This issue contains four articles: one addressing how attachment may manifest through creating pictures in a structured format; one considering the issue of client engagement in art therapy with war veterans; one reporting on the development of a routine clinical outcome measure called ‘Clinical Outcome Routine Evaluation’, or ‘CORE'; and one that explores the perceptions of art therapists who have experienced the large group process which has been part of the training experience of many art therapists.
The article by Michal Bat Or and Rafi Ishai demonstrates the process of asking people to create a standardised image, then uses standardised methods of analysis. This is very different to what many art therapists will be used to in clinical practice where a more individualised and flexible approach is often adopted to the making of pictures. Nevertheless, I believe it is helpful for art therapists to see what such attempts at standardising can look like. In its focus on attachment issues, the article is also addressing a theory base relevant to contemporary art therapy practice.
The article by Jan Lobban explores the issue of engagement with the client group of war veterans. It therefore adds to a growing body of work on art therapy with this client group, such as the work recently published in IJAT: Inscape by Kopytin and Lebedev (Citation2015). The issue of client engagement is, of course, relevant to all clinical work. The article may offer art therapist ways to think about how to maximise positive engagement in their own clinical situations.
The article by Sally Skaife, Kevin Jones and Panagiotis Pentaris examines the large group process which has been part of the experience for some trainee art therapists for many years. Here we have educators attempting to assess how helpful this method of training is for art therapists after university and involved in clinical practice. As someone who experienced a large group process during training, I could always say that it was a memorable experience for me—but now I can have a richer, more informative and more systematic understanding from a wider group of people.
Tony Chenery et al. report on a project based in Scotland supporting the introduction of routine outcome measures in the form of the CORE questionnaire. This article should be of interest to those art therapists who use the measure already. They should be able to see how it was implemented in this project and see what information was gained. For those unfamiliar with CORE, it highlights an important possible tool for outcome measures within art therapy. It would be good to see other art therapists who have experience of using CORE writing about their own experiences, either in Newsbriefing or IJAT: Inscape.
All of the articles in this issue use some degree of objective measurement. This seems both important and positive.
There are, of course, other ways to legitimately write about art therapy. Articles that are more theoretical and more subjective can be considered by IJAT: Inscape, as explained on the journal's ‘Instructions for Authors’ page online or at the back of the printed copy. I believe that sharing ways to take a more objective and standardised look at what we do should be an important aspect of IJAT: Inscape. I do not believe, however, that this should be to the exclusion of good quality writing of a different style and from a different perspective. I look forward to receiving articles that reflect the breadth of experience and attitudes across the profession.
In order to help new potential authors who may be thinking about writing for IJAT: Inscape there will be a new role for one of our Associate editors, Andrew Marshall-Tierney. He will be a writing mentor. The role would be to support and advise people during the very early stages of preparation. The writing mentor would be able to help with planning the content & scope of a paper and help to create a clear focus and in developing a coherent & persuasive argument. Anybody who would like to make use of this service should e-mail me at [email protected].
Finally, I should say that Neil Springham has decided to step down as Associate Editor. I would like to thank him on behalf of the IJAT:Inscape Board for all his hard work and expert support.