Seen and unseen: art therapy in a girls' comprehensive school

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Psychology, Artistic Expression Analysis for Children and Adult Arts, Faculty of Art Education - Helwan University.

Abstract

Seen and unseen: art therapy in a girls' comprehensive school Having an acknowledged therapeutic presence within a school raises staff awareness as to the importance of mental health in relation to learning; such an understanding is essential in a nation presently obsessed with exam­ination results: '. . . the lasting foundations of high achievement are security, joyousness and creativity, not fear and robotics' (James 2006: 20). Students are referred for art therapy from across the many ethnic groupings. I see few students from the Asian communities while there is always a steady stream of Afro-Caribbean and white girls. I remember the first words from a 12-year-old mixed-race student, an only child: 'I don't know anybody else like me. My father is Jamaican and my mother Greek Cypriot.'It would be tempting to pay little heed to the historical past of oppressed racial and cultural groups and to deal only with the here and now in school, but this would be short-sighted. Schaverien (1998), through art psychotherapy groups, describes how powerfully the memory of the collective unconscious continues to transmit trauma and grief through the generations. This is so in the experience of a number of our students. But each girl has her own story to tell, and the provision of art therapy gives them the time and space in which to tell it. Whereas the abiding sense of personal incapacity that characterizes alienation is defined by 'discrepancy,' the creative process is determined by 'synthesis,' by encounter with oneself and with one's world. In its synthetic, integrative insistence on commitment and engagement, creativ­ity stands in contrast to alienation, and therefore is recognized as a potent container with which to work change. (Estelle 1990:112)  Art therapy has now been part of the school for 14 years; it has reached mid-adolescence. Its positive identity is due to the ongoing support of the headteacher and the senior management team, without whom, like some of the students, it would be difficult to survive.
 

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