C.C. Thomas
Architects of art therapy; memoirs and life stories.
Pioneers of art therapy from before 1960 through the 1970s tell their personal stories of how they encountered the profession and how it has changed during their careers and lifetimes. The arrangement is chronological by when the therapist began their practice. Eight of the 28 have already died. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Art, angst, and trauma; right brain interventions with developmental issues.
Arrington, a licensed clinical psychologist, brings together 15 essays on the use of art therapy with children who are seriously ill, in foster care, or physically and emotionally traumatized, in addition to deviant and addicted adolescents, young adults, adults dealing with a spouse's suicide, and Alzheimer's patients and their caretakers. Essays consider how brain functions are affected by trauma and how art therapy can be used in healing, as well as brain and identity development, the Instinctual Trauma Response Model, and therapy used over the life span in the aforementioned groups. Contributors are art therapists, psychologists, and social workers in the US. Both subject and author indexes are included. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Art in treatment; transatlantic dialogue.
In addition to comparing and contrasting the different ideologies and practices prevalent in art therapy across the globe, these essays examine the many venues in which art therapy is successfully applied. Each chapter reflects the expertise of the art therapist who wrote it. The topics covered include the methods and uses of group painting; using art therapy with caregivers, children, and people with cancer; and the influence of art therapy on a community. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Art therapy activities; a practical guide for teachers, therapists and parents.
Pamela J. Stack (St. Louis Art Psychotherapy Institute) is an art therapist and educator who works with severely emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children. In this workbook for teachers, therapists, and parents, she shares some of the easy and fun art therapy activities she uses in her practice. A few examples of the lesson plans described: free-association collage, drawing two fantasy creatures, and a complete-the-line drawing game. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The role of metaphor in art therapy; theory, method, and experience.
Rather than giving therapists a dictionary of images and their supposed meanings, Moon (art therapy, Mount Mary College) gives students and practitioners ways to listen to clients in a studio setting, and to use metaphors not only in evaluating work but in subtle ways as forms of response. Moon supplies a variety of vignettes, taken from his decades of practice, and shows how clients and therapists develop stories, poems and visual art as ways to approach therapy. He describes sessions in the studio where clients and therapists work side by side, exploring issues of transition and listening metaphorically. He also gives techniques for withholding personal judgment and developing empathy, particularly when clients are in the process of divulging inner thoughts and experiences. Moon includes illustrations and a short but interesting list of references. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The use of the creative therapies with sexual abuse survivors.
Practitioners in each explore the use of art, play, dance, music, and drama to treat trauma related to sexual abuse. They describe how the various creative therapies are used to treat male and female survivors of sexual abuse, as well as children, teens, and adults. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Visually speaking; art therapy and the deaf.
In introducing ten essays on art therapy with deaf children, adolescents, and adults, as well as hearing children of deaf adults, Horovitz (Nazareth College, Rochester, New York) shares how her childhood experience of becoming temporarily deaf influenced her career choice. She points out that contributors distinguish between the deaf as disabled, and those who consider themselves part of a unique Deaf culture. With case examples, they discuss treating patients who are deaf/multiply handicapped, and how computer software has expanded art therapy applications. Deafness is also examined in international, positive psychology, and program planning contexts. The volume includes artwork and rating scales. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
