Working With Images: The Art of Art Therapists is an effort to give voice to the artist aspect of our identity as art therapists. This book is about how the artists work, how they learned to do it, why they do it. This book will give you glimpses of the memories, and perhaps the scars, of the artists. Be honored. The artists in this book know that it is good to make art and they make good art. Through their work they demonstrate their faith in the product and the process. For some of them, art making is their anchor, in the turbulent world of helping professions. For some, images come in response to their clients. For all of them, making art deepens and enriches their lives. Working With Images: The Art of Art Therapists is a presentation of artworks and contextual essays by professional art therapists. This book is foreworded by Don Siedien and includes an introduction that addresses the structure, rationale and intent of this book. The introduction is followed by the artist-therapists' contributions. Each art therapist's selected artworks are presented on one full page in the text. Immediately following the art piece(s) is a brief biographical sketch, a photo of the art therapist and his or her artist’s statement. From the very beginning of the art therapist profession in the United States there has been steady discussion of the relative importance of the 'artist' aspect of art therapies' professional identity. In the thirty years that the American Art Therapy Association has been in existence there have been few other topics that have generated as much interest and debate at the annual national conference. Over the past several years there has been growing interest in re-igniting our artistic passions and welcoming them back into our professional identity. This movement has been evidenced by a number of conference papers and workshops and professional journal articles focused on examining the integration of the artist and the therapist aspects of our work. Working With Images: The Art of Art Therapists presents art therapists as committed and serious, fine artists. This book will be a significant contribution to the literature, and identity, of the art therapy profession.

Combining detailed case material and over 80 examples of patients' work, the author describes how the symbolic image and the style in which it is represented often relate to a particular stage in the integration of painful experiences. As the image and the style change, so does the individual, who discovers previously untapped sources of creativity and inner strength. Drawing on theoretical insights of Jung, Balint, Milner, Winnicott and others, R. M. Simon brings to life the different ways in which patients experience art therapy and the shifting role of the therapist responding to their needs.

Working through the process of image-making in a therapeutic relationship, the art therapist is able to explore feelings, fantasies, and myths in different setting with diverse client groups. Originally published in 1987 Images of Art Therapy is a collection of essays by experienced art therapists which discuss and develop both theoretical and practical issues central to art therapy. The authors describe how they work through the use of illustrated case material which includes children, adolescents, and adults, in normal schools, psychiatric hospitals, therapeutic communities, and out-patient clinics. Theoretical considerations include bereavement, play, transference, symbolism, and verbal versus non-verbal communication. The first book on art therapy, Art as Therapy, edited by Tessa Dalley, was a useful introduction to the subject. Images of Art Therapy expands the issues raised in the earlier book in more depth, and develops new and innovative ideas which it was hoped, at the time, would influence both the theory and practice of art therapy in the future.

Clay Work and Body Image in Art Therapy provides an important addition to resources available in the field of clay work and art therapy, highlighting the unique sensory aspects of the medium and its ability to provide a therapeutic resource for women who experience body image issues. Chapters offer a comprehensive distillation of current knowledge in the field of body image, clay work, neuroscience, and art therapy, building a theoretical framework around personal narratives. Case studies examine the benefits of exploring body image through clay work within art therapy practice, providing a positive and contained way to find personal acceptance and featuring photographs of clay body image sculptures created by research participants that highlight their individual stories and experiences. As well as offering both clinical and practical implications, the text provides a full protocol for the research and evaluation methods carried out, enabling further replication of the intervention and research methods by other therapists. This book highlights clay work as a significant resource for art therapists, arts in health practitioners, and counsellors, providing an emotive yet contained approach to the development of personal body image acceptance and self-compassion.

Working With Images: The Art of Art Therapists is an effort to give voice to the artist aspect of our identity as art therapists. This book is about how the artists work, how they learned to do it, why they do it. This book will give you glimpses of the memories, and perhaps the scars, of the artists. Be honored. The artists in this book know that it is good to make art and they make good art. Through their work they demonstrate their faith in the product and the process. For some of them, art making is their anchor, in the turbulent world of helping professions. For some, images come in response to their clients. For all of them, making art deepens and enriches their lives. Working With Images: The Art of Art Therapists is a presentation of artworks and contextual essays by professional art therapists. This book is foreworded by Don Siedien and includes an introduction that addresses the structure, rationale and intent of this book. The introduction is followed by the artist-therapists' contributions. Each art therapist's selected artworks are presented on one full page in the text. Immediately following the art piece(s) is a brief biographical sketch, a photo of the art therapist and his or her artist's statement. From the very beginning of the art therapist profession in the United States there has been steady discussion of the relative importance of the "artist" aspect of art therapies' professional identity. In the thirty years that the American Art Therapy Association has been in existence, there have been few other topics that have generated as much interest and debate at the annual national conference. Over the past several years, there has been growing interest in re-igniting our artistic passions and welcoming them back into our professional identity. This movement has been evidenced by a number of conference papers and workshops and professional journal articles focused on examining the integration of the artist and the therapist aspects of our work. Working With Images: The Art of Art Therapists presents art therapists as committed and serious, fine artists. This book will be a significant contribution to the literature, and identity, of the art therapy profession.

Combing detailed case material and over 80 examples of patients' work, the author describes how the symbolic image and the style in which it is represented often relate to a particular stage in the integration of painful experience.

Schaverien painstakingly describes and defines "processes which have so far only been intuitively known to art therapists" (p6) by introducing and elaborating the psychoanalytical concepts of transference and countertransference in relation to the use of visual art objects. The authors stated intention in this book is "to attempt to bridge the perceived gap between the practice of art therapy and analytical forms of psychotherapy..."(p 229) The epistemological base of this venture includes the fields of philosophy, anthropology, and aesthetics, as well as psychoanalysis. Schaverien suggests that analytical art psychotherapy is a way of working analytically with patients who are unsuitable, or unready, for psychotherapy, giving examples of psychotic and borderline patients, children, and patients in psychiatric settings. This is primarily a book about an analytical approach within art therapy, which may be of interest in itself. The material also raises issues of interest to analysts and psychotherapists, whether or not they work with art in the clinical setting. The book clarifies areas of similarity between the disciplines, and also makes areas of difference apparent. For example, most analysts would agree that visual art, like dream material, and other non-verbal representations of the inner world, can at times articulate and communicate meanings which for one reason or another cannot be verbally articulated at the time, and that this can be pertinent to the aim of analysis. However, I think few analysts would include facilities in their consulting rooms for the kind of art processes described in the book. When the analyst is working with materials in this form, the book will be extremely helpful in sorting out the complexity of the transference situation and the role of interpretation. The book is so strongly grounded in experiences emerging in the presence of actual art processes and objects that I think it will be of most interest to those who are interested in the specific clinical issues involved in relating to the making and use of actual art objects within the setting. Schaverien not only describes the processes involved in detail, but also presents technical approaches to the making and handling of art objects within the setting which will inform the capacity of those who are not trained as art therapists to relate to this kind of material in the consulting room.'