What Do You See? [Art Therapy Podcast]

Art Therapy Podcast Summary

The podcast starts with my personal story, as Guy is always interested in how his interviewees got into trauma work. The personal story goes from my experiences living next to a slum in South America at the age of 11, to doing respite care for abused and neglected children at the age of 16, to studying theology and moving to Australia from Germany. Of course, it also looks at my journey of becoming an art therapist and art therapy lecturer, which was strongly influenced by my mother, a Freudian psychoanalyst.

In the interview, I showcase the ‘Jungian Self Box’ in great detail as an example of how to work with trauma in art therapy. I use it differently to Jung, focusing mainly on the trauma that often ‘sits’ inside of the box. 

We also look at the difference between ‘art as therapy’ and ‘art in therapy’, and how this becomes critical in trauma work. This difference becomes apparent when the art therapist asks, “What do you see?”

‘Art in therapy’ is about the unconscious material becoming conscious and facilitating integration and processing of the trauma. As unconscious material always gets projected into an artwork, it becomes visible to the therapist and client. The key is not to interpret, but to ask the client to look.