ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines key principles that underpin the use of creativity within final-year projects of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. It presents a rationale for directing students towards using a particular form of arts-based research that aids critical thinking and reflexivity whilst engaging in art practice – referred to as the body of work. The chapter provides examples from past students’ work (Alessandra Wellen and Mary Stephanou), along with their comments about the experience of engaging with the body of work within independent scholarship. The body of work involves students using their art form to both investigate an aspect of the creative or arts therapies and to present their response to that investigation. In order to provide an example of how the body of work is implemented, Alessandra Wellen and Mary Stephanou, two former students of the Masters in Art Therapy programme, recount their experiences of engaging with the process, including what they found beneficial and challenging.
