'Art is a powerful way to get to know ourselves': Art therapy summer school returns

Art therapy helps people to get a sense of what is happening in their internal world through the images they produce, says Marianne Adams.

She teaches on the MSc course on art therapy training at Crawford MTU. The 33rd Art Therapy Summer School in Cork takes place from June 28 to July 2, at the Crawford’s space on the Grand Parade.

This year’s event, open to anyone interested in the role of creativity as a therapeutic methodology, aims to continue the legacy of collaboration and cross-border partnership from the 2023 All Ireland Convocation Frontiers Conference.

That was hailed by the organisers as “a landmark moment in the history of creative arts therapies across the island of Ireland”. It highlighted art therapy’s essential role in addressing mental health challenges, made even more urgent by the effects of the pandemic.

Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that has at its heart the image-making process.

“In any art therapy setting, there would be materials freely available to clients,” says Marianne. “A client might be given a directive, or they might have their own sense of how they want to use the materials. The actual active image-making is an existential validation of the materiality of the image itself.

“The image is almost like an imprint of the psyche. Having made the image, the client and the therapist can lean back and reflect upon the image and its symbolic content.”

The Art Therapy Summer School is slightly different from the clinical setting because it is taking place in an educational setting, giving participants a sense of the therapeutic use of art making.

It will include a closed workshop over the five days. It is closed because it will allow the group to achieve real traction and trust, exploring their creative process very deeply.

“The participants will play with the materials, interacting with them. It’s not all about the end product; it’s about the process also.”

A painting could be created or a piece of sculpture or mixed media art. You don’t have to be good at art to partake.

“You are guided and facilitated. The summer school will appeal to anybody interested in the visual arts and their therapeutic potential.”

Marianne says art therapy is “a very immediate means of communication. We can be very good, especially as adults and even as children, at presenting a certain kind of image of ourselves verbally.”

The images people make can often give an even stronger sense of themselves.

“It’s not about the therapist knowing better. In fact, the whole process is a collective collaboration of a journey that the art therapist facilitates with the client.

“It can be really useful with children. Children are more likely to make art before they start thinking. In a sense, you could say that children playing with materials and making art is their primary language.”

That is also true if you look at neuroscience. Unprocessed material is stored in the brain, thematically, for example. The art-making process helps move the material into consciousness, revealing unprocessed patterns.

“It’s a language that comes quite naturally to children and probably also to adolescents, depending on the young person. It’s a very powerful way to get to know ourselves more deeply.”

Marianne, who has a private practice in West Cork, says society as a whole “is grappling with a lot of unprocessed trauma”.

She adds: “We’re living in a very intense, fast-paced world that doesn’t allow people much time to process. CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) are there to support families once difficulties have got to a certain pitch. Maybe it would be wiser to look at root causes and the patterns we find ourselves in globally.”

We all have some degree of unprocessed trauma, says Marianne.

“I remember listening to Peter Levine, a living elder in the whole trauma field.

“He was working with trauma expert Thomas Hubl, who examines cultural levels of unprocessed trauma as opposed to individually unprocessed trauma. They both agree that the more we process our trauma, the more we can show up in life and are able to be present.”

The Art Therapy Summer School welcomes people that may have no experience of art therapy.

“We’re inviting them to come together and have an experience in the workshops. Also, there’s a lecture series threading through the summer school to give participants a theoretical orientation.”

The keynote speaker is Siobhán Bereen, co-ordinator of the Art Therapy Training Programme at the University of Ulster, formerly of Crawford/MTU. Stephen Millar, Turner Prize-winning artist and practising art therapist in Cork, will again address the summer school.

Marianne’s lecture at the summer school is entitled ‘Circulation of Inspiration’.

She explains that it involves creating a metaphorical story based on a Native American Indian story.

“It will create a visual metaphor for the people participating, to help orient them in the process.”

For some participants, the summer school may be the first step on the road to a career in art therapy. For others, it will be an opportunity to re-engage with their creative identity. For trainee and qualified therapists, it may provide continuing professional development.

The summer school is an opportunity to learn about the history of art therapy and some of the clinical contexts where it is practised. Most of all, it will develop participants’ understanding of the creative process.