How are we able to be here? : a creative & narrative inquiry into ANZATA-registered art therapy practitioner personal histories

Abstract

This thesis considers the absence of an art therapy professional identity in the Australia and New Zealand region, and strives to critically discuss aspects of pedagogical delivery, peak body mechanisms, and practitioners in the field themselves which impede the development of a congruent professional identity. The purpose of this thesis is to highlight and foreground the role of the art therapist and to consider avenues of cultural change in the field to facilitate the development, growth, and dissemination of a unifying, coherent professional identity for regional art therapists and the peak body the Australia and New Zealand Arts Therapy Association (ANZATA). This thesis contributes to knowledge in the field by transferring the locus of importance from the process of art therapy and concentrating instead on the role of the art therapist. A move which privileges the therapist to prominence within research considerations will allow new constructs of fostering successful professional community outcomes to arise, and provide a space to consider options for the development and promotion of a cogent brand of art therapy. The aims of the research are to foreground the voices, stories, and ideas of art therapy practitioners, with the intention of generating an awareness of practitioner lived experiences as the focus of art therapy praxis. Heretofore the professional canon, and much of the profession's research, has been concentrated towards the clients, methods, and workplace dynamics of art therapists at the expense of the practitioner herself. Qualitative methods have been employed for the purposes of the research. Eight members of the region's peak body contributed artworks and personal narratives collected during one-hour, semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews. Thematic analysis and multiple lenses of theoretical consideration were employed to contextualise their personal reflections on the field, perceptions of profession identity, and insight into aspects of practice. Autoethnographic reflections and observations augment the perspectives and experiences of the participants. Creative questions inspired by the research design asked the participants to explore the choices that led them to art therapy, how they describe themselves as professionals, the elements of praxis they consider important, and whether their personal moments of pivotal illumination are still informing their choices and approach to practice today. From the beginning of the research a practitioner-focused approach determined that the participants shared their stories from a position of authority. New approaches to constructing professional identity, re-framing pedagogical systems, an assertion of the importance of the individual within the field, and what regional art therapy might look like for future practitioners are examined from the perspective of best practice outcomes for practitioners and field identity. For a profession which privileges process, and client or workplace needs before those of the practitioner herself, this thesis allows dialogues of belonging, identity, relationship, the personal in practice, purview, and difficulty, to be discussed in a manner that is ground-breaking. Verbatim transcript excerpts highlight the voices of passionate, dedicated, hardworking professionals articulating inner and outer realities as insiders to a frequently sidelined and relatively obscure section of the allied health sector. The findings highlight the incomplete and liminal nature of regional art therapist professional identity. There are also inconsistencies found between workplace and professional community realities for regional practitioners compared to the expected lived realities promoted by pedagogical delivery systems and professional literature content. Cultural changes to the structure and style of pedagogical delivery, and the role the peak body plays in cultivating a professional community, are required for a move to position the art therapist as a prominent and essential component in the art therapy process. Without changes which privilege the art therapist herself and promote a congruent sense of professional identity for practitioners, the field risks losing yet more ground to more strongly-positioned allied health therapies or even being subsumed by another, better-established, health category here in the region.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	English