DAY THREE ABSTRACTS

Description

Creative arts therapies (CATs) have demonstrated a rapid growth of empirical studies over recent decades. While the findings of these studies substantiate that CATs have positive impact on a range of outcomes, it remains unexplored how and why CATs account for these effects. To gain more insight into why and how CATs impact outcomes, it is important to pinpoint which therapeutic features of CATs are unique and essential (specific factors) and which features are generic (common factors). To provide an overview of the assumed change factors or mechanisms of change and to gain more insight into how or why CATs may lead to psychological and physiological outcomes, the presenters/authors of this symposium have conducted a scoping review (De Witte et al., in prep). In this masterclass / mini symposium, we will share the findings of this review and discuss how these findings can positively influence the development of both CATs theory, research, and practice, as well as training and education.

Many world mythologies interpret the world as a cloth or web, the universe being created by spinning or weaving. All the goddesses of creation and fertility, of the Aztecs and Mayans, Balts and other nations are described as great weavers. A knot is a cross, it is a bond with someone, it is anchored and locked together, a secret, a protection. The symbolic untying of the knot is inseparable from birth, death and wedding customs. Every mystery or riddle is a knot and finding an answer is an un-knotting. In Buddhism, the term ‘inner knots’ is used.

Because there was something so powerful in those covers: horror mingling with enchantment, often conjuring up a hearth-rending ambiguity. O loathed, o much-loved monsters, how dear you were to me! And you, freaky perplexed tiny creatures, slimy lemurs, mellow ectoplasms, disintegrated beings, vampiresque lumps of energy, and you crystals, and you jellies, and you mantis philosophers, and you peduncled pods, how plausible were you, how perfect! How well you knew how to be melancholic!
(Michele Mari)

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What has happened to Pinocchio in his dotage? He used to be a wise old man… a Senex. But now…? He is alone, afraid, and anxious. His mind keeps going back to the days when he was a piece of wood. The days when life was filled with all sorts of adventures. Are these his real memories? Surely not! And what exactly is that thing flickering in the shadows in the corner of the room - that somehow might hold the answers… Is it just another fleeting memory?

Childhoods are changing. Centuries old cultural traditions, held and passed on through the interconnections of memory and oppressive attitudes are being challenged. These have been seen as unquestioned norms and maintained in ways that range from our individual and collective unconscious to healthcare policies and practices. Memory and beliefs hold and keep alive negative stereotypes of a child as passive, unable to make decisions of worth and needing adults to make decisions or to act in their ‘best interests’ about children's bodies and minds.

This paper will involve an exploration of two clinical case examples of dramatherapy work with two highly suicidal individuals. For both of these individuals the fantasy of their own enacted death is an attempt to resolve their own problematic relationship to the memory of their existence. For one client the desire is to free himself of his own profoundly traumatic formative memories so that he is no longer haunted by them; for the other client her desire is to delete her own existence in the lives and memories of others who may have attempted to love or care about her.

Along their life journey, people collect memories which reshape their character – of significant others, unforgettable places or experiences. Memory also encompasses voice, sound and melody; the voices of our parents, acquaintances, our human surroundings, the playlists of our life – all these become inherent vocal memories in our body and soul. The cultural, historic, political atmosphere also affects both individual and collective memories. Life experiences, encounters, traumas, journeys and passions are all symbolized by various vocal textures, some more accessible than others.

Recent bereavement studies have observed a growing divide between the existing ‘deathscapes’ (Sidaway & Maddrell, 2010) and the transforming socio-cultural landscape of mourning within our secularizing western society. Memorial practices are moving away from the public domain towards the private environments of the bereaved. Meanwhile, the striving for closure is shifting towards a longing for ‘continuing bonds’ with the deceased: an ‘open-ended process of ritualization’ (Hockey et al., 2010) which relies on the sensation of the deceased’s presence attached to a material object or place.

Feelings of Home are often a nexus of conflicting impulses: a paradise lost, an aboriginal space of innocence, a prison to escape from. Home is a dynamic, situated concept: an ancient emotional structure constantly needing repair, renovation and updating to accommodate our changing lives.

Supervision is the generational transmission of memory, knowledge, and skills. Our identities and social location influence how we see ourselves in the world, which, in turn, impacts our clinical work with clients and supervisees alike. This workshop will honour memory and difference in the context of arts therapies supervision. Within the supervisory relationship, lived experiences and memories often diverge due to the differing levels of experience, cultural, and racial backgrounds of the supervisee and the supervisor. We will highlight how identity differences and similarities between the supervisor, supervisee, and/or client within systemic differences of supervisor-supervisee-institution and supervisor-supervisee-community influence therapy. Probes will focus on why supervision is important, preferred methods of communication, ways to have difficult conversations, and how to get the most out of supervision.

In the context of the research effort of the Ancient Orchesis Study Group to reconstitute the philosophical and wider cultural presuppositions that define the ancient Greek dance culture (from which the Greek-speaking and Roman world was removed to return with the Renaissance in a new European context), and with the recognition of, on the one hand, the basic anthropological and, on the other, the aesthetic criteria and principles of art and, in particular, of dance expression, we attempt a review of certain concepts like θεραπεία, κάθαρσις, έρως and finally χορεία & όρχησις – which stand for characteristic phenomena of ancient Greek culture.

In this workshop, after a brief introduction of the Four-quadrants method in light of new considerations from neuroscience, each participant will be invited to work on one aspect of his or her physical pain or discomfort. Soma referring to the subjectively felt inner sensation, the physical sensation itself is the target and the means of this somatic work. The author Johanne Hamel describes this method she developed in this way:

In The Republic Orpheus is the type of poet whom Plato allows back into the polis. Unlike the mimetic poets, whom he bans from the polis because they keep their audience in a state of imitative identification with the themes and characters in their tales, Orpheus is a poet of anamnesis who awakens humankind to their lost and forgotten ties, the ‘gods’ and the values of Beauty, Truth, Justice and Destiny.

This dance/movement masterclass will focus on the interconnected brain-body-mind interface
in the experience of individual and collective reminiscence. We will delve into the ongoing
formation and re-formation of our memories, through spontaneous movement, in an
experiential holistic approach, combining visual art and intuitive writing, incorporating
understandings of dynamic brain functions. The artistic perspective, informed by
neuroscience, will enable integrative processing of the embodied and relational nature of
memory and the inherent link between retrieval of our past, being at the present moment and
the envisioning of our future.

The expressive therapies continuum (ETC) provides a theoretical structure for understanding
the ways in which people interact with art media to process information and form images
(Kagin & Lusebrink, 1978; Lusebrink, 2010). Understanding the ETC framework can
enhance accuracy of assessment and increase treatment efficacy (Hinz, 2020). Although
this significant theory is foundational and applicable across all expressive therapies (Kagin &
Lusebrink, 1978), student feedback demonstrates it is a multifaceted concept to learn.
Therefore, the instructors of this workshop have designed an embodied method of teaching
the theory that utilizes personally relevant objects, imbued with personal memories, to
engage students and professionals in the learning experience. Art making will be deepened
by a poetic narrative approach to solidify learning (e.g., Kaimal, Mesinger, Carroll-Haskins,
2020) and to provide guidelines for using embodied experiences to explain, clarify, and
amplify the ETC theory.

As life expectancy increases, there is an effort finding novel ways for improving the quality-of-life and cognitive performance of older-adults. Studies have shown that interpersonal synchrony motion between people positively affects a range of emotional and social functions. In addition, it was found that synchronous motion is related to innate biological mechanisms and plays an important role in the development of social communication and behaviour. In that sense, synchronous motion captures within an embodied memory of initial experiences of interpersonal encounter and relationship with the other.

This presentation explores memory and rememoration in art therapy by intersecting the notion of après coup with material drawn from both clinical and personal contexts. It does so by briefly unpacking the notion of après coup as the retroactive resignification of memory, and it locates this concept within a Laplanchian tradition. Après coup or afterwardsness—and the role of memory in psychic determinism—is understood here as the reverberation or ‘structural dialectic’ (Doane, 2002, p. 36) between two events separated across time, so that that which comes after may be understood to re-signify that which comes before. This phenomenon, it is argued, can also be understood visually and two examples are given.
The first locates a visual après coup within the art therapeutic relationship, working with an adolescent boy in a bereavement service in London. Here the complex entanglement between past, present and future, characteristic of après coup in memory formation, is visually evidenced by a retroactive resignification of his earlier art making by that which was made after.

Tzvetan Todorov (2000) distinguishes two ways of memory, a literal and an exemplary one. As opposed to a way of interpreting the past as unique and unrepeatable - literal memory -Todorov proposes an exemplary memory, which recovers that past and turns it into a principle of action for the present. Memory, the present of the past, sets the debate on the future in tension. This paper aims to address how art and its processes activate exemplary memory, activating the void on one hand, and matter, the materiality redoubt of the world, as a metaphor for transformation.

She sat in the theatre space. In front of her, a large group of dancers was moving, walking, round after round. While watching, she felt inside a growing sensation. A sensation of familiar recognition, coming from this walking movement in front of her. This large cascading caravan of walking people, being on the move like a walking migration towards unknown horizons.
This observer was a child of parents who had fled adversities after a war and had found refuge in a strange country. The stream of moving people touched upon embodied experiences and the atmospheric presence of her parents, who carried the experience of refuge in their embodied encounters with their child.

This presentation discusses a twofold project based on autoethnography, a research methodology that connects lived experience to its cultural context (Patton, 2015). The objective of this first-person inquiry is to draw knowledge about the creative process through personal experience (Barone & Eisener, 2006, McNiff, 2015), artistic exploration and reflexivity (Adams, Holman Jones & Ellis, 2015).

Objective: The importance of integration in psychotherapy is a growing area of research, theory and practice, especially regarding traumatic events. Although research relates to integration in the context of music therapy with trauma survivors, it has rarely been the main focus of research. The current study investigates the meaning of integration for music therapists who work with trauma survivors and techniques that they use in order to implement integration.
Method: Using the phenomenological approach, analysis of semi-structured interviews with 41 experienced music therapists working with traumatized populations was conducted to identify themes regarding their perception on integration.
Results: The findings yielded three different modes of integration. Body integration entails the ability of active music playing to serve as a sensorial stimulus that bypasses linguistic and logical mediation and enables clients to live in peace with their body. Event integration relates to a process by which a repressed traumatic event re-emerges into consciousness through music and leads to emotional and cognitive integration of that event. Lastly, life story integration relates to the process of embedding a trauma into the natural flow of a life story through music and achieving emotional and cognitive integration.
Conclusions: Three modes of multidimensional integration of trauma through music are discussed in relation to its physical, emotional and cognitive aspects. The physical dimension is reflected through body integration, which enables clients to live in peace with their body. The emotional dimension relates to the ability to accept more easily emotional responses to a traumatic experience, while the cognitive dimension relates to the ability to newly perceive a traumatic event as ordered, sequential and logical.

Holocaust survivors living today were children or adolescents when their lives were overwhelmed by incomprehensible horror. A large array of studies focused on the impact of the Holocaust suggests that, decades after, psychological vulnerability, such as symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, still prevail among child survivors. Research on the psychological repercussions of the Holocaust has traditionally focused on pathogenic consequences. Over the past years, however, a movement appears toward a perspective which attempts to provide a platform that highlights the internal strengths and self-healing capacities rather than the pathology of individuals who have suffered in extreme situations. Adopting such a perspective, the following suggested presentation is of a study which aims to reveal and explore what may be learnt from individual survivors as they express the meaning for them of creation in art within the context of their lives, lives that have borne personal struggle, pain and possibly, eventual triumph over these tribulations.
Following the phenomenological paradigm of qualitative research, semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirty Holocaust survivor artists. To increase the depth and richness of the data, visual images were incorporated. Pieces of their artwork with great personal meaning were chosen by participants and discussed as part of the semi structured interviews.
Findings pointed to the creative experience as a procession of transformations of traumatic memory within the safety of a holding attuned space. In this space between artist and artwork, a move may occur toward ‘feeling felt’ rather than objectified, validated rather than dehumanized, and whole rather than detached and silenced.
The suggested presentation will describe the central themes emerging from this research, illustrated by examples drawn from the study results. The themes will be further discussed in light of their relevance to a more informed use of art in therapeutic work with those suffering from massive trauma.

Situations of loneliness we all know and share. There are various types of loneliness which can be described as positive states on one side, denoting times of privacy, referring to the ability to control the degree to which other people and institutions intrude upon one’s life (Long/Averill, 2003). It includes the cliché-like myth of the artist who needs the solitude of his studio in order to be creative. Voluntarily seeking solitude may facilitate self-examination, self-attunement and reconceptualization of the self. From a developmental perspective, Winnicott contended that the infant must learn to be alone in the presence of a caregiver in order to develop the capacity to be alone. Then to be alone is never truly alone (Winnicott, 1958)

This presentation will look at a variety of memories, noting particularly when they are deemed to have started and finished and how perceptions of this can change. It will include ways of narrating or portraying memories through art therapy and writing.
Examples from art therapy include work in probation with offenders using comic strips to describe crime events – when and where does the story start and end? Discussion of these can result in including a wider context and a greater understanding of the place of the event in their lives.

Participating in this workshop needs preparation of at least a few weeks in advance! Preparation is useful because for this workshop participants are invited to bring a video (usb-stick) with 5 representative minutes on of an art therapy session with a child with autism related problems. This video shows the child and art therapist during the art creating process. Before realizing and sharing this video, informed consent is needed from child/ parent/ art therapist/ institution.

In this workshop participants will have ‘a look behind the scenes’ of individual art therapy sessions for children with autism related problems. (Respect for each other’s work is expected).
Working with video to support treatment evaluation seems to be beneficial for art therapists. They can observe their own actions and interactions with the client during the client’s visual art-making. Sharing the videos and (systematic) feedback during this workshop will contribute to a broader view on the practice work.

As dramatherapists we need a dynamic orientation that sustains and nurtures our ability to attune to the client’s needs. Winnicott (2005) argued that psychotherapy was bringing the client into a playful encounter with the therapist. A flexible orientation within the therapeutic alliance is key to play and dramatic improvisation, yet the human condition is such that we tend to cling to ideas and memories that can make us resistant to new perspectives.

Memory and memories have been studied in psychology and psychotherapy. Both guide our being in the world and are part of our identity and experience of self. Contrary to what was supposed for years, memories are elusive, and different people may emphasize different perspectives of what might be presumed to be the same situation or fact, with no coincidence in these views. For many decades, psychotherapy based on Freudian theory set the unearthing of repressed memories as one of its main goals, in order to heal the patient. Due to our knowing and valuing the potential of the arts to contribute to this endeavour, arts therapies have also become involved in this process. It has been common ground that memories affect both the understanding of the world and of one’s life, it is part of the moulding of one’s personal future.

Winston Churchill claimed to have coined the phrase “history is written by the victors”. The contention of this workshop is that not only do the victors write history, but they also re-write memory, tradition and culture of those that they conquer. This workshop will explore themes of cultural colonialism, imperialism and dominance and play with practical methods of reclaiming and celebrating those beliefs, traditions and alternative wisdoms that have been suppressed, marginalised or outlawed in the process of conquest.
The workshop will introduce ideas of cultural hegemony, dominance and marginalisation through a series of practical exercises as well as introducing a brief theoretical frame. The practical focus of the workshop will also involve a series of exercises aimed at remembering and sharing alternative beliefs and traditions that stretch back into pre-colonial history and pre-neoliberal globalisation.

During the troubled times we as humanity are going through, it is vital that we find what sustains us from within. Following C.G. Jung’s theory that the aim of the soul is to reach individuation, that is achieve self-actualization through the process of integrating its conscious and unconscious aspects, this quest for meaning can be intimidating and troublesome. However, solely by diving into the depths of our soul can we understand our true Self and find what will help us go through difficulties.

For over two years, Intisar Foundation has used dramatherapy techniques to help women escape the memory of war and violence. A workshop inspired by the sessions Intisar Foundation holds for its beneficiaries, this presentation will help attendees of the ECArTE conference better understand how dramatherapy techniques have been used to help women affected by war and violence in refugee camps and low-income neighbourhoods across Lebanon and Jordan.

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