Art and dramatherapists together consider a multimodal approach for supporting clients with complex trauma

‘Creative arts therapies’ (CATs) is a combined term referring to therapeutic training in one or more arts modalities. Art therapy and dramatherapy are two of these CATs, each having stand-alone training. Our research shows how, as we investigated the experiences of members in a trauma-informed workshop at the ANZACATA conference in 2018 – where members were celebrated as CATs professionals for the first time – our initial qualitative grounded theory study changed to a more performative and practice-based one. An emergent theory indicates the importance of client and therapist safety, of embodiment, and of exploring the intersectionality of these two modalities

Abject creatures : exploring the relationship between art psychotherapy and contemporary art

To experience the abject is described by Julia Kristeva as being drawn into a place where constructed meaning collapses as we encounter such feelings as horror, misery, repulsion, humiliation and desire (1982: 4). In this chapter I will explore theories of the abject and art psychotherapy to reflect and shine light on the symbiotic relationship between art psychotherapy and contemporary art practices, using my own art-making as a process of exploration for further understand the relationship

Where knowing and not knowing touch : contemporary art as a mode of research, subjective transformation and social engagement

In this chapter we offer a creative account of the exhibition Where knowing and not knowing touch (Sept, 2007), as part of an ongoing project that generates a space for questioning binaries and researching relationships - between artist and audience, aesthetics and (inter)subjectivity, the psychic and the social

Co-Vide: To See into the Void Together

The snaking initials SJSJ (Suzanne-Jill-Sheridan-Josephine) signify sisterly joy in turning toward social justice. We share our vulnerabilities and one another’s tears as we seek to see together into the void. We listen to the hauntology of the river as a carrier of secrets, fears, sorrows and dis-eases. Slowing our experiences of space, time and matter, we reach towards each other and unknown others. SJSJ once wandered uninvited as ghostly abject/ed female orphans, hybrid creatures and veiled brides into the Boiler House, where stains of degradation and violation cannot be erased from the whitened sheets of the past. Video (I see) enfolds us in edges that begin to disintegrate and reform, dying into and emerging from mysteries held and let go in the spaces between. We hold the gaze of those in our hearts; who have died, who remain with us, who are absent or yet to be; with them we are diminishing, changing, growing. These explorations are immersed in culture and nature, and endless cycles of death and rebirth. The seed of dying and despair is present as it edges up against the joy of our birthing. Being on the edge is a place of potential and risk, where creativity lives

Palliative Care for the Planet?

Art – Nature – Wellbeing is a diverse collection of art created by staff and students in the Master of Art Therapy at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) examining the interdependence of human and ecological systems, and the relationship between creativity, wellbeing and the natural world. The exhibition consists of works from various disciplines, including painting, drawing, textiles, sculpture, installation, film and digital media – in addition to live performance pieces on opening night. A collaborative arts-based enquiry into the theme of ‘palliative care for the planet’’ was initiated by Jean Rumbold following the Arts and Health Conference at Latrobe University in October 2013. As three visitors to and one indigenous inhabitant of this land, Rumbold, Horsfall, Latham and Linnell write and create together and apart, blending the ‘I’ and the ‘we’, in ways that are personal, lateral and yet collective. They experiment with the tensions and connections between different art materials and between feminist, new materialist, ecological and indigenous perspectives, in an attempt to open up a space in which to begin to make sense of extremity. The artworks, stories and poems they have produced so far on the theme of ‘palliative care for the planet’ are central to this proposal. These works are explored by the collaborating artists in a recent co-authored research paper but have not previously been exhibited