Professional Books & Journals

by Marion Gordon-Flower

For those with mobility and communication challenges, arts therapies can be especially significant and rewarding as a means of self-expression and engaging with others. This book provides practical guidance on multimodal and archetypal arts therapy approaches adapted specifically for a physical disability context.

Practical strategies and interventions are given, alongside case studies from individual and group arts therapy sessions. The author acknowledges the challenges of working with clients with physical disabilities, such as physical assistance in using resources, subtleties in communication of preferences and the need for extra members of staff, and gives clear guidance for accessible and effective sessions.

This is essential reading for any arts therapist want...

A Person-Centred Approach

Chapter Two
Nursing the Wounded Heart
Marion Gordon-Flower
Individual art therapy with a woman with a disability who exhibited symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), following her experience of the Christchurch earthquake while on holiday in that city.
Assessment approaches included professional observations in the referral process, self-assessment by the client in the initial interview, and the use of the Arts Therapy Five-Point-Star (5-Pt-Star) Assessment Tool.

Chapter Seven
Dancing with the Magic of the Archetypes
Marion Gordon-Flower
The use of the Arts Therapy Five-Point-Star (5-Pt Star) Assessment Tool for individuals within an intermodal dance-movement and art therapy group. This includes the process of building improvised dance movement into a choreographed performance, led by movement-responses of the participants who had a diverse range of physical challenges and strengths.

Edited by Caroline Miller

There is increasing pressure on therapists to provide details of structured assessments and to report therapy outcomes to funders, employers and co-workers. This edited volume provides a series of case studies, with varied client groups, giving arts therapists an accessible introduction to assessment and outcome measures that can be easily incorporated into their regular practice.

The book provides demonstrations, within a practice-based evidence framework, of how measures can be tailored to the individual client's needs. The case studies show assessment and outcome models for music therapy, art therapy and dramatherapy used with a range of client groups including people with intellectual disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson's Disease and those suffering from depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or coping with bereavement.

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Working Together for Better Outcomes

Chapter 4
Dances of Paradox and Role Diffusion
Marion Gordon-Flower
Key words: adult rehabilitation, Art Therapy 5-Pt Star Assessment, disability, multimodal, social development and social justice.

Edited by Caroline Miller

In a multidisciplinary setting or team, competing perspectives and principles can be challenging to negotiate, but supportive working relationships and effective collaboration can ultimately lead to an enriched experience and innovative outcomes for both professionals and clients.

Drawing on their diverse experiences, art, music, drama, play and dance therapists emphasise the valuable results that their respective disciplines can produce when applied in settings ranging from schools to hospices, in collaboration with behaviour therapists, teachers, occupational therapists, speech therapists and other practitioners. The book provides a unique perspective on the common issues faced by arts therapists when working with other professionals and will assist arts therapists in promoting their profession to co-workers and clients.

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Masters of Arts in Arts Therapy Dissertation (Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design) 2006 “On the Wings of a Dream” explored painting from my own dreams. Psychotherapeutic theories were applied and compared in the archetypal analysis of Carl Jung, the gestalt therapy of Fritz Perls and the art as medicine of Shaun McNiff. The psychological aesthetics of David Maclagan was also applied. There is a connection made with the Māori model of health, Te Mauri O Te Tangata (Te Kamaka Matauranga 1991-92), offering greater accessibility of within bicultural and multicultural contexts. The outcome is a two part model for working with dreams through painting in Arts Therapy. Marion Gordon-Flower (nee Allen-Gordon).

Dissertation. On the Wings of a Dream