The Changing Shape of Art Therapy

Introduction, Andrea Gilroy and Gerry McNeilly, 1. Our Lady of the Queen: Journeys around the maternal object, Caroline Case, Scottish Institute of Human Relations, Edinburgh. 2. The triangular relationship and the aesthetic countertransference in analytical art psychotherapy, Joy Schaverien, art psychotherapist and Jungian analyst in private practice. 3. Back to the future: Thinking about theoretical developments in art therapy, Tessa Dalley, St Albans Child and Family Clinic. 4. The analytical art psychotherapy setting as a containing object in psychotic states, Katherine Killick, art psychotherapist and Jungian analyst in private practice. 5. Keeping the balance: Further thoughts on the dialectics of art therapy, Sally Skaife, Goldsmiths' College, University of London. 6. Failure in the group analytic setting, Gerry McNeilly, Birmingham University. 7. Teachers, students, clients, therapists, researchers: Changing gear in experiential art therapy groups, Jane Dudley, Andrea Gilroy and Sally Skaife, Goldsmiths' College, University of London. References, Index.

One of the principal focal points is the place of art in art therapy and of the responses to that art by both clients and other therapists. Contributors draw on their own experiences as art therapists in attempts to identify what contributes to successful practice and how therapists can overcome difficulties or apparent failures in their work. A range of factors affecting art therapy practice is explored, including the physical context of art therapy sessions, the place of the notion of containment in therapy, and the interplay of the different elements - art, speech, subjectivity, objectivity - that are part of contemporary practice.