PUBLICATIONS & DOCUMENTS
On this page you can access papers by Insider Artists, colleagues, and presenters from our events, and previously published articles and papers we have permission to make available from this site. Where a paper has been published, you will find links to the journals and organisations that have helped us in this way, and for papers by contributors, author links.
We will continue to expand this aspect of our work, and hope to contribute to developing a vivid literature of the arts therapies and the arts & health. New documents and publications will appear on this site regularly. (click on the titles to download).
We are delighted to announce publication of our first book!
Love, Desire & Teen Spirit: Reflections on the Dynamic Force of Adolescent Eros by Joolz McLay.
For details about this book and how to order click here.
Series introduction, contents page, chapter excerpt etc click here.
For information about Joolz see Biographies & CV's in the Archive section.
Information about our second title, Ornithology for the Birds: A Jungian Circumambulation of the Arts & Therapy by Michael Edwards will appear shortly.
Publications:
Publications are numbered in reverse order with highest number being most recent.
No: 15
Coinciding with our forthcoming publication of Michael Edwards’ book ‘A Jungian Circumambulation of the Arts and Therapy: Ornithology for The Birds’ we are pleased to offer here some additional material.
‘Art Therapy as an Adjunct to Psychotherapy’ (1968) and ‘Art and Therapy: An Uneasy Partnership’ (1971) are two papers by Irene Champernowne which shed fascinating lights on the debates taking place at a formative period in British art therapy, in which Edwards was much involved, (including a period as chair of the British Association of Art Therapists, BAAT), and refers to in the book. Irene was the Jungian analyst whose inspirational leadership, along with her husband Gilbert’s pragmatism, made the formative, for Edwards and for British Art therapy, Withymead experiment in art and therapy happen. The Withymead community, (like Insider Art, based in Exeter, Devon, UK), was one of the first, most extensive and sustained early developments of the arts as psychotherapy, between 1942 until 1967, Its story is well told in ‘Withymead, A Jungian Community for the Healing Arts’, (Anthony Stevens, Coventure, 1986), all though not everyone, including Edwards, quite shared some of Steven’s perspectives.
As well as these two papers by Champernowne we are also pleased to present a Withymead ‘Prospectus’ from 1964. The arts studios are honoured here as ‘for most (people at the Centre)… the vital key to health’.
Not surprisingly given that at the time there were no formal training’s for art psychotherapists in the UK, both Champernowne papers revolve around a dynamic between the art therapists and psychotherapist as being different people. Now the art therapist is in effect dual trained as both artist and psychotherapist. This certainly does not make the issues she explores altogether redundant however. Positions that are lean towards ‘psychotherapy’ or ‘identity’ are still very much in play not only within the profession but within the thoughts and feelings of many practitioners! It could also be argued that they lot of the territory defined here as ‘art therapy’ is also finding new expression, as ‘Arts and Health’, and having to learn a lot of the same lessons all over again.
In this light Irene saw the difference between ‘psychotherapy’ and ‘art therapy’ (then?) and ‘arts in health’ (now?) as in the depths of the relationships involved, as well as their aims. She wrote:
But therapy is more than passing time - it is healing in depth and if Therapy is to become harnessed to-a partner called Art there is a great danger that Art will over-ride the partnership, for perhaps for some it has a more exciting and greater appeal. It has results to show and does not necessarily force the "teacher" or "therapist" into the often uncomfortable deep involvement with sick or suffering individuals which true therapy certainly must.
Champernowne struggles to resolve these ongoing and complex dynamics, not always elegantly. In some ways, she seems to be stuck with Jung’s own deep ambivalence about whether art and therapy can ever be the same thing at the same time. Nevertheless she does achieve some real syntheses, especially at the end of ‘Art and Therapy: An Uneasy Partnership’ when she writes movingly about a joint enterprise between artist and therapist identities in becoming ‘Artists in the Art of Living’. Edwards reported Irene as saying that ‘so many of you artists lead such un-artistic lives’. She does not underestimate the pains, and indeed risks, of creativity. But, following Jung, and like Edwards after her, Champernowne sees the arts as indispensible tools of meaning-making, writing that
Man does not groan in dark despair over the pains of meaningful creation, only over meaninglessness
Together these documents not only provide helpful background to Edwards book, but shed light on where debates in current art therapy/ arts and health practice have their roots.
The material here, compared with Edwards book, also makes it clear how much more complex Edwards’ thinking became than that of his mentor, though often preoccupied with the same issues.
No: 14
No: 13
'Things are changing for me...the anger is still there but not the hatred some reflections from work with a racist':
John Wright
By kind permission of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Journal who first published this article in Volume 17:3 pp 241 -252
We include this paper here as it formed the basis of a presentation given at the Seventh Exeter Arts & Therapies Conference 2008. Full details of the conference can be found on the Exeter Conference page of this site. Thanks to John for his presentation and his permission to share the paper.
No: 12
Courageous Conversations: Anthony Richards
By kind permission of Arts Professional www.artsprofessional.co.uk who first published this article in Issue 167, 07 April 2008.
We include it here with this note from the author: "Last winter I found myself being a student on the Art in Mental Health Foundation Course run by Insider Art. Something I learned was that it demands a great degree of bravery, and patience, on the part of a therapist to encourage a client into a safe, creative, mental and physical place from which they can produce material to begin a therapeutic conversation. I learned that there was no standard approach for this - it takes skill and training.
For me this resonates loudly with how I work as a role play actor in training others. I have to create a safe zone within which I encourage the delegate to play with me. Once we are engaged in the world of make believe, we can then have a dialogue which, at best, helps the characters to understand some difficult and personal things about themselves, each other and the situation they find themselves in.
Working with people in the Arts is a complex and sensitive business. I get grumpy with aspects of the Arts Council's approach to supporting and developing work so I wrote the Courageous Conversations article.
I think you can substitute the word Leader with Therapist or Counsellor and still see it make sense." Anthony Richards
No: 11
New Therapist
Indispensable survival guide for the thinking therapist
Art Psychotherapy: The Wood Between the Worlds. - Malcolm Learmonth & Karen Huckvale. This article provides an introduction to Art Psychotherapy. By kind permission of New Therapist who published this piece in their Jan/Feb 2008 issue. See other articles from this international journal at www.newtherapist.com
No: 10
Shared Territories An audit and analysis of the Arts and Health Sector in the South West based on research undertaken in 2005.
No: 9
Changing Our Minds - Malcolm Learmonth.
By kind permission of OpenMind, who published this piece July / August 2005 Issue. OpenMind publish many articles from their excellent journal at: www.mind.org.uk/shopping/openmind. The paper is an attempt to outline as user friendly rationale for why art therapy works, from an evolutionary perspective.
No: 8
Support for the Arts in Health from Art Therapy - Malcolm Learmonth and Karen Huckvale.
This paper was written for the National Network for Arts in Health website, where it is also available. This paper sets out some of the similarities, differences and common ground between the arts therapies and the arts in health, and how they can and should work together. www.nnah.org.uk.
No: 7
Painting Ourselves Out of a Corner - Malcolm Learmonth.
This Paper is the full version of the keynote speech given to the Scottish Arts Therapies Forum Conference in Edinburgh in 2002. An edited form was published in the British Association of Art Therapists Newsbriefing. It addresses an arts therapies audience about the ways that the they need to think carefully about how the language and presentation of a rationale for therapy practice can lead to misperceptions. Scottish Arts Therapies Forum are at www.satf.org.uk.
No: 6
Making a Case for art therapy based on the NICE Guidelines on Depression - Malcolm Learmonth.
This work on the National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidelines on the most common mental health problems was commissioned by the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT), www.baat.org. This is a short account of using the guidelines to argue for better therapy services.
No: 5
The NICE Guidelines on Depression, an analysis from an art therapy perspective - Malcolm Learmonth.
This is a longer deconstruction of how the ‘evidence’ is constructed in ways that exclude complex psychological therapies like the arts therapies. It both gives the grounds for challenging the frequently misrepresented ‘evidence’, and highlights the many ways in which it is not as clear it as it is made to appear!
No: 4
Arts Creativity and Mental Health Initiative: Mental Health Foundation.
This report, with an endorsement from Malcolm Learmonth as Arts and Health Lead for the British Association of Art Therapists, outlines the results of offering arts therapies at four pilot sites in rural Scotland. The ACMI report is convincing in its findings that ordinary people “were positive that art therapy had helped them, especially with improvement to self esteem and added meaning to their lives”, that a life could be “totally changed by the experience”.
No: 3
Art therapy and its uses: Malcolm Learmonth. Click on this link to go to this paper, published in Community Care, January 07.
No: 2
'Creative Thinking'. This overview of art therapy by Malcolm Learmonth, was published in Disability Product News in February 2007(http://www.disabilityproductnews.co.uk ), and is reproduced here with their kind permission. It includes a valuable service user account of art therapy by Kathleen Gibson. It's quite a big file, so only try this if you have a fast connection! For a smaller, text only version, click here.
No: 1
'What Evidence'. Published by Openmind in December 2007, this article sums up why 'NICE' processes and concepts of evidence do a disservice to psychological therapies, and to service users. OpenMind publish many articles from their excellent journal at:
www.mind.org.uk/shopping/openmind
Documents:
These are previously unpublished papers we believe are valuable contributions to the literature. We will continue to add to them...
NO:12
Pauline McGee presented at What's the Story, the Sixth Exeter Arts & Therapies conference.
She has recently made this document about her work available. It contains many pictures. There is also a link to her website.
NO: 11
Nature & Nurture: The Image, the Word and the World.
Seventh Exeter Arts & Therapies Conference
For full conference report and more pictures click here.
Details of the eighth Exeter Arts & Therapies conference will appear in the autumn.
NO:10
Externalising Exceptions - Mark Hayward
Mark made this highly useful handout available to accompany his talk given at the sixth EATc conference in 2007.
NO: 9
The image is its' own best explanation - Michael Edwards
This hand out accompanied Michaels talk given at the sixth EATc conference in 2007.
NO: 8
Information Leaflet - Caspar Walsh
Caspar gave a talk at the sixth EATc conference in 2007. This is his information leaflet.
NO: 7
The Reenchantment of Art Therapy - Marilyn Miller.
This paper, given at the EATc conference in 2003, addresses connections between art therapy and current art practice.
‘Sometimes, the wider society needs attention, as well as the individual or family. Can art therapy draw on models of new genre public art and social activism? This brings potential for new ways of working with communities, and reaffirms art therapists as artists.’
Marilyn can be contacted at: mm.m@virgin.net.
NO: 6
Working with Children in Jerusalem - Ruth Guttfreund.
This is a moving account by an Art Therapist of working with children who are caught up in armed conflict, sessions at times taking place literally in an air raid shelter.
‘In these times of such political turmoil and violence it has been interesting to observe how the external frightening reality has affected children, their artwork and what comes into the art therapy room…’
Ruth is now living and working in El Salvador. She can be contacted at: rutdebogut@hotmail.com.
NO: 5
With all their tenderness intact: the arts, otherness and political violence' -
Malcolm Learmonth. This previously unpublished paper examines some connections between war, trauma and the arts, and reaches some possibly surprising conclusions....
NO: 4
Why Art Therapy Makes Sense - Malcolm Learmonth and Karen Huckvale.
This is an example of a handout used with Insider Art Introductory Workshops. It endeavours to give participants an accessible summary of what they’ve hopefully learned in the course of a day, and live up to its title!
NO:3
A Gap in the Arts - Malcolm Learmonth and Karen Huckvale.
This paper was written for a-n (Artists Newsletter) in 2002, but was never published. It revisits the arts therapies/ arts and health continuum, this time by addressing some of the blind spots that can come up in arts and health practice. It argues for more ‘joined up thinking’ across the field.
NO: 2
Accompanying Notes to the EXEhibition
This is the documentary aspect of the photographic exhibition that is showcased on the Karen Huckvale Gallery Page. The images are photographs of the River Exe as it flows through the city of Exeter, and this material gives the engineering, historical and symbolic contexts for the project.
NO: 1
'Art Therapy: A Flexible Mental Health Resource for GP Referrers.'
Prepared by Malcolm Learmonth with the Devon and Cornwall Art Therapists Group, This leaflet, while a few yeas old now, still seems to be being used by art therapists as an introductory flyer.
AiMH