Mindful Art Therapy: A Foundation for Practice

✍ Scribed by Barbara Jean Davis

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 175
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The mindful art therapy presented in this book places inner contemplation, openness and visual language at its centre, showing how traditional Eastern wisdom can be integrated into modern psychotherapeutic practice for mind-body wellness.

This book introduces a foundation for mindful art therapy practice by providing a coherent framework that bridges paradigms between eastern and western traditions. The author clarifies different approaches from mindfulness traditions to guide students and practitioners in determining the most suitable and personalised method for practice, research and professional development. The book features case studies and artworks from the treatment of common clinical presentations such as anxiety and depression and includes a guided meditation script and audio file.

This book is an essential text for art therapy and psychology students, academics and allied health professionals who seek to integrate mindful art therapy into research and practice.

✦ Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
Part One What is Mindfulness?
Chapter 1 Introduction
What is mindfulness?
Chapter 2 Mindfulness Theories and Approaches
Neurological correlates of mindfulness
Clinical approaches and theories: Two ways of approaching mindfulness
Part Two Mindful Art Therapy—A Method for Practice
Chapter 3 Mindfulness Processes
Characteristics of mindfulness
Psychological functions of art and mindfulness
Art + mindfulness
Chapter 4 Art Therapy Perspectives
A tree, or not a tree: that is the question
Phenomenological art therapy
Contemplation
Art-making
Reflecting
Connecting the dots
Summing up
Chapter 5 Inside a Mindful Art Therapy Session
Phase one—facilitating mental openness
Phase two—processing experience
Phase three—interpretation
What actually happens in mindful art therapy?
Part Three Metaphorically Speaking
Chapter 7 Good Grief
A breath at a time, a step at a time…
Early artworks
Along the road of awareness
In remembrance of the girls
Changing tides
Summing up
Chapter 6 Painting Through Depression
Bridget’s visual montage of depression
Image one: creative freedom
Image two: symbolic color
Image three: psychological flexibility
Image four: creative solutions
Summing up
Chapter 7
Chapter 8 Voice of Reason
A trajectory through anger
Summing up
Chapter 9 Silence Is Golden
Speaking of social anxiety
Summing up
Chapter 10 Contemplating Panic
Summing up
Part Four Clinical Applications in Mindful Art Therapy
Chapter 11 Sentient Being
Chapter 12 Sense and Sensibility
The extraordinary in the ordinary
Summing up
Chapter 13 Complementary Methods
Metapsychology
Decentering through mindful art
Summing up
Chapter 14 Mindful-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for Wellness
Exploring freedom
Summing up
Chapter 15
Chapter 15 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Claire’s storyboard of exhaustion and a means out of it
Summing up
Chapter 16 Positive Psychology
Summing up
Part Five Developing a Mindful Art-Therapy Practice
Chapter 17 On Becoming a Mindful Art Therapist
Relational empathy
Developing a mindful art-therapy practice
Chapter 18 A Note About Music
References
Subject Index
Author Index

✦ Subjects

Therapy