Materials and Media in Art Therapy

Catherine Hyland Moon is Professor Emerit in the Department of Art Therapy and Counseling at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

"This bold and brave book embraces the complexities found at the intersectionality of artist-therapist-activist-human. The contributing authors robustly identify the social, political, global, and ecological concerns of contemporary art therapy, equipping practitioners with practical and theoretical foundations for addressing intersectional considerations the field seldom names. The book advocates for creatively disrupting, reconfiguring, building upon, or abandoning classical therapeutic approaches that no longer meet the diverse needs of clients, and holding space to meaningfully explore the impact of the current global climate on personal positionality. The text not only calls for collective transformation from therapist-activist perspectives but also shows clear and practical interventions whereby self-reflexive owning of accountability for harm in the face of working with difference, and clear actions toward reparations, are modelled and demystified."Corrina Eastwood, co-editor and contributing author, Intersectionality in the Arts Psychotherapies"Through a collection of diverse storytellers, this book moves to deconstruct colonial and hetero-patriarchal perspectives within art-making by expanding, honoring, and uplifting the sacred, the magic, and the healing potential of art materials. These narratives center around the intersectionality within the creative process, weaving together a beautiful constellation of potential between the self and community(ies). This book both challenges and celebrates art materials as vehicles for social change."Megan Kanerahtenha:wi Whyte, art therapist and social justice advocate from the Kanien’kehá:ka First Nation, and author of Walking on Two-Row: Reconciling First Nations Identity and Colonial Trauma Through Material Interaction, Acculturation, and Art Therapy."Completely revised to reflect the growing cultural diversity and critical consciousness of the field, this second edition of an already seminal text brings together a compendium of fresh voices to lead art therapy discourse into new, innovative directions. This wonderful text will inspire and provoke readers to rethink art therapy traditions and engage in a greatly more expansive view of how materials serve as active, relational partners in healing and care."Lynn Kapitan, Mount Mary University, former editor of Art Therapy and past president, AATA

• Part 1: History, Theory, Ethics, Research 1. A Contemporary History of Art Materials, Media, and Practices in Art Therapy 2. Theories of Materiality and Making 3. Ethical Dimensions of Materials, Media, and Practices in Art Therapy 4. ‘Women’s Work’: Women in the Helping Professions Using Crafts as Self-Care Part 2: Art Materials, Media, and Practices in Contemporary Art Therapy 5. Sis, U Belong Here: Black Women Making and Taking Up Space 6. Clawing Our Way Out: Art Therapy Manicure Rituals and a Feminist Ethics of Care 7. Honoring Our Relationships and Materials from Our Homelands 8. Art from Inside: Peer Art Therapists (PAThR) Reflections on Materials and Media in Exploring Complex Identity Systems 9. Plastic Mandala: Eco Art as Compassionate Action 10. Transgender Joy as Community Art in a ‘Trans Refuge State’ 11. Socio-Political Stress and Artmaking: Clothing, Identity, and Social Change 12. Drawing Connections: Comics in Art Therapy Practice 13. The Immersive Worlds of Therapeutic Gaming and Scanography for Art Therapy 14. The Kitchen as Metaphor: Shaping Togetherness and Therapeutic Makerspaces in Marginalized Communities 15. The Neoliberal Co-Optation of Mindfulness and Mandala Practices 16. Playing in the Deep: Applying Improvisational Principles to Therapy 17. A Box of Fired Clay Bricks: Building Home on the Community Table with People on the Move 18. Festival Art Therapy Pedagogy: Across and Between