This is the first book to explore and evaluate the potential of museum and gallery spaces and partnerships for art therapy. Showcasing approaches by well-known art therapists, the edited collection contains descriptions of, and reflections on, art therapy in museums and galleries around the globe. Case studies encompass a broad range of client groups, including people with dementia, refugees and clients recovering from substance abuse, exploring the therapeutic skills required to work in these settings. The collection also establishes the context for art therapy in museums and galleries through reviewing key literature and engaging with the latest research, to consider wider perspectives on how these spaces inform therapeutic practice. Offering a comprehensive look at ways in which these locations enable novel and creative therapeutic work, this is an essential book for art therapists, arts and health practitioners and museum professionals.

This practical and inspirational resource offers a wide range of information about museum-based art therapy and wellness programming in various museums. Featuring contributions from art therapists and access professionals from various museum-based wellness programs, the book describes museum-based art therapy, education, access, and inclusion to enlarge the scope of professional development and higher education training in art therapy and its relation to museum studies. Chapter examples of successful museum art therapy and wellness initiatives increase awareness about the role of art therapy in museums and the role of museums in building healthy societies and improving lives. The text also contributes to the field of art therapy by deconstructing traditional narratives about therapy being conceived only as a clinical treatment, and by introducing arts-based approaches and strategies in museums as expanding territories for being proactive in community health and wellness. Museum-based Art Therapy is a valuable guide for art students who are interested in working in museum education, access and disabilities, or museum studies, and graduates and professionals working across the disciplines of museums, art therapy, and disability studies.

Two authorities on popular culture reveal the ways in which art can enhance mood and enrich lives - now available in paperback This passionate, thought-provoking, often funny, and always-accessible book proposes a new way of looking at art, suggesting that it can be useful, relevant, and therapeutic. Through practical examples, the world-renowned authors argue that certain great works of art have clues as to how to manage the tensions and confusions of modern life. Chapters on love, nature, money, and politics show how art can help with many common difficulties, from forging good relationships to coming to terms with mortality.

The role of museums in enhancing well-being and improving health through social intervention is one of the foremost topics of importance in the museums sector today. With an aging population and emerging policies on the social responsibilities of museums, the sector is facing an unprecedented challenge in how to develop services to meet the needs of its communities in a more holistic and inclusive way. This book sets the scene for the future of museums where the health and well-being of communities is top of the agenda. The authors draw together existing research and best practice in the area of museum interventions in health and social care and offer a detailed overview of the multifarious outcomes of such interactions, including benefits and challenges. This timely book will be essential reading for museum professionals, particularly those involved in access and education, students of museums and heritage studies, as well as practitioners of arts in health, art therapists, care and community workers.

Museum Objects, Health and Healing provides an innovative and interdisciplinary study of the relationship between objects, health and healing. Shedding light on the primacy of the human need for relationships with objects, the book explores what kind of implications these relationships might have on the exhibition experience. Merging museum and object studies, as well as psychotherapy and the psychology of well-being, the authors present a new theory entitled Psychotherapeutic Object Dynamics, which provides a cross- disciplinary study of the relationship between objects, health and well-being. Drawing on primary research in museums, psychotherapeutic settings and professional practice throughout the US, Canada, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the UK, the book provides an overview of the theory’s origins, the breadth of its practical applications on a global level, and a framework for further understanding the potency of objects in exhibitions and daily life. Museum Objects, Health and Healing will be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students interested in museum studies, material culture, mental health, psychotherapy, art therapies and anthropology. It should also be valuable reading for a wide range of practitioners, including curators, exhibition designers, psychologists, and psychotherapists.

The Brain-Friendly Museum proposes an innovative approach to experiencing and enjoying the museum environment in new ways, based on the systematic application of cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Providing practical guidance on navigating and thinking about museums in different ways, the book is designed to help develop more fulfilling visitor experiences. It explores our cognitive processes and emotions, and how they can be used to engage with and enjoy the museum environment, regardless of the visitor’s background, language, or culture. The book considers core cognitive processes, including memory, attention, and perception, and how they can successfully be applied to the museum environment, for example, in creating more effective displays. Using evidence-based examples throughout, the book advocates for a wellbeing approach improving visitor experience, and one that is grounded in research from psychology and neuroscience. This book is a must-read for all museum practitioners and psychologists interested in the relationship between cultural heritage, psychology, and neuroscience. It will also be of great interest to art therapists, neuroscientists, university students, museum stakeholders, and museum lovers.

Art Therapy and the Neuroscience of Trauma, 2nd edition, lays out a unified framework of neural plasticity and resilience and places it within a broader social context. Using a lens grounded in multicultural humility, renowned figures in art therapy have updated chapters with content that takes a systematic yet inclusive approach. New chapters and new authors offer stimulating insights into individual and community factors that drive comprehensive care. This revitalized second edition offers an accessible and comprehensive text intended for novice and sage art therapists and students. The book also fosters a vision and a translational pathway for research that explores the protective factors of resilience and the universal impacts of psychological trauma with the systematic integration of art therapy and neuroscience.

Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in Creative Arts Therapies uses a case-based approach to provide practical guidance for practitioners on the skillful application of ethical decision-making in art therapy. The book introduces the DO ART model, an ethical decision-making model specific to the practice of art therapy. Walking readers through common areas of ethical dilemmas, chapters detail how art-making can be used to navigate the model, supporting the well-documented practice of art therapists engaging in art-making processes themselves. Topics covered include boundaries and confidentiality, assessment, storage and exhibition, materials, multicultural issues, technology in art therapy, working with vulnerable populations, supervision and training, and ethical research. Art therapists at all levels will find this book to be a necessary resource for their practice.

Part III, on "Expansion," is composed of AATA Honorary Life Members who began their art therapy careers in the 1970s. During this period, art therapy training programs proliferated, so that some benefited from newly-established formal art therapy education. Others had been working in related areas, such as art and psychology, and moved into art therapy in the early 1970s. In their various venues of influence, the authors presented here are highly accomplished visionaries whose dedication to the development of art therapy has been remarkable. Through their chapters, these "architects of art therapy" chart the development of an important mental health profession; they serve as an inspiration for those involved in art therapy today and for generations of art therapists to come."--BOOK JACKET.

In 2019 the WHO came out with a scoping review related to the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being. In the last yeast, in fact, literature has recognized the direct and indirect benefits of art in the prevention and promotion of mental and physical health and in the management and treatment of disease. Although some countries have made progress in developing policies that make use of the arts to support health and well-being, many have not yet addressed the opportunities that exist for using the arts to support health, and for others policy activities have been time limited. Nonetheless, the relationship between art and health has existed since the birth of medicine itself and has strongly influenced its history and its evolution. Art therapy is the main expression of art in health care. The integration of art in traditional health assistance paths sustains the need to have a holistic approach to health, wellness, and well-being both of patients and other stakeholders, including caregivers and healthcare professionals. Currently the main area of art therapy application is mental health with especially regards to disability, both in developmental age and in elderly and both to cognitive and physical impairment and dementia. However, it is important to remark that mental health does not only refer to mental illness, but also to people's emotional, psychological, and social well-being. These last cases have particularly worsened with the long lockdown periods due to the COVID-19 pandemic.