New voices for an evolving profession

The contribution of writing by trainees, newly qualified practitioners and early career researchers to art therapy has only recently begun to receive the attention it deserves for the academic, practice and theoretical strength it can display. Often, novel and inspiring approaches are explored by those early in their careers or just entering the profession, through a deep and reflective engagement with personal creativity and curiosity. This can have a refreshing and dynamic impact on the profession.

This issue of the International Journal of Art Therapy (IJAT) presents the winning entries to the 2021 IJAT ‘Early Career Researcher Art Therapy Research Paper Prize’ and ‘New Practitioner Practice Paper Prize’. These biennial prizes are awarded by the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) and Routledge Publishers. The aim of the prizes is to celebrate and share valuable and innovative work produced by those new to practice and research, and to encourage others to begin to research and evidence their work, ideas and creative energies. This initiative runs alongside other IJAT developments to diversify the Journal’s author base, and the IJAT board now includes a Lead Associate Editor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, as well as Trainee, New Practitioner and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisors.

New Practitioner entrants were required to be currently enrolled on an Art Therapy Masters course, or within three years of graduation, with Early Career Researcher entrants enrolled on an MA/MSc/MRes/MPhil/PhD or within three years of graduation. The prizes were judged by a panel of Lead Associate Editors (Helen Jury, Ali Coles), Associate Editors (Liz Ashby, Jamie Bird, Johanna Czamanski-Cohen, Anna Playle, Patricia St John Tager), and a previous Prize winner (Rachel Preston), chaired by the Journal Editor, Alex McDonald. Judging criteria included quality of content and writing, and significance to the field of art therapy. Winners were announced by BAAT CEO Gary Fereday at the BAAT Attachment and the Arts conference in November 2021.

The 2021 prizes were the first to include an Early Career Researcher prize. Previous prize-winning and runner-up papers by New Practitioners included Joy Chong’s (2015) on looking at art psychotherapy through the lens of interpersonal neurobiology, Sian Stott’s (2018) on copying and attunement in art psychotherapy, Rachel Preston’s (2019) on the potential of art therapy for the UK armed forces, Sarah Furneaux-Blick (2019) for her paper exploring making art alongside clients, and Emily Hollingsbee (2019) for her paper on mural work within a Greek refugee camp. For 2021, entrants were required to follow IJAT’s research and practice paper templates and to submit via the Journal’s online portal, in line with the usual IJAT submission process. The judges were encouraged by the substantial number of entries and selected a winner for each category, together with two runners-up for the research category and one for the practice category. The selected papers then went through the full peer review process, and all were deemed worthy of publication and are included in this special issue.

Early career researcher prize

Research taking place in art therapy at present is diverse and exciting, as demonstrated in the papers published in IJAT. Research skills are now being developed and honed not only in art therapy trainings but also in the workplace, encouraged by many employers. In this climate art therapy can flourish and lead to innovative thinking and practice. As Czamanski-Cohen (2021) says, ‘our time has come’, and we can now demonstrate the multiple creative elements of our profession.

The prize-winning Early Career Researcher paper by Shireen Malik (2021), ‘Using neuroscience to explore creative media in art therapy: a systematic narrative review’, addresses the important area of technology in monitoring responses by the brain to different art media. The paper makes the case for art therapy to incorporate principles of neuroscience, neural processes and neural imaging, and explores how these are informing literature relevant to the profession. Invaluably, it also argues for consideration of the important emerging field of neuropsychoanalysis and the work of researchers such as Panksepp and Solms (2012) and Fotopoulou (2012). She suggests that existing literature (46 studies were found) provides knowledge to better understand the client’s therapeutic process and ways of expression through art materials, in turn helping to validate art therapy to other professions. Malik refers to pioneering work in art therapy that explores the use of different media and their perceived effects, alongside the therapist’s skill in monitoring these responses. She emphasises the importance of the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) model in this respect (Kagin & Lusebrink, 1978). Overall, she concludes that empirical data is still lacking and that this area of evidence needs further investigation to establish credible theory, proposing transdisciplinary research as the optimum method to explore further.

In ‘The page as place: how we enter into images as place’, Early Career Researcher Prize runner-up Zuleika Gregory (2021) frames a heuristic inquiry into how we consider ‘place’ in relation to the image, and how we subsequently explore this conceptual experience in our imaginations and on the page, which is seen also as a container for psychological material. The aim is to open up dialogue around this phenomenological involvement, the research utilising the author’s own experience of artmaking and reflection, active imagination, symbolism and metaphor. Through this process and themes emerging from her research, Gregory discusses how we can engage the senses and utilise a sense of self to allow for an immersive experience that then becomes dynamically informative. Helpfully, this is illustrated diagrammatically, and the emergent themes are clearly listed. She argues that her exploration of a sense of place has implications for how our clients understand being in their imaginative, internal landscapes, invaluably transforming ‘viewing from observation to experience’ (Gregory, 2022, p. 9).

Also receiving an Early Career Researcher runner-up prize, Carolina Peral Jiménez (2021), in her paper ‘OBASS-ATT: observation-based instrument for assessment in art therapy with traumatized women’, considers how to measure particular treatment outcomes using the Delphi method study approach plus an experts’ focus group, and using a process-oriented approach as an evaluative tool (McNiff, 2012). This research took place in Madrid, using a panel of international experts, and reminds us of the global nature of innovative art therapy research which is increasingly represented within IJAT. In her paper, Peral Jimenez argues that standardisation of instruments supports comparison and contrast of data, thereby allowing further development of the field of art therapy where, it has often been argued, it can be difficult to demonstrate impact of treatment. Arguably then, the use of standardised tools is an important area to consider, as growing diversity within art therapy practice and research necessitates the design of instruments measuring efficacy of therapeutic intervention in order to demonstrate rigorously both quantitative and qualitative evidence. The paper shows how such measurement tools can be used judiciously in the field of trauma, where Peral Jimenez argues they have been conspicuously lacking in relation to women who have experienced violence, and where artwork can also be seen as a core element in the work.

New practitioner prize

The IJAT category of ‘Practice Papers’ acknowledges that we can learn from descriptions of art therapy work as well as from research projects. The Journal Editors and Board recognise the need for a rigorous approach to papers about practice; for example, there has been an increasing awareness within art therapy of the limitations of case reports which simply ‘tell the story’ from the therapist’s point of view, and where the client’s voice is absent. Similarly, descriptions of practice which do not explain the theoretical perspectives and evidence base underpinning the work, are of little value to others who wish to learn from them.

Practice papers do not yield conclusions about art therapy theory or practice as research papers aim to do. The hypotheses that might emerge through the description of practice, for example about why clients responded in certain ways, need to be framed as ‘implications for research’ which could be investigated within a structured research study. But in no way does this caveat detract from the value of practice papers; indeed, practice papers are the bedrock for research, generating the questions which need to be investigated. Alongside this, practice papers inspire and inform, and act as a repository of innovation in professional practice. They are also a vehicle for the sharing of clinical practice, and a driver for the development of new art therapy approaches which have the potential to better meet the needs of service users.

The winning New Practitioner papers in this issue embody this approach to capturing and sharing innovative practice. Prize-winner Jessie Holder’s (2021) paper ‘Creating an online arts journaling group for trans clients’ notes that there is little art therapy literature on working with this client group. The paper describes a novel project founded in a compassion-oriented approach (Beaumont, 2012) and underpinned by an understanding of trauma-focused art therapy, noting that many trans people experience bodily distress, gender dysphoria and related dissociation. Holder is careful to include information about how the group facilitators and group members defined themselves in terms of gender identity and other characteristics, acknowledging the range of gender experiences in the group and the possible impact of gender and other identities within the therapeutic relationship. Feedback from clients, gained through an optional online survey, points towards the ways in which the group was helpful. There is also recognition of the possibility that feedback could be positively skewed, and of the under-representation of trans women and people of colour. Holder reports that several participants were enthusiastic about sharing their experiences through this practice paper, in the hope that this might improve the offer for other trans people. Overall, they make a strong case for research into the effectiveness of art therapy for trans people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Eleanor Polihronis (2021) won the New Practitioner runner-up prize for ‘But is it art therapy?’ Working with children with complex health conditions, writing about her experience of an art therapy training placement within a children’s hospice. The author describes a flexible and adaptive approach to meeting the needs of the client, while grappling with the question of what art therapy ‘should’ look like. Grounded in theory and research, the paper develops an understanding of how and why art therapy was helpful to this client and argues for challenging the preconceived notions about the accessibility of the ‘art’ within art therapy in relation to this particular client group. Polihronis highlights how she learned from the client over the course of the therapy, concluding that the art therapy approach which developed was created collaboratively by therapist and client. The conclusion that it is the person and profession of the art therapist which is crucial to making something ‘art therapy’, rather than adherence to what might be seen as more orthodox ways of working, opens the door to innovation within art therapy practice and allows for an expansion in its reach and usefulness.

Looking to the future

Rebekah Beaven’s reflections on her artwork ‘Integration’, which was chosen for the cover of this IJAT special issue, capture the excitement of embarking on art therapy training. These reflections support the energy and innovative thinking in these research and practice papers, which bodes well for the future of art therapy.

The 2023 Prizes have now been announced with a link under ‘News’ on the Journal webpage, and submissions can be uploaded during January 2023. We hope this IJAT special issue will inspire others to consider writing up their research and practice and the editors look forward to seeing the commitment and enthusiasm of new practitioners and early career researchers increasingly reflected in the Journal.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.