ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Anna Sheather looks at the two different approaches to art therapy and how the approach formed around the idea that art is a means of ‘symbolic communication’ crosses over into coaching. Anna Sheather shares her research and personal experiences of art therapy and the three key areas that were the starting point for developing her art-based practice. The first of these is the benefits that art therapy gives the client over and above emotional healing and wellbeing. The second is the approach that art therapists use when managing their sessions and, in particular, Leisl Silverstone’s person-centred approach. The third is what happens in an art therapy session and what the client may experience – in particular, that it can be a highly emotional experience that has the ability to take someone to a deeper level of awareness and understanding, that the visual images created can lead to themes and patterns emerging that lead to new discoveries and that it can take time for meaning to emerge.
