Brown, Helen Omand Abstract: We were drawn to this exhibition having just published our co-edited book ‘Contemporary Practice in Studio Art Therapy’. We were curious to see what links we might find between therapeutic art studios and studios in the world of fine art, as represented through one hundred years of art history. PubDate: 2023-04-03 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.atol.v13i1.1701 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 1 (2023)
Authors:Ange Morgan Abstract: This piece responds to the review of the book titled Inventing Transgender Children & Young People in the last published edition 12(1) of ATOL: Art Therapy Online. Throughout, I will refer primarily to the book review and at times to the book which is its focus, as I suggest the two do not differ in their representation of the argument. I will use the phrase Trans and Gender Diverse (TGD) as an umbrella phrase throughout this piece to refer to the many identities within the gender spectrum. As a member of the TGD community and an Art Therapist, I was deeply troubled to read a review, published in a journal such as ATOL, that had not critiqued a book which I suggest is misleading and harmful to the TGD community. Having joined the ATOL Editorial board after the publication of the review, I was made aware of the editorial board’s efforts to grapple with questions of censorship and freedom in the decision to publish. However, when perspectives are not based in sound evidence, and create misinformation, this becomes problematic, in this case to the identities of a community and their access to equal social inclusion and to the safe access to best practice care within health systems. PubDate: 2023-04-03 DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.atol.v13i1.1703 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 1 (2023)
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