Art psychotherapy, disability issues, mental health, trauma and resilience: ‘Things and people’

Abstract

This paper addresses impairment, disability, trauma and art psychotherapy through a personal narrative written by the person having that experience (‘the service user’, Kathy Gibson), alongside a more contextual account by the art psychotherapist (Malcolm Learmonth). Through these accounts we attempt to identify the factors of resilience, creativity and healing at a personal level, but also to see these processes as taking place in a social, political, and historical context. We argue that intra-psychic models do not alone equip psychotherapists to work with these complex levels, and there is a need to learn from disability, public health, systemic, communicational and resilience models. This includes considering the social antecedents and consequences of traumatisation alongside its personal meaning. Bringing together accounts by both participants in a long-term therapy encounter is intended to contribute to a democratisation of the professional literature, in tune with the concept of ‘disabling’ as a social process, and challenging the comparative silencing of multiple voices in accounts of art psychotherapy. We also defend the necessity for long-term psychotherapy with these levels of complex issues.

Keywords:

• Art psychotherapy
• disability
• trauma
• resilience
• polio
• institutions