ABSTRACT

Arts-based methods can include activities such as drawing, painting, creative writing, working with clay and more. Developing both personal and professional self-awareness is often stated as an outcome of arts-based methods. Social work educators have used arts-based materials such as films to provide an opportunity for students to deconstruct narratives that are understood as a product of communal, socially acquired understandings. Mindfulness in social work is a new and growth-area of practice and research, and social workers are taking up mindfulness in creative, strengths-based and holistic ways. Certainly, working with non-Western cultures is a strong rationale for the incorporation of both arts-based methods and spirituality, particularly in social work practice but also in research and education. Art is a fundamental aspect of culture; art-making may emerge within a group as its principal source of pleasure, interpretation and coping. Arts-based methods enabled the women to express and develop their cultural/spiritual understandings of their life experiences.