Re-enchanting art therapy : transformational practices for restoring creative vitality / by Lynn Kapitan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kapitan, Lynn.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art therapy.

Physical Description:

xvi, 287 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Springfield, Ill. : Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, [2003]

Summary:

Re-Enchanting Art Therapy is written for art therapists, supervisors, students, and colleagues in related fields who seek to approach their work as a living, artistic practice but struggle to do so in the often toxic work environments where art therapy is most needed. Asking "What kills creative vitality?" research uncovered core images that art therapists associate with toxic work and the elements of re-enchantment. Author Lynn Kapitan relates, in stories and images of art therapists, how re-enchantment is a cycling process that requires an unambivalent relationship with creative power. Chapter One uses the myth of the dragon to tell stories of art therapists awakening creative energy in a constantly changing, postmodern world. Chapter Two explores transformation in the symbol of the begging bowl held out to accept whatever is placed within as the materials for creative renewal. Using the research method of "collaborative witness," Chapter Three offers transformative stories of several disenchanted art therapists who discover their disconnection from the primordial source of their creativity in the imagery of water. A community intervention in Chapter Four, the "Reflective Circle of Peers," presents issues and methods that art therapists use to transform their practices. In Chapter Five, Lynn Kapitan addresses fears and yearning in the toxic work environment, where such practices as playing with wolves and painting in the crossroads teach her the values of the threshold space and the fierce hearted embrace of her creativity. Re-Enchanting Art Therapy challenges art therapists to transform the practice of art therapy with creative vitality.

Contents:

The Open Closing Door 3

Review of the Literature: From Clinification to Therapeutic Artistry 8

Methods of Artistic Discovery: Research Design and Questions 14

Re-Enchanting Art Therapy 18

Chapter 1 Accepting the Demands of Creative Power 23

Playing with Chaos 23

Creative chaos and the clash of worldviews 25

The suffering of taking things apart 27

Stirring the Sleeping Dragon 30

Shreading a life: Re-weaving its patterns 33

The hungry dragon of longing 35

The curse of the baby dragon 38

It's alive! 40

Up in smoke 41

In the belly of the dragon 44

Certification by Psychosis: A Final Dragon Story 48

Dragon Fire of Creative Combustion: A Vital Life Sign 54

Chapter 2 Opening to Enchantment: The Art Therapist as Animadora 60

The Vessels of Our Transformation 60

Therapeutic Artistry and the Craftsperson's Lessons of the Begging Bowl 66

The Imaginal Space Opens 75

Erica told me she had a hole in her heart 76

Flota mi cuerpo sobre los equilibrios contrarios 78

Waiting woman 80

The Enchanted Landscape 85

Art Therapy as a Socially Responsive Art Form 93

Chapter 3 A Bowl of Tears: Witnessing Art Therapist Disenchantment in the Toxic Work Environment 103

Introduction: Transforming Toxins Through Collaborative Witness 103

Disenchantment in the Toxic Work Environment 108

Turtle dreams in the cavern of jewels 110

The journey to the other place 116

The gardener 123

The waters of St. Elm's 130

The elixir of life 137

The kingdom of the black river 144

Jewels in the stream 150

The Waters of Creative Vitality 157

Chapter 4 Transforming Toxins in the Cauldron of Community 165

Introduction: Bringing Aliveness Back into Our Work 165

The Reflective Circle of Peers: A Communal Practice for Restoring Creative Vitality 168

The first circle: Walls and victims 173

The second circle: Lovers in dangerous times 174

The third circle: Feminine wisdom and the generational roots of violence 180

The fourth circle: Bring back the peace we are all aching for 188

The fifth circle: Searching for home 194

The sixth circle: Necessary soul-work 199

The last circle: Making a space for dreaming and returning home 203

Making or Breaking: Art Therapy in a Violent World 207

Chapter 5 Playing on the Threshold of the Open Closing Door 216

Playing with Wolves 216

Interlude 222

In the Crossroads 225

The Threshold 237

Beyond Thresholds 245

The Costs of Disenchantment and Lost Creativity 255

Re-Enchantment as a Practice of Generosity 258.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-270) and index.

ISBN:

0398073716

0398073724

OCLC:

50554504