"It's sort of like a plumber," says Tom Brudenell about the work of
an art therapist. In other words, once you've discovered the leak, or
the problem that someone is facing, you have to decide what to do with it.
Brudenell is an art therapist with his own practice on Vancouver Island.
"Just getting people to work through their problems using art therapy is a
nice idea but it doesn't fly," says Brudenell. "Art therapy is extremely
good for getting [problems] out, but once they're out you're going
to need some training to know what to do with them."
Most people can do art. It is a form of communication that takes down the
barriers between people of different ages, cultures, histories, and languages.
"It gives people another means to express themselves, especially those who
have a limited capacity to express themselves verbally," says Brudenell. Art
allows people to communicate on emotional levels that cannot be expressed
in words. It can even be used to help entire families who cannot communicate
with each other.
According to Brudenell, art is not always therapeutic in itself. Sometimes,
it is only the beginning of the solution. When art alone does not work, the
therapist must be able to move beyond the art and use other means of working
through a client's problems.
Brudenell believes that someone who only has an art therapy background
may find this job difficult because art therapy alone is not always an effective
solution. "The most difficult thing would be working with clients where art
therapy doesn't work, or to have limited means of accessing [clients]
because the art approach is all you know."
Brudenell has a background in psychology, with a strong emphasis on behavioral
psychology. As well, he has a master's degree in marital family therapy.
A master's degree specializing in the mental health field is actually
required by many art therapy associations.
Regardless of what is required, Brudenell strongly suggests that anyone
interested in art therapy should also be educated in another area of mental
health. This way, an art therapist can hope to give the best treatment possible,
and get full satisfaction out of the work.
An artistic background is also helpful. Brudenell says that an art therapist
should understand the medium that is being used to communicate. He says that
the person who doesn't do art "would soon run out of creative tools to
work through the process of art therapy."
Janice Hoshino is a professor of art therapy who has also worked in the
field. She laments the fact that there is a lot of misrepresentation about
what an art therapist does. Many people think that they read minds through
art or that they can solve problems by looking at a drawing. This is not the
case.
"People think we're magicians," says Hoshino. "The interpretation,
or the meaning within any piece has to come from the creator." An art therapist
encourages you to interpret your own art in order to learn more about yourself.
"It's pretty amazing what comes out of your work that makes sense 10
years later, even though you didn't understand it at the time."
Once, when Hoshino told an elderly couple what she does for a living, they
seemed very interested at first. As it turns out, they thought she had said
"heart therapist." When they realized their mistake, silence ensued. "You
could see their faces just drop," remembers Hoshino, "so that's pretty
telling."
To deal with the negativity of a misinformed public, says Hoshino, art
therapists have to remain really positive about what they do. They must also
strive to eliminate any misrepresentations of their field. "I really tell
a lot of people that the people who are going into the field are pioneers.
Largely, you've got to train other therapists, institutions
and the public at large what it's really about."
Hoshino addresses the issue of managed health care. Managed care is designed
to make health care more cost-effective; however, it limits the amount of
time an art therapist can spend with a client, and may prevent the therapist
from addressing all of the issues that a client needs to work through.
"We're all operating under the constraints of managed care. I think
of it as a challenge. I think art therapy can work well within the constraints
of managed care," says Hoshino.
In Hoshino's opinion, art therapy is actually one of the more cost-effective
types of therapy. In other types of therapy, she says, "it can take some time
for a person's defenses to come down before they're actually engaging
on a therapeutic level. Art therapy cuts through all of that verbal defensiveness."
In the end, the aim of an art therapist is to help someone lead a more
fulfilling life. Hoshino says that you have to have a genuine desire to help
others. "You're a person who, hopefully, is helping to make a difference
in people's lives. You help to empower them, help them to express, to
grow, to gain insight."