‘Being time’: an exploration of personal experiences of time and implications for art psychotherapy practice

Abstract

This heuristic, art-based study looks at how experiences of time might affect the practice of art psychotherapy. The author's art-making related to various ways of experiencing time which have particular relevance to art psychotherapy practice: presence, marking time, being in time, containing time and making time. The research yielded three main insights. Firstly, thinking about time as intimately linked to space seems to be a valuable perspective on therapeutic work, in terms of: considering therapeutic presence as a spatial ‘ground’ for the temporal marking of moments; imagining and attuning to the shape and gestural quality of a moment; and creating ‘containers’ in which to hold client and therapist in the ‘now’. Secondly, an existing theoretical framework of different organisational experiences of time provided a valuable perspective on how using different art materials affected how time was experienced, and suggests that further research applying this framework to art-making within art psychotherapy could be productive. Finally, this study can be seen as evidence for the value of heuristic, art-based research in informing art psychotherapy practice, and suggests that a therapist's personal sense of temporal agency, of ‘being time’, enhances the capacity to work with experiences of time within therapy.

Keywords:

• temporal experience
• art psychotherapy
• therapeutic presence
• therapeutic attunement
• heuristic research
• art-based research

Acknowledgements

This research was part of my Art Therapy MA studies at Derby University, and I would like to thank my supervisors Shelagh Cornish and Jean Bennett.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ali Coles

Biographical details

Ali Coles qualified as an art therapist in 2012. She previously worked within the education, museums, heritage and community arts sectors. She is currently managing a health education research project in Gloucestershire (where she lives) and working as an art psychotherapist with adults. Website: www.inspiringminds.org.uk.

Email: [email protected]