This book explores Asian art therapist experiences in a predominantly white professional field, challenging readers with visceral, racial, and personalized stories that may push them far beyond their comfort zone. Drawing from the expertise and practices of Asian art therapists from around the world, this unique text navigates how minority status can affect training and clinical practice in relation to clients, co-workers, and peers. It describes how Asian pioneers have broken therapeutic and racial rules to accommodate patient needs and improve clinical skills and illustrates how the reader can examine and disseminate their own biases. Authors share how they make their own path—by becoming aware of the connection between their lives and circumstances—and how they liberate themselves and those who seek their services. This informative resource for art therapy students and professionals offers non-Asian readers a glimpse at personal and clinical experiences in the White-dominant profession while detailing how Asian art therapists can lead race-based discussions with empathy to become more competent therapists and educators in an increasingly diversifying world.

This edited book documents how the field of art therapy is taking shape as both a profession and a discipline across Asia. It explores how art therapists in the East are assimilating Western models and adapting them to create unique and inspirational new approaches that both East and West can learn from.

How does the family art therapist understand the complexities of another’s cultural diversity? What are international family therapist’s perspectives on treatment? These questions and more are explored in Multicultural Family Art Therapy, a text that demonstrates how to practice psychotherapy within an ethnocultural and empathetic context. Each international author presents their clinical perspective and cultural family therapy narrative, thereby giving readers the structural framework they need to work successfully with clients with diverse ethnic backgrounds different from their own. A wide range of international contributors provide their perspectives on visual symbols and content from America, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, Israel, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Trinidad, Central America, and Brazil. They also address a diversity of theoretical orientations, including attachment, solution-focused, narrative, parent-child, and brief art therapy, and write about issues such as indigenous populations, immigration, acculturation, identity formation, and cultural isolation. At the core of this new text is the realization that family art therapy should address not only the diversity of theory, but also the diversity of international practice.

This exciting text is a comprehensive work that examines the use of art, play, music, dance/movement, and drama in different cultures and with diverse client populations. The editors’ primary purpose is to explore how the creative therapies can be implemented in diverse cultures and in different countries. Renowned, well-credentialed, and professional creative arts therapists in the areas of art, play, music, dance/movement, and drama helped write this collection. Examples include the use of art in working with refugee children in Australia and with Chinese-American children; shared experiences in using dance and movement with Arabic women in Jerusalem, indigenous Inner Mongolia, and with survivors of torture. Other chapters offer stories of using drama in the Netherlands, music and other creative arts in China, play therapy in Appalachia and with different races. Additionally, there are chapters on working with children with learning disabilities as well as the use of creative arts in supervision. Some of the chapters are beautifully complimented with photographs of client works of art or play. The text provides a rich tapestry on how the creative therapies can be used across cultures for issues such as depression and trauma to name a few. Of special interest are the chapters on supervision. Not only a tool for creative art therapists, this informative book will be of special interest to educators, students, therapists, as well as people working in other parts of the world or with culturally diverse clients.

Focusing provides an effective way of listening to the innate wisdom of the body, while art therapy harnesses and activates creative intelligence. Focusing-Oriented Art Therapy: Accessing the Body's Wisdom and Creative Intelligence is a ground-breaking book integrating renowned psychologist Eugene Gendlin's Focusing with art therapy. This new, Focusing-based approach to art therapy helps clients to befriend their inner experience, access healing imagery from the body's felt sense to express in art, and carry forward implicit steps that lead toward change. Written for readers to be able to learn the application of this innovative approach, the book provides in-depth examples and descriptions of how to adapt Focusing-Oriented Art Therapy to a wide variety of clinical populations including individuals and groups with severe psychiatric illness, trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and more, as well as applications to private practice, illness and wellness, spirituality, and self-care. Integrating theory, clinical practice, and numerous guided exercises, this accessible book will enhance clinical sensitivity and skill, while adding resources for bringing creativity into practice. It will be of interest to art therapists, Focusing therapists, psychologists, counselors and social workers, as well as trainers and students.