Observing mentalizing art therapy groups for people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder

ABSTRACT

This article describes video-based observation of three mentalization-based treatment (MBT) art therapy groups in services for people who have received a diagnosis of personality disorder. Four focus groups (service user researchers, MBT trained psychologists, MBT trained art therapists, and the three art therapists who submitted videos) developed descriptions of the practice they observed on video. A grounded theory method was used to develop a proposition that if the art therapist uses art to demonstrate their attention, this tends to help potentially chaotic and dismissive groups to cooperate, whereas if the art therapist gives the appearance of passivity, it tends to increase the problematic interactions in the group.

KEYWORDS:

• Mentalization-based art therapy
• art therapy groups
• video-based observation
• grounded theory
• multi-perspective observation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Neil Springham is a consultant art therapist at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK. He trained in art therapy in 1988 and has worked in adult mental health, addictions and now specialises in personality disorder treatment. He was a course leader at the Unit of Psychotherapeutic Studies, Goldsmiths College, co-founded the Art Therapy Practice Research Network and was twice elected chair of the British Association of Art Therapists. He has a PhD in psychology and is currently a consultant art therapist in the UK National Health Service, where he founded ResearchNet, a service user and provider collaboration which develops co-produced research in mental health. He has published and lectured internationally on a wide range of issues in art therapy, co-production and experience-based co-design. Email: [email protected].

Dr Paul M. Camic, PhD, is professor of psychology and public health, and research director at Salomons Centre, Canterbury Christ Church University in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK. He has published widely in clinical health psychology, arts and health, and community-based approaches to health and wellbeing. Paul is co-executive editor of the journal Arts & Health, Professorial Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and co-editor of the Oxford Textbook of Creative Arts, Health and Wellbeing published in 2015 by Oxford University Press.