Discussion 6: Understanding Multiple Approaches

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CHAPTER 2

rjf . What Is Art Therapy?

i)'thing that is to be called art therapy must genuinely partake of both art and therapy.

"\ ;}~ erapy = ?

Elinor Ulman

/Wbf the first issue~ of the Bulletin of Art Th erapy, wh en the field h ad only recently bqrn and named, editor Elinor Ulman (Figure 2 .1) wrote about how h ard it was

if~~ify this new discipline, with its roots and branches in so many areas. Ulman .#ded simply and clearly that art therapy needed to be true to both art and therapy. efi:ned therapy as "procedures designed to assist favorable changes in personality

\ living that will outlast the session it self." And she defined art as "a means to dis- ef hoth the self and the world, and to establish a relation bet ween the two."1 She also ia:~rt "the meeting ground of the inner and outer world."2 Her statement on their

' ;i;iship was clear: "the realm of art therapy should be so char ted as to accommo- .IJ,deavors where neither the term art n or therapy is stretched so far as to h ave no

.: ·:·. . » 1 > eanmg. . ),pite Ulman's early and inclusive definition of the newborn profession, there were a

'i§.9f what might be characterized as rather impassioned custody battles. The biggest 'fi of tension-still evident in varying forms- was wh ether art or therapy would be 7 foted the dominant parent. Those who felt that art therapy's pr imary contribution

.11 the healing power of the creative process were drawn to what came to be called "art ir~py." Those who felt that art therapy's primary value was as a means of symbolic

.•.••... µnication sometimes called it "art psychotherapy." If you peruse the literature you dtice that, while most refer to the field as "art therapy," some call their work by other ··· as "expressive analysis," "clinical art therapy," "psycho-aesthetics," or "expres-

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