Practices and challenges in implementing art therapy in the school system

ABSTRACT

This study examined the specific characteristics of art therapy practice that takes place within the school system. The study is based on the perspectives of 16 art therapists working in primary schools, as reflected in 113 journal entries that were recorded during 2015–2016. These entries were analysed according to the principles of consensual qualitative research Hill, C. E., Knox, S., & Hess, S. A. [2012. Qualitative meta-analyses of consensual qualitative research studies. In C. E. Hill (Ed.), Consensual qualitative research: A practical resource for investigating social science phenomena (pp. 159–171). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association]. The findings fall into five primary domains: (1) the therapeutic setting; (2) methods, tools and techniques; (3) the therapeutic interaction; (4) themes that emerged in the sessions; and (5) the therapists’ evaluation of the contribution of the therapeutic process. The findings highlight specific gaps between art therapy practices and field training, and the reality of the education system. These suggest changes that could be made as regards the training of school art therapists, that should be broadened to varied modalities and the construction of therapeutic models applicable to the educational setting, including the adoption of more short-term therapeutic approaches.

KEYWORDS:

• Art therapy
• school
• therapeutic practice
• journal entries
• CQR

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all participants who took part in our research. We are also very grateful to the staff at Matia Hefer-Sharon and Matia Rehovot-Nes Ziona who hosted us during the research process. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Michal Adoni Kroyanker is an art therapist in a primary school. She is a graduate of the School of Creative Art Therapies at the University of Haifa, Israel. She wrote her thesis about the Characteristics of the Therapeutic Practice in Art Therapy in the General Education System in Israel.

Dafna Regev is a senior lecturer at the School of Creative Art Therapies and a faculty member of the Emili Sagol Creative Arts Therapies Research Center at the University of Haifa, Israel. She specialises in parent–child art psychotherapy and works in a private clinic. Her articles have been published in leading journals in the field of art therapy.

Sharon Snir is an art therapist and researcher. She is senior lecturer and Head of the Art Therapy M.A. Program in Tel Hai College, Israel. One of her main research interests is school art therapy. Over the last few years, she has specialised in research and in teaching research in art therapy. Her articles have been published in leading journals in the field of art therapy.

Hod Orkibi, Ph.D., is a tenured senior lecturer at the School of Creative Arts Therapies, the University of Haifa, and a certified psychodrama therapist and supervisor. His research interests include drama, creativity, psychodrama outcome and change process studies, adolescent positive psychology. He is the Chair of the Israeli Higher Council for Creative Arts Therapies and a member of the American Psychological Associations’s Division 10 the Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.

Iris Shakarov is an art therapist at a centre for treatment and research for children with autism, and at a mental health institute. She is a graduate of the School of Creative Art Therapies at the University of Haifa, Israel. She wrote her thesis about the helpful and hindering events as perceived by art therapists in the general education system in Israel.

ORCID

Michal Adoni- Kroyanker http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9562-7353

Dafna Regev http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8192-6152

Sharon Snir http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7233-6123

Hod Orkibi http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1498-7953