Process Art as a Student Art Therapist
Jennifer Lee, BFA
Montreal, QC; Ottawa, ON
Jennifer Lee is a student art therapist based in Ottawa, ON and Montreal, QC. With a BFA in Studio Arts and Psychology, Jennifer is currently pursuing her graduate studies at Concordia University as an MA in Creative Arts Therapies (Art Therapy) candidate. She hopes to use the healing properties of art-making and play to work with children and youth in hospital psychiatric settings.
Training to be a therapist can teach one many skills to become a successful helper and clinician, but the inner journey as a therapist is something that is seldom taught or practiced. I have been actively trying to put my personal insecurities on the backburner and not let it affect my work, aware of the often difficult inner journey of becoming a therapist as a first-year student in an art therapy program. I knew that these insecurities were bound to come up in countertransference and clinical work, but I was surprised how quickly they emerged. It’s helpful to know it’s normal for beginner therapists, but part of me also wishes there was an easy answer to fix this. While reading books on dealing with personal insecurities, I found the most common solutions include seeking supervision and engaging in continuous self-reflection and self-evaluation. But how? I have found that I do not resonate with self-reflective journaling from past experiences, yet, I have so many self-reflective thoughts swirling through my mind at random moments of the day. How could I capture these thoughts and process them thoroughly?
Around the same time that I began to notice my personal insecurities arising in my work with clients, my supervisor encouraged me to engage in more art-making to process sessions, personal issues, transference, and countertransference, as a way to visualize the process through response art. [see September 22] Fish (2012) writes that as an informal practice, many art therapists respond to material that emerges in session by creating artwork to reflect on the session, support empathic connections and relationships with clients, clarify feelings and highlight countertransference. [see October 20, October 24] Klorer (2000) describes how the use of process art helps with the processing of feelings that arise from session: “It helps me articulate the unthought unknown, that place beyond words where I find myself emotionally tied up. Releasing these feelings into the art helps me to accept my own limitations. The art becomes a container for me” (p. 256). [see October 29]
As a visual learner, I found this practice to be enlightening. After all, I am studying to become an art therapist to help others communicate through art, why couldn’t I work through my own experiences through art as well? Several researchers in the creatives arts therapies have written about the use of art-making in supporting and resolving situations that may arise during practice such as: relational challenges, reactivity, and countertransference (Govoni, 2022; Fish, 2016; Landy et al., 2012; Panhofer et al., 2011; Kielo, 1991). Initially hesitant to make use of process art due to lack of time and mental energy, I made it my goal in the second month of my semester to make one process artwork following each group art therapy session I co-facilitated. Not only has this practice emerged to shape and engage my challenging emotions using embodied and generative practices, but it has helped me to gain new perspectives and develop a new relationship with art-making: viewing the art process as a container and intermediate space of creation, contemplation, intention, and reflection. [see October 27]
Oftentimes just a scribble in my sketchbook after sessions [see November 4], the use of process art helped me challenge and work with my narratives surrounding felt experiences by placing me – the artist and training art therapist, within the context of art-making to process difficult feelings through externalization. Through the use of process art, I have developed self-compassion for myself and my learning experience as a training art therapist. Through the processing of difficult practicum experiences and feelings, the use of art-making has offered me the opportunity to externalize, mirror, and reflect back my felt experiences in a restorative way while encouraging more receptive and focused attention with clients. [See November 10]. While witnessing my process art, I let influences from Pat Allen’s book, Art is a Way of Knowing (1995) and her Intention-Witness process (n.d.) guide my dialoging with the work. I try to notice the energy as it appears on the page, and the energy as I witness the work. [see November 25] How do certain components of the art work to problem-solve or provide insight on certain issues in my life? How does setting an intention for my process art help me get to know my inner critic? [see November 3] By giving my image the space and attention to be witnessed, I am able to identify core beliefs that have emerged in my thoughts during the day, externalized onto paper. These core beliefs that I have been trying to repress throughout my training so far naturally emerge onto paper in order to be dialogued and contemplated with, in a process that Allen describes as “the body record[ing] what the mind denies” (p. 82) in “learning to dance with your soul” (p. 87).
When flipping back through my sketchbook of process art at the end of the semester, I am able to reflect on my progression in my training and learning process so far. In dialogue with my inner critic as a student art therapist, I am able to provide self-compassion for myself while continuing the practice to be a better therapist through working with my own images. Pat Allen writes, “I trust that the images I need, the knowledge I need, exists within me and that I can access it through [the process of intention setting] (p. 38). [see December 9]
References
Allen, P. B. (1995). Art Is a Way of Knowing: A Guide to Self-Knowledge and Spiritual Fulfillment through Creativity. Shambhala Publications.
Allen, P. B. (n.d.). The pardes studio process. Pat B Allen. Retrieved December 16, 2022, from https://www.patballen.com/pages/process.html
Fish, B. J. (2012). Response Art: The Art of the Art Therapist. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 29(3), 138-143.
Govoni, D., Teoli, L., & Summer, D. (2022). Renegotiating problematic relationships: An art-based sculpting method to address reactivity across disciplines. Journal of Applied Arts and Health, 13(2), 249-265.
Landy, R., Hodermarska, M., Mowers, D., & Perrin, D. (2012). Performance as art-based research in drama therapy supervision. Journal of Applied Arts & Health, 3(1), 49-58.
Kielo, J. B. (1991). Art Therapists’ Countertransference and Post-Session Therapy Imagery. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 8(2), 14-19.
Panhofer, H., Payne, H., Meekums, B., & Parke, T. (2011). Dancing, moving and writing in clinical supervision? Employing embodied practices in psychotherapy supervision. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 38(1), 9-16.