274 • Introduction to Art Therapy
those who are empty, art provides richness. For those who are lost, art gives meaning.
For those whose resources are not fully available because of the psychological chains that
bind their energies, art therapy can be the road to liberation, recovery, and renewal.^6
As we honor art as the core of who we are and what we do, we also honor a deep respect
for the creative potential and integrity of each and every individual we serve. We have great
power in art therapy to help and to heal and to restore hope. If anything, the pressures of
the 1990s and the environmental and human traumas of the 21st century have accentuated
the unique values of art as an enlivening form of healing and of therapy, despite the field’s
continuing—and perhaps inevitable—confusion about its identity.
Artist or Therapist?
Some years ago, a freelance writer took a good long look at our field, read a great deal,
and interviewed a lot of people. She then wrote an article entitled “Art Therapy’s Growing
Pains” (Common Boundary, 1994). The subtext indicated how far we have come, yet how
we have struggled with the identity issue that has nagged us from the first. Her prescient
words: “With certification looming, a burgeoning mental-health specialty finds itself at a
crossroads. Should practitioners be artists or clinicians? The answer could change the role
of creativity in the healing process.”
Many of us believe that we are both artists and therapists, in which case there is little
meaning to the question, and little anguish about the response (DVD 12.2).^7 To ask if we
are artists or therapists seems, therefore, to be a meaningless question, embodying a false
dichotomy. That is also how many have viewed the heated disagreements between propo-
nents of “art as therapy” and “art psychotherapy.” Since helping the person(s) being served
should be the prime concern, a responsible art therapist moves flexibly along the continuum
of interventions, according to the needs of the moment. As in the skating and sailing meta-
phors noted in Chapter 7, it is impossible to move along without also being able to shift the
emphasis between art and therapy—as needed.
Many years ago, I appeared as the Art Lady on a public television program created by
an intelligent and compassionate man, Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood). I often
found myself quoting his lyrics to patients of all ages, such as “What do you do with the
mad inside when you feel so mad you could bite?” Among the many possible ways he cited
to express anger without doing harm was “You could pound some clay or some dough,” one
of the ways in which art therapy helps.
Another one of my favorites is “I like you as you are, exactly and precisely. I think you
turned out nicely, and I like you as you are.” Another is “You are special. You are the only
one like you. I like you.” Each, it seems to me, is about the kind of respect for the uniqueness
and creativity of each human being that is the foundation of art therapy.
I’m not even sure that the name of the discipline is so important. I like art therapy myself
because it contains a reference to each of our parents. Like all siblings, art therapists have
varied configurations of appearance, talents, and personality. So of course we are different,
but each in his or her own way is true to our common genetic background. The name of the
field is not as vital as being true to our faith in the therapy of art, that is, the integrity of what
we do and how we do it.
Need for Art in Times of Change
Fifty years ago, a Jungian analyst named Irene Champernowne spoke to a meeting of the
British Association of Art Therapists. She said: “Perhaps even more today when the intellect