Group Analytic Art Therapy

The first area I will look at within the art therapy model is group therapy, the psychology and dynamics within distinct groups of people has always been at the forefront of psychological research and thought, and this is no different within the field of art therapy. The reason for this is surmised in this quote from W.R Bion’s seminal work on group dynamics “Experiences in Groups”

“No individual, however isolated in time and space, should be regarded as outside a group or lacking in manifestations of group psychology. Nevertheless, the existence of group behaviour is, as I say, clearly more easy to demonstrate, and even observe, if the group is brought together and I think it is this increased ease of observation and demonstration......which amounts in the end to the idea that the group is more than the sum of its parts”  (Bion, 1961)

As a result of this and similar works on group psychology, art therapy often takes place within groups, usually following the Foulkesian model, as in the Henderson Hospital Therapeutic Community (established 1954) which is perhaps the most well known of these institutions.

Broadly speaking, the model consists of a variety of differently structured groups, each focused on different outcomes.

Open Arts Groups- Focused on “free creation” in which both staff and patients are encouraged to use a variety of media to create works without being focused on a final outcome, the purpose of this being to allow the patients to benefit solely from the expressive act without an emphasis on interpretation.

Community Art Groups-Focused more on a planned piece of work with time set aside for the analysis and interpretation of work produced

Small Group Analytical Art Therapy-Smaller groups to provide a focus on the individual allowing more scope for individual interpretation

The purpose of these exercises has two aspects, firstly, that the creative and expressive act has an intrinsic therapeutic value to both the patient and the broader sense, the individual-“I do not use the term “art therapy”, because art IS therapy” (Laurence Bradbury), and secondly, that by allowing the unconscious the freedom to express itself through art, some insight can be gained into the specific mental state of the individual, from this, the value of creative and expressive acts within the psychotherapeutic model is clearly evident.