Inspired by El Duende: One-Canvas Process Painting in Art Therapy Supervision

Abstract

This article describes an art-based approach to supervision that combines clinical insights with archetypal awareness arising from painting on a single canvas throughout the internship semester. Supervision is comprised of three main components: (a) spontaneous painting, (b) complex reflective processing, and (c) aesthetically focused attention to imagery appearing in the painting that parallels the internship experience. Inspired by the artistic struggle of el duende to bring forth emotional vibrancy, a central aspect of the model is the supervisee's relationship to a single canvas that transforms awareness through sequential layering, that welcomes tension, and that potentially integrates personal and professional identities.

Acknowledgments

Editor's Note: Abbe Miller, MS, ATR-BC, LPC, is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Graduate Art Therapy Program at Albertus Magnus College, New Haven, CT.