ABSTRACT
Chapter 15 examines commonalities and diversities within the arts therapies in terms of the ways client, therapist and arts process relate. It suggests that within the arts therapies the client and the therapist are in a particular kind of ‘transaction’ together: the client playing an active role through the arts in whether change occurs. It considers examples from arts therapies research involving therapists: taking on the roles of people from their clients’ imagination; being taught dances by clients; creating songbooks whilst clients join in; sitting with the client whilst they play with a doll house and paint. It considers these examples from client perspectives as they physically enter imaginary landscapes, dance, paint images, sing and drum. These are examined to understand how practice can be informed by analytic, developmental or mindfulness frameworks for the arts therapies, and how the relationships between client and therapist reflect unique ways of working which bring together the arts therapy with other therapeutic paradigms.
