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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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Critical Analysis

Der Kolk, V. (2015). The body keeps the score: mind, brain and body in the transformation of trauma. London: Penguin Books (p.78-79)

I have chosen the text The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van De Kolk published in London in 2015 to analyse. Van De Kolk is a world renowned Psychiatrist and expert on trauma who has published many scholarly books and over 100 journal articles. I am interested in this book because it expertly dissects the biomedical model’s approach to trauma. Van De Kolk’s case studies and evidence, whilst focused on trauma, provide more generalist insights around the mechanics of our mental health and potential pathways to recovery.

Van De Kolk begins this section by explaining in brief Polyvagal Theory, which was introduced by Stephen Porges (a colleague of Van De Kolk’s) in 1994. The theory builds on Darwin’s early observations combined with the most relevant scientific research. ‘Polyvagal’ refers to the many organs the vagus nerve connects and the theory provides an innovative appraisal of the intuitive and instinctual experiences of our corporeality and the voices and faces of those around us. Polyvagal theory elucidates why a focused connection with someone else can support a shift from fight or flight responses towards a more integrated and harmonious response involving our cerebral cortex.

Van De Kolk explains that our understanding of human beings as social creatures who not only desire, but require connection. Hominids are hardwired to relate to one another and decipher even the subtlest of bodily clues. Van de Kolk explicates that when what we perceive in others is that they are ‘safe’ we naturally attune and adjust to this assurance of security. Our mirror neurons acknowledge our bodily experience and adjust accordingly. Our brains and physiognomy are built to function as a group or ‘tribe’. Van De Volk believes that most mental adversity stems from our ability to function as a group as we have done since the genesis of our species.

Van De Kolk then goes on to explore safety and reciprocity in respect of these discoveries and insights. To feel safe with others is the greatest predicator for mental wellbeing. Simply sharing space, however, is not enough: there must be an empathy and sensibility attached. For people to recover from trauma there must be an adequate foundation of stability and calm. Van De Kolk shares that from the experience of anxiety at a social gathering to the most severe of implications attached to trauma; is the human need for friendship and love. Reciprocity of feeling is not a mere ‘social glue’ but a crucial tool in our personal wellbeing. Van De Kolk acknowledges the benefits of specialised trauma groups but queries the loss of individuality potential in such spaces.

There is a clear context, background and evidence base to Van De Kolk’s arguments. He draws upon work from his colleague Porges to persuade us of the phenomenal importance of a holistic approach to trauma and mental health. It is social relationships, Van De Kolk argues, that hold the key to unlocking a powerful antidote to alleviate the effects of trauma. Van De Kolk’s referencing of Ekman’s pioneering study Emotions Revealed is a convincing insight into the workings of humans as social beings: from our perceptive mirror neurons to our almost imperceptible internalisation of other’s emotions and our subsequent bodily reactions.

Through these examples from neuroscience to behavioural studies Van De Kolk persuasively assuages commonly held assumptions of where mental ‘disorders’ begin and how they are exacerbated. Van De Kolk rejects the widely accepted biomedical model which is reliant on explanations of mental health problems as being due to an imbalance of brain chemistry or a cruel twist of ‘bad’ genes. Van De Kolk proffers to us an alternate suggestion: we are social beings whose elementary beginnings predicate our present and future. Human beings are unable to disencumber themselves from this innate evolutionary biology.

When Van De Kolk analyses safety and reciprocity his reference to Jerome Kagan, a professor of child psychology at Harvard, feels poignantly optimistic about humankind’s benevolence. This is reflective of the book’s tone throughout: a cautious hope for small acts of kindness. In the context of the two pages his reference to numerous studies pointing to a better recovery post a traumatic event if the person has a solid social support lacks numerical evidence. However, in the book’s entirety there can be no fault found regarding the breadth and depth of Van De Kolk’s references. The rule of the text as a whole is one of a wide knowledge and research base that provides a equilibrious and precise set of theories and musings.

Van De Kolk validates the movement to specialised, peer supported trauma related groups but convincingly coaxes us to proceed along this precipice with caution. Van De Kolk acknowledges the ‘comfort’ found in such groups. However, he argues there is a suppression of individuality so one can ‘belong’ to such a group. Van De Kolk believes trapping oneself into a narrowly designated group (such as a gang or certain political parties) only furthers an individual’s isolation. Narrow groups are something which do not, Van De Kolk states, encourage enough of a mental reflexivity for growth and recovery.

At the heart of the argument is a central tenet of people’s complicated duality; the precarious balancing act of the evolutionary need to belong and the need to maintain a reflexive individuality. If we have good relationships, we feel nurtured and our very brain development relies on a deep symbiosis with others. Indeed, most of our energy is bound up with being in sync with our reciprocity to one another; so indelibly are we entwined with our tribe. Van De Kolk utilises Porges theory: the basis of much acclaim and the foundation of much contemporary writing around mental health. This shows Van De Kolk as a writer immersed in the most relevant research and debate.

Van De Kolk contemplates, alongside Porge’s Polyvagal theory, a new way of looking at Trauma, mental health and recovery. Social inclusion and relationships are the nucleus of understanding how human beings heal and relate. Van De Kolk expertly steers us away from understanding humanity only in the context of our reptilian fight or flight responses; to a more integrated response incorporating approaches which reinforce our body’s ability to regulate arousal. The study and understanding of trauma becomes a lens for Van De Kolk to also elucidate other commonalities within the human psyche crucial to our more generic wellbeing: reciprocity, interdependence and empathy are the foundation to our collective humanity.

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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Annotated Bibliography

Hass-Cohen, N. and Carr, R. (2008). Art therapy and clinical neuroscience. London; Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

This book is absolutely crucial in understanding how Art Therapy works on a physiological level and how that relates and affects practice. Through developments in neuroscience the enormous benefits for Art Therapy can be explicated in a scientific way. It is particularly clear in elucidating how chronic stress affects an individual and how Art therapy can shift an individual away from primarily engaging a limbic-based instinctual reaction and move to re-engaging with their Cerebral cortex. The text also sheds new light on PTSD and C-PTSD and the major benefits that Art Psychotherapy can have in understanding the neurobiology of the stress response and how this might affect immune system, memory issues.

Hyland Moon, C. (2015). Materials & media in art therapy. Routledge.

This text provides a much needed analysis of the, largely ignored, function of materials in Art Therapy. Hyland explores the meanings implicit in materials but also why certain materials have maintained a privileged position within Art Therapy. Hyland asks the pertinent question: why, when most Art Therapists work with a mainly marginalised client base, do they utilise such self consciously ‘high art’ materials in their work? Hyland’s exploration of the innate intersectional issues in materials themselves is and adept reading of how these seemingly inanimate objects become full of nuanced symbolism and significance. Hyland wishes there to be a more ‘critically engaged’ relationship between the practice and materials. This text reflects my own concern with the power and a need for a more prescient panorama on the importance of materials in the practice of Art Therapy. Hyland also illuminates the importance of the intersection between Art Therapy and contemporary Art practices. Hyland cites Sara Bennett Steele’s work as an exemplary example of an Art Therapist exploiting a range of materials and techniques including the olfactory senses and a more joyful exploration of materialities including feathers.

Hogan, Susan & Cornish, Shelagh (2014) Unpacking gender in art therapy: The elephant at the art therapy easel, International Journal of Art Therapy, 19:3, 122-134, DOI: 10.1080/17454832.2014.961494

This journal article is part of a national survey conducted around Art Therapists to gain an understanding of how the intersectionalities of gender, race, class (and other factors such as religion) impact on the therapeutic relationship. This was incredibly useful for me in considering my own potential biases and how they may have the potential to impact on the relationship with my future clients. From the Art therapists surveyed it was concluded that generally Art Therapists consider gender at the point of referral and throughout. However, this idea is developed into a subtler postmodern understanding of gender as instead being labelled ‘sex’ which is obviously influenced by Feminist writers such as Judith Butler. The impact of this research is profound for Art Therapy training courses as the authors make it clear how important it may be for courses to offer more work on how gender is actually constructed and why.

Johnstone, L. and Boyle, M. (2018). The Power Threat Meaning Framework: An Alternative Nondiagnostic Conceptual System. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, p.002216781879328.

This journal article and progressive framework is probably one of the most innovative, pioneering and momentous ponderings of the problematic medicalisation of people’s mental wellbeing. The central tenet of Johnstone’s theory is that the current psychiatric model is not fit for purpose due to it’s reliance on theoretical models designed for understanding bodies-not minds. Johnstone calls on an abandonment of the ‘DSM mindset’ that has plagued the field of therapeutic work in lieu of a more integrated, holistic and perspicacious model. Johnstone does not negate positivism’s influence and advances but expertly persuades us of the need for a complete paradigm shift if we are to adequately work with an individual and their own sense of their wellbeing. Johnstone expertly demonstrates how a whole plethora of relational and social ‘adversities’ impact on an individual’s mental health. Assuming pathology is no longer fit for purpose within Johnstone’s groundbreaking structure.

Kuri E. Toward an Ethical Application of Intersectionality in Art Therapy. Art Therapy. 2017;34(3):118-122 DOI: 10.1080/07421656.2017.1358023

Kuri challenges a profession with a large majority of white, middle class women to challenge a tokenistic and shallow understanding and practice of intersectionality. Kuri argues the consequences of globalization and neo-?.≤liberalism have been disastrous and profound: resulting in models which favour ‘market compliance’ above a client’s needs. I value Kuri’s approach as I wish to practice in a way where I firmly identify my own social ‘location’. Intersectionality provides a non-polarising position with a myriad of different perspectives from which to work from. Practicing in an intersectional way requires an ability to be critical of pre-existing structures and an understanding of the colonialist epistemology and ontology surrounding Art Therapy rooted in ‘whiteness’ and being European. Kuri urges white professionals to not coopt intersectionality as merely a piece of ‘political and moral capital’. I too wish to use a framework which capacitates a client to achieving social justice.

Learmonth, M. (2009). The evolution of theory, the theory of evolution: Towards new rationales for art therapy. International Journal of Art Therapy, 14(1), pp.2–10.

DOI: 10.1080/17454830903006075

This journal article reflects some of my own interests in how evolutionary biology can elucidate our understanding of how and why art making is so crucial to us as human beings. Learmouth states “the arts are ubiquitous”; the suggestion is we are inextricably linked to art making and this could only be possible if it gave us a distinct evolutionary advantage as a species. This reflects my own belief that we are all innately creative and therefore my trust in the practice of Art Psychotherapy to provide a space and context in which to unlock this primal archetype present in our collective human unconscious. Learmouth tell us “Art…is so laden with fantasies of cultural superiority and inferiority that..(it) has become…something I can’t do”. We are reminded that for children play and creativity are woven tightly together. Play and the metaphors abundant in creativity are distinctly human traits to be celebrated.

Moon, C. (2000). Art Therapy, Profession or Idea? A Feminist Aesthetic Perspective. Art Therapy, 17(1), pp.7–10. DOI: 10.1080/07421656.2000.10129437

Moon expertly balances the need for an understanding of Art Therapy as a collection of ever changing ideas receptive to it’s continually transitioning environment but also a professional identity. Moon identifies that Art Therapy may always be in the process of defining and re-defining itself. This level of reflexivity and responsiveness to changing contexts and intersections showcases Art Therapies dynamic practice. Moon is not without critique of the ‘profession’ however, citing covert oppression which acts in a biased gatekeeping functionality affecting for example the amount of people who identify as BAME. Moon highlights the predominance of the female within Art Therapy as harnessing a different kind of aesthetic paradigm: creativity, flexibility an understanding of inclusion. I am personally drawn to Moon’s analysis of Art Therapy as a Profession and an Idea because I am passionate about Art Therapy as both an evolving and valid discipline.

Walker, M. (2010). What's a Feminist Therapist to Do? Engaging the Relational Paradox in a Post-Feminist Culture, Women & Therapy, 34:1-2, 38-58, DOI: 10.1080/02703149.2011.532689

This journal article clearly and efficiently interrogates a burgeoning landscape of the ‘language of post-feminism’. Walker is concerned with challenging intrinsic biases we have regarding gender (and also race). How a client might chastise the ‘imperfect’ mother instead of the absent father. That such biases are possible to unfurl safely with a client. Walker heralds the use of Relational Cultural Theory and its ability to challenge the ‘power over paradigm’ shift in society. At the foundation of RCT is the notion that people are innately drawn to connect and it is this connection that provides a therapeutic sustenance. Walker challenges the ‘discrepant’ images we create about women and around race. These ‘well camouflaged mechanisms’ of power can create therapeutic and existential issues for clients well coached in these powerful institutional and societal ‘isms’.

Winnicott, D. (1968). The child, the family, and the outside world. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Penguin Books.

Although this text is an older tome the central themes echo through contemporary literature in the book’s innate intertextuality. Much of Winnicott’s central themes around context, early attachments and the transitional object abound in authors writing now. Winnicott’s lack of didacticism feels refreshing even with a prevailing modern eye. ��By playing, the baby showed…something in himself that could be called …an inner world of imaginative liveliness” (p.79). Winnicott’s important investigations of what it is to be the mother/other are just as relevant today and are used by Beth Hoyes, Helen Omand and Deba Anna Salim. When Winnicott says ‘Destruction is important’, it makes me reflect on the challenge of putting that kind of patient reflexiveness into practice around un-making and non-making in sessions. To be able to embrace the wish to destroy as well as create, the need to sit in stillness as make an object or mark is a challenge for any practitioner. Winnicott clearly shows us that this is the necessity for any true empathic insight.

Stace, S.M. (2014) Therapeutic Doll Making in Art Psychotherapy for Complex Trauma, Art Therapy, 31:1, 12-20, DOI: 10.1080/07421656.2014.873689

This journal article is a precise analysis of how the ‘plasticity’ of materials and human-like qualities of dolls can provide a tangible object to explore the difficult dynamics that C-PTSD often conceals. Stace offers a broad range for references to support and elucidate the main body of her text which is in an in-depth case study of a client who found the use of making dolls incredibly transformative in her own art therapy. Stace asserts that is the creation of ‘meaning that can be crucial in alleviating symptoms of C-PTSD. The externalization of internal states through the doll is perceived as being one of the most emancipating parts of this work. I have a keen interest in trauma and complex trauma and this article provided a platform for me to delve into a particular area of ‘meaning making’. The autonomy the client experiences through realizing her internal struggle in a series of supposedly inanimate objects clearly shows the power of doll and figure making as a means of supporting those who have experienced C-PTSD.

Huet, Val (1997) ‘Ageing: another tyranny? Art therapy with older women, Hogan, S. 1997. (Ed). Feminist approaches to art therapy. London: Routledge p125-139.

I am a feminist and this whole edition is a thorough and wide ranging exposition of how Art Therapy practice can support these approaches. Huet’s article explores aging and the menopause through the lens of one of her groups for older women. Huet expertly navigates through the multitudinous issues that aging can bring up for women including their own mortality, sexuality and self esteem. This text is also a lesson in transference and counter transference that Huet herself experienced whilst running this group. Huet explores how the menopause is reflected in society: a less than favourable experience for most menopausal women. Regularly dismissed and ignored as their perceived sexual ‘potency’ has dissipated in a society obsessed by youth. Huet highlights the lack of research and evidence around aging by women for women. The group that Huet worked with find their individual and collective voice through experimentation with materials.

Rosen, M., Pitre, R. and Johnson, D.R. (2016). Developmental Transformations Art Therapy: An Embodied, Interactional Approach. Art Therapy, 33(4), pp.195–202.

This article cleverly explicates the transformative model of working directly with a client in an interactional way where joint art-making is encouraged. Zierer’s work is heavily referenced, including her use of the ‘push test’. The text explores how this intrusion/intervention can be safely managed between the client and therapist. It explores the notion that an Art Therapist can be a ‘challenger’ as well as empathetic. However, upon reading this text I felt I would utilise this method rather more intuitively instead of in a ‘take it turns’ model. The article illustrates how this receptive and reflexive technique of making art more symbiotically can elucidate surprising therapeutic results. This level of ‘heightened engagement’ initiates an intimacy between the client and therapist.

Der Kolk, V. (2015). The body keeps the score: mind, brain and body in the transformation of trauma. London: Penguin Books

This book has been profoundly important to me personally and also in regards to my training to be an Art Therapist. It is an authoritative study in how to transform trauma into something more manageable for the person who has experienced it. It includes Van De Kolk’s own inimitable career in psychology alongside other research and clinical discoveries in the field of trauma. He highlights the importance of art therapy and Polyvagal theory is discussed and the importance of neuroscience shedding new light on how trauma operates and how it might be salved. However, Van De Kolk particularly highlights the importance of whole body interventions: yoga, meditation and EMDR are all cited as crucial tools. Crucially he never cites one modality of approach as he acknowledges everyone’s journey through trauma is individual. The transformative perspective he adopts shows that it is often through great fragility that we find great strength.

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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Methodology Post

Blog Post 14

Methodology Post

26/11/19

I have been exploring the system of methods I have been employing within this period of Research and Development and how certain subjective lenses have informed what areas of Art Therapy I have researched and how this may impact my methodology. There is a wider conversation being had in Art Therapy about the rejection of a more diagnostic model: ‘Humans are fundamentally social beings whose experiences of distress and troubled or troubling behaviour are inseparable from their material, social, environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts” (Johnstone, L. & Boyle, M. 2018 p.8). Whilst there is obviously a need for robust and thorough research which showcases innovation, validity and reliability, it is becoming more prescient to acknowledge one’s innate subjectivity and unconscious biases.

Although the traditional mode of research based on the scientific ‘ideal’ of objectivity may initially offer an illusion of legitimacy it quickly becomes more porous upon investigation. We instinctually harbour all sorts of biases, stereotypes and prejudices; Gladwell articulates these instantaneous reactions in his book Blink. Whether we choose to acknowledge these instinctual biases, not whether we have them, is the key to this approach.

In the socio-cultural surroundings we find ourselves in I am confident in asserting the importance of my own subjectivity in guise of my strong, feminist beliefs. In an era where much of the guise of patriarchy, but unfortunately not the structures, is being lifted in the light of the MeToo movement and other globalised, grassroots movements such subjectivity may be prescient. Art Therapy too has a strong kinship with being practiced in a social justice and feminist model due to the high level of women practicing in the profession. The Power Threat Meaning Framework gathered together such a comprehensive set of findings and research that encouraged all therapeutic disciplines to embrace a more participatory, holistic practice that respected and involved intersectionality.

Instead of research acting as a way to find an innate ‘truth’ it’s purpose can be seen as instead one of credibility and ethics. In Art Therapy research there is a historical issue with how those outside of the profession have ‘measured’ it’s efficacy. The Matisse trial (a randomised, controlled trial) caused shock waves throughout the profession for it’s ‘discovery’ that Art Therapy was not beneficial in working with people who had experienced psychotic episodes. Huet and Holttum successfully challenged the validity of the methods and methodology behind the Matisse trial, which was having a hugely detrimental effect on the credibility of Art Therapy as a profession. The Matisse trial was so catastrophic for the profession as it came at a time for ever decreasing funding for mental health.

Huet showed that much of the perceived ‘research’ and NICE guidelines were potentially reductive and problematic. Within the Matisse critique, the original study focusses on people who have experienced psychotic episodes, Huet tries to dissect why their methods and methodology leaves a lot to be desired. Huet explicates to us that there is no ‘theoreotical explication of the psychosocial difficulties of people with a diagnosis of scizophernia’ (The MATISSE Trial–A Critique p.5). This aligns to my own holistic standpoint; if you approach mental health in a biomedical model you miss potential opportunities for recovery. A large part of Huet’s critique lies with the lack of stakeholder involvement. In a research climate where we now recoginse the importance of user involvement both shaping the process and determining the conclusion it seems bizarre to ignore these voices.

My own methodology and methods will be informed by my position as an intersectional feminist. To follow guidance from the likes of the MRC, especially when it comes to setting up and evaluating a trial in Art Therapy, which is a complex intervention. I understand the importance of clear theoreotical and ethical standpoints, pilot work and integrated service user involvement.

Johnstone, L. & Boyle, M. with Cromby, J., Dillon, J., Harper, D., Kinderman, P., Longden, E., Pilgrim, D. & Read, J. (2018). The Power Threat Meaning Framework: Overview. Leicester: British Psychological Society.

Gladwell, M. (2013). Blink: the power of thinking without thinking. New York: Back Bay Books.

Holttum, S. and Huet, V. (2014). The MATISSE Trial–A Critique. SAGE Open, 4(2), p.215824401453293.

Crawford, M.J., Killaspy, H., Kalaitzaki, E., Barrett, B., Byford, S., Patterson, S., Soteriou, T., O’Neill, F.A., Clayton, K., Maratos, A., Barnes, T.R., Osborn, D., Johnson, T., King, M., Tyrer, P. and Waller, D. (2010). The MATISSE study: a randomised trial of group art therapy for people with schizophrenia. BMC Psychiatry, 10(1).

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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All artwork Belle Benham.

Blog Post 13

25/11/19

Embodied Materials Pt2 - Experiential groups.

Our second workshop on Embodied Materials was focused on wet materials in contrast to the first workshop where we solely used dry and monochrome materials. Four stations were set up this time. The first station our group went to ended up being my favourite in retrospect- we had oil pastels and Windsor and Newton watercolours. Immediately I went back to a painting I had once made of my own neck and shoulders-it was cropped so there was no head and the body almost became a landscape. In my mind it spoke to me to use this image as an infrastructure for these experimentations. I started by outlining the neck and shoulders in oil pastel and then by filling the negative space with the bright, jewel-like watercolour pigment. For me colour is crucial. I felt liberated by the ability to use colour in the workshop and I think the shift was reflected in the images I created.

The second station had cardboard and a kind of ‘school’ poster paint which I found distinctly irritating at first. I think the opacity of the paint twinned with absorbency of the cardboard meant a lack of control around the vibrancy of the colour. However, these first misgivings actually meant I explored the paint latterly in a more visceral way: twisting the brush in circles enjoying the viscosity of the paint.

The third station presented me with an alternative surface: a circle. I am instinctively drawn to circles and it felt a containing and comforting shape to work onto. I was drawn to a distinctly restrained and monochromatic choice of tones. I utlised the neck and shoulders again and worked into the negative spaces with the thick, dark acrylic. Acrylic is a medium that I really relish working with. Acrylic’s ability to dry quickly and to provide a matt denseness is something that I find uniquely satisfying. I started to create a ‘web’ of thin, precise lines across the shoulders and neck. I had been using a piece of magazine to catch drips and wipe my brush and I couldn’t resist tearing a piece and painting it to the image. I let a part of the magazine flap up revealing the paper underneath. This diminutive accessory to the image felt essential and I could not quite work out why. There was a subterfuge to it’s inclusion as we were not meant to technically add to the image using other materials.

The fourth station was ink and brown paper and these two materials felt diametrically opposed from the start. The ink cried out for a thick, semi porous paper that would allow it to glide mellifluously across the surface. I again used my initial infrastructure of the neck and shoulders and then carefully dotted water across the decolletage and using a brush pierced the droplets with ink. This proved satisfactory as the ink bled more than I thought.

Alongside this workshop I had read Materials & media in art therapy and this had elucidated for me the importance of the choice and range of materials alongside more prescient factors around meaning making innately present within the material itself whether it be paint, clay or a found object. “The field of art therapy has been operating within an unnecessarily constricted visual vocabulary” (Catherine Hyland Moon, 2015, Introduction xvi). With this in mind I ruminated not only on the potential impact of meaning for a client in choice of materials but also how as an Art Therapist you tread along a delicate line between containment and control. Hyland’s successful expose of the inherent politicisation of materials is expertly highlighted by her example of the Guerrilla Girls: “If men had done the sewing, would underwear be hanging in the Louvre?” (Catherine Hyland Moon, 2015, Introduction xvi). As a feminist, considerations of intersectionality present within materials, is something I have always been fascinated by. The debate still rages for example about what is considered fine art and what is considered ‘craft’. These types of debate encompass wide ranging intersectional concerns around materiality and the various palimpsests of meaning they hold.

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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Blog Post 12

18/11/19

Embodied Materials- experiential groups.

This workshop was a compelling lesson in materiality and the varying positive and negative connotations they carry for us all. At this workshop a variety of stations had been set up each with different surfaces, implements and materials to work with. Throughout the session we moved around each station, without talking, having just 8 minutes to create with the given materials and observe the process and how it made us feel. The stations were comprised of charcoal on sticks with large pieces of wrapping paper to work on, pastels and paper, oil pastels and paper, markers and paper, graphite and mixed pencils and paper and small thin pieces of paper and very hard pencils.

The process was fascinating; in that it profoundly tested people’s tolerance and memories around materials. Different components pricked different peoples memories. The scratchy, flimsy, translucent paper we had to utilise with a hard HB pencil was unanimously declared as reminding people of school toilet paper. Taking this as a study in the embodiment of materials means even some thin paper can bring a multiplicity of meanings. The general disgust this paper encouraged was a collective unconscious suddenly laid bare. I realised what strong reactions, memories and emotions a material could foment.

Notably the restrained choices of monochromatic, simple 2-D pens, pastels and pencils also provided containment and comfort. Group members said they felt it was liberating to enjoy the sheer sensuousness of a material without the need to pre empt the art output with a ‘concept’ or ‘plan’. I found that I became captivated by the process with no desire to look at my peer’s work. This focus was not due to lack of interest in my neighbour’s work and instead was a reflection of how involving it was to work in these seemingly muted and pared down ‘equipment’.

I related how this may also impact upon yourself and your client; especially in regards to the inevitable transference and counter transference. If you are adopting an interactional approach with a client as explored in Developmental Transformations Art Therapy: An Embodied, Interactional Approach, Art Therapy then there are a myriad of potential complications in how swept up both the client and Art Therapist become in this meaning making. From Edith Zierer’s work to Winnicott (p.196) there is much evidence to suggest however that this ‘mirroring’ of art-making can have enormously positive benefits such as: being non-hierarchical, relational, non-confrontational (the complex ‘gaze’ is softened) and profoundly engaging.

Marni Rosen, Renée Pitre & David Read Johnson (2016) Developmental Transformations Art Therapy: An Embodied, Interactional Approach, Art Therapy, 33:4, 195-202, DOI: 10.1080/07421656.2016.1229514

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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Blog Post 11

09/11/19

Sketchbook Work-Exploring the Body 2

I am planning to do a cast of my vagina with alginate but I am exploring ideas of how this might progress or transform. Whether I should incorporate text-or simply let the title provide this confabulation. In my drawings I have been drawn to an almost hyper realistic pink-although the 3-D piece will be painted gold. The ideas I explored was cut out vagina’s coloured over in Tomboy pens with a watercolour-like wash covering the sharp edges. This lead me along a path of the importance of texture and a solidity to the final 3-D piece. As a piece of anatomy it is one of the most misdescribed, misrepresented and misappropriated. Whilst the pornification of our culture and media seems to hurtle along with evermore omnipresence, it unfortunately does not connote to an understanding of the female anatomy.

My exploration of female corporeality in my own art is a central facet in my creativity. I feel that from teenage scribbles of male phalluses on textbooks at school to the modern obsession with dick ‘pics’ the male genitalia is just innately, literally and metaphorically more visible. I remember not even really knowing much about my own anatomy is this way. My genitalia was shrouded in mystery: something that should be de-haired, de-odoured and be faintly embarrassed by. I wish to create more space for this exploration of this most feminine and intimate of parts.

Because of the subject matter of a lot of my work this has made me think about how a client might feel if they came across it accidentally. I have pondered what ‘safeguarding’ this may potentially require in the future when working with clients.

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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Blog post 10

05/11/19

Mary Sibande- ‘I came apart at the seams’. Somerset House 2019

This exhibition was a powerful comment and critique on the artist’s history: in regard to apartheid and the hopes, failures and disappointments that have inevitably come of South Africa’s complex history and indeed it’s present. It was a sumptuous visual treat: interdisciplinary-photos, installation and a kind of allusory, performative quality. In part the light quality and themes put me to mind of the British photographer and artist Benji Reid.

The first piece you encounter is a blue, ‘servant like’ costume-beautifully accurate but with an added veneer of theatricality (great swathes of fabric-a veritable excess). This piece is reflective of the stereotypical black ‘mama’ with all the connotations of servitude it evokes. This blue-clad figure is reflected in another alter ego transformed into a purple, medusa like figure. This purple vision seems a direct oppositional challenge to her indigo sister. The purple in the former figure is a direct reference to the police in South Africa trying to mark protestors in an anti-apartheid demo purple so they could easily identify them. Unfortunately for the police some protestors managed to turn the cannon on the police meaning everyone was covered in the same, now equivocal, colour. Whilsy Sibande explores equality and equanimity here I think she also questions how possible it is to achieve when certain infrastructures are still retained. Although everyone was coloured, momentarily, the same I think she suggests there is an impermenance to this. The next transformation for ‘Sophie’, Sibande’s alter ego throughout, is a red ‘high priestess’ figure: now seemingly set on justice and also retribution. Huge snarling dogs bay at her feet and she appears to be in a church. This figure seems thoroughly ‘Old Testament’ in tone and this epitomizes Sibande’s ambivalence to the success of post apartheid South Africa.

This exhibition again made me think of the palimpsestic nature of a client’s identity: history, gender, race, age and location all shift and change this internal narrative for a client. I thought also too about the politics of identity and how when Art Therapy can create ‘an invitation to communicate across difference’ (Art therapy, race and culture p.18). I also started to align some of the ideas I had discovered in Art therapy, race and culture and how they might relate to your own practice with clients. For example the challenges faced by a client in seeking to find someone they can identify and relate to and what role the different intersectionalities that race and gender may play within this.

Campbell, J. (2004). Art therapy, race and culture. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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What's a Feminist Therapist to Do?

Blog post 9

01/11/19

This journal article clearly and efficiently interrogates a burgeoning landscape of the ‘language of post-feminism’. Walker is concerned with challenging intrinsic biases we have regarding gender (and also race). This article felt very prescient to my own life having continually weathered the storms of toxic masculinity. I thought about my own therapy and how I had concentrated previously upon my relationship with my mother above and beyond my relationship to my father. Walker analyses how a client might chastise the ‘imperfect’ mother instead of the absent father. Such biases, Walker argues, are possible to unfurl safely with a client. Walker heralds the use of Relational Cultural Theory and its ability to challenge the ‘power over paradigm’ shift in society. At the foundation of RCT is the notion that people are innately drawn to connect and it is this connection that provides a therapeutic sustenance.

Walker challenges the ‘discrepant’ images we create about women and around race. These ‘well camouflaged mechanisms’ of power can create therapeutic and existential issues for clients well coached in these powerful institutional and societal ‘isms’. I reflected on my own ‘camouflaging’ and how patriarchal structures can become a silent castle in which the echo of change can be found ricocheting the walls. I thought about how, even though I am a feminist, I consciously make myself more appeasable, ‘nicer’, more palatable. There is always a sense within the very constructs of feminism itself of not being enough. I also thought about how this may play out when working with a client of the same gender as me and how I might navigate some of these complications and dichotomies.

Maureen Walker (2010) What's a Feminist Therapist to Do? Engaging the Relational Paradox in a Post-Feminist Culture, Women & Therapy, 34:1-2, 38-58, DOI: 10.1080/02703149.2011.532689

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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Maquette: Belle Benham

Blog post 8

29/10/19

Self Care Workshop

At the beginning we had a few minutes of silent mindfulness. I felt this set me along a clarity of thought about what I would create. We we were set the task of creating an object of self care representing aspects of ourselves. I wanted to represent a strong, dynamic woman. I wanted the figure to be large and to have a feeling of movement. The wool I had chosen to bring was a vibrant fuschia pink and I felt self conscious I had chosen that colour but also felt it strangely represented what I wanted to convey. I started by creating the ‘model’ with newspaper; I thought about dimensions and started to scrunch and shape a body, a neck, a head and then the limbs. I wanted to wrap everything methodically in the fuschia wool.

As I started to wrap I felt strongly that I wanted to cover every inch of the figure in the wool- a task that was ultimately futile in the amount of time given. I noticed this feeling come up especially in the last 15 minutes of the exercise as I desperately tried to wrap ‘her’ up. The shape and stance of the figure was very important to me. I wanted to reflect strength, positivity and a fearlessness. There was also some sexuality within it from the curves of the egg carton breasts and newspaper buttocks and flash of protruding, pink, pubic hair!

It was challenging to create the initial structure- this made me think deeply about the challenge clients may face in being the subject of the ‘gaze’. Although I personally felt very involved in what I was making and had no need or want to view other people’s work; I felt very aware of how exposing the art-making process can be. In Art Therapy you are left often with a very tangible object and I feel there is a delicate tension between the huge therapeutic benefits of leaving this ‘mark’ contrasted with how this could feel potentially like a cage. Once something is realised I was aware a client may feel ‘trapped’ by their incarnation. To be able to sensitively navigate this arduous and exposing journey seemed to me the greatest lesson from this exercise and also it’s greatest challenge in client work.

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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Image: Vagina sketches-Belle Benham

Blog Post 7

28/10/19

Sketchbook Work-Exploring the Body

I always come back to exploring corporeality within my own artwork. I did a series of self-portrait photos of my body that almost became a series of landscapes. I wanted to do something more visceral and overtly exploring the relationship I have with my body through a direct feminist gaze. Through a recent interaction in the world of dating I started to explore my own self-esteem and relationship to my own genitalia. The comment that precipitated this decision was ‘do you think your vagina is made of gold’. This comment led to a thought process of what I feel about my own corporeality and worth. I have decided I would like to do a casting of my vulva and paint it gold. I am allergic to plaster of paris so I started to research a different material that may be appropriate; I have chosen to use Alginate as it is natural and will not give me an allergic reaction. I felt inspired by Sarah Lucas and her use of double entendre and her way of titling her work to draw out meaning, context and also humour. I thought about the title of the piece and I am still playing with ideas- ‘Fools Gold’, ‘Yes, it is made of Gold’ and exploring other ways of labelling the work that mean the title becomes something more than a label and actually functions as part of the ‘meaning making’ of the piece. I have also been inspired by artists like Mona Hatoum who use their own body to explore wider societal issues for example her seminal piece Corps Étranger (Foreign Body) (1994). The piece explores endoscopically all the orifices of her body and was inspired by her interest in the prevailing surveillance culture that we live in. The body and the body politic that Hatoum’s work explores in such a visceral way is something I find useful and inspiring for my own art practice. Female genitalia in our shared lexicon is often used as a term of derision: for example the word ‘cunt’ is possibly the most iniquitous swear word you can utter in the English language. Other word derivations for the vulva/vagina such as ‘pussy’ carry equally negative connotations-with the word ‘pussy’ you infer weakness. These meanings are powerful and on the most the basic level they tell women they are ‘weak’, ‘dirty’ and ‘bad’. Through my piece I am planning I wish to imbue other meanings to this part of the female body.

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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Blog Post 6

Art Therapy and Clinical Neuroscience

Neuroscience has long intrigued me and it’s impact upon any psychological discipline in elucidating why certain approaches have such efficacy and impact. I have an interest in trauma and the impact it has on health and the text’s exploration of trauma and the impact it has yields other useful findings for non-trauma related ‘disorders’ and ‘pathologies’. The explication of central nervous system in relation to art is particularly fascinating:

‘Initially, the strain of a novel demand, such as art-making, can be experienced as a SNS excitement” (p.23)

Although the art-making is stimulating it will also inevitably bring up old patterns and behaviours related to a person’s initial art-making experience whether it be positive, negative or indeed ambivalent. It made me think of art workshops I have run with all sorts of ages where a familiar phrase of ‘Im not creative’ or ‘my Art Teacher said I wasn’t good at art’ are such primordial barriers to re-experiencing such an innate human need to be creative and to play. The text goes on to explain how and why this SNS response must be carefully managed:

‘Art therapy..grounded in affective-sensory experiences, assist in keeping clients in touch with their therapeutic surroundings and can also provide relief through the expression of emotions and the kinesthetic and voluntary actions required to make and complete the art.” (p.24)

Materials will inevitably trigger responses linked to memories and experiences and the triangular relationship that exists in the construct of Art Psychotherapy encourages us to take responsibility for and understand the gravity of ignoring such powerfully personal connotations a person may have to a certain type of material. I reflected that a consideration might be to provide a choice of materials to a client so there is less of a pressure to work with materials that may have overpoweringly omnipotent meanings and nuances to a client. This led me back to the understanding that context would also be key here in obtaining the right balance between the benefits of choice alongside the potential anxieties that providing a myriad of materials may have the potential to overwhelm or intimidate a client.

The text shows us that whilst our cerebral cortex should act as our responsible system to regulate and process thought and emotions that chronic stress obstructs the cortex joining information from the body, brainstem and limbic system.

“Chronic stress experiences shift the person away from the integrated feelings and thoughts associated with the function of the frontal lobes towards a limbic-based survival reaction.” (p.26)

Through utilising art-making as a powerful tool to enhance the mind/body connection people’s ability to be more mindful and therefore allow their brain to re forge important neural connections allowing space for the cerebral cortex to kick back into action. Such profound discoveries echo around the practice of Art Therapy adding enumerable benefits in providing the scientific facts behind the Art Therapies rationale. For my own Art Therapy practice I have contemplated the huge benefits this scientific knowledge brings in broadening the scope of knowledge. Evidence like this provides a solid foundation to facilitate discussions around Art Therapy being more widely and readily available. When I was a Mentor and Teacher the challenge was often to persuade the ‘higher powers’ of the innate benefits of play and creativity. To have such knowledge as “Repeated sensory Art experiences contribute to the formation and strengthening of memories.” (p.27), allows us as practitioners and potential practitioners to be fully persuasive of the brain benediction Art making can perform.

Hass-Cohen, H., 2008. Art Therapy And Clinical Neuroscience. Jessica Kingsley Publishing

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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Blog Post 5

United Visual Artists- ‘Other Spaces’ (180, The Strand October 2019)

This exhibition affected me profoundly-I had seen the collective before at the Barbican and was intrigued to see their new installations. I have previously done installations myself and I am interested to maybe explore this medium again.

Guided through a long dark tunnel with sparse neon lights the first ‘chamber’ that I entered was a midnight black room with huge pendulous lights hung from the ceiling. As observers we were guided to the outer limits of the space to engage with the light choreography. Inanimate lights became distinctly humanised dancing across the space. The soundtrack was a minimal and emotionally evocative score by Mira Calix. The lights, whilst entrancing and seemingly benign, do hint at other themes of surveillance and also what it may mean to be human in an increasingly digitised world. I felt it was trying to encourage you as the viewer to think about the very essence of what it is to be human- and how the very meaning of what it is to be human is not necessarily an immutably concrete set of traits and behaviours.

The next piece is ‘Vanishing Point’, the space is a huge room using lasers to carve up the space; inspired by the Renaissance drawings of Da Vinci and Durer. These beams of white light strobe into a middle distance-a vanishing point. The longer I sat in the space the more I realised the power and immersion it supplied for the viewer/observer. People reached into the space to ‘feel’ the light-abstracting the beams. The lasers provided what at first could seem a cold, architectural vision and yet it cunningly crept into a sensory feast encouraging you to entertain ideas of humanity and it’s very interaction with and creation of space.

The final piece ‘The Great Animal Orchestra’ utilises the recordings of bioacoustician Bernie Krause across huge digital screens projecting the spectrogram environments of the varying wildlife that Krause has recorded. It was an invitation to observe a natural world in an urban environment that leads the viewer to inevitable questions around the impending extinction of these very creatures you are privileged to hear.

The power of these installations resonated with me long after I had left the exhibition and made me reflect on my own art practice. The pieces managed to be both politicised, timeless and also ephemeral. I felt inspired to come back to the installation medium at a time when funds would allow. I also questioned my own concentration on more corporeal subjects and themes and whether my own art encompasses elements of the political in a way that I would like.

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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Image: D.W Winnicott, ‘The Child, the Family and the Outside World’ (1964)

Blog post 5

I have been reading this text and despite it being a rather old one I feel it still has a lot of relevance and has also formed the basis of much modern research and perspectives. One thing that immediately sprung out is the respect and admiration Winnicott so clearly displays for the role of ‘mother’ which seems relevant and important in this unfortunately still omnipresently patriarchal culture.

“she (the mother) slowly but surely comes to believe that the centre of the world is in her own body.” (D.W Winnicott, ‘The Child, the Family and the Outside World’ (1964) p.19)

I think this quote is particularly powerful in reference to Art Psychotherapy and it’s methodologies. It made me think of the power of the individual to be in control of their own body and their approach to self. The importance of the mother or of the ‘mother’ role in Art Psychotherapy is a central feature of the therapeutic approach. Winnicott is never didactic and allows for a flexible reading and dissemination of his work.

It also interests me that Winnicott starts to explore theories which would now be seen as ‘mentalisation’ and mindfulness techniques:

“Ultimately, life depends less on the will to live than on the fact of breathing.” (D.W Winnicott, ‘The Child, the Family and the Outside World’ (1964) p.26)

This quote seems to encompass more ‘modern’ (and yet also timeless) ideas of being ‘present’-in the moment. The Art Therapy ‘triangle’ (or square or pentagon when you start to think of setting or context!) seems to very much relate to these ideas of being present, being creative and being playful.

Winnicott feels the setting is also part of one’s experience of life:

“The baby first of all needs ...quiet experiences...to feel held lovingly ...without anxiety...This is the setting.” (D.W Winnicott, ‘The Child, the Family and the Outside World’ (1964) p.46)

Here Winnicott clearly shows the importance of not only the human relationships at the centre but also the context and the particulars surrounding that context. He particularly highlights the sensitivity of the newborn to the intricacies of this and the importance of the ‘acuteness’ of this. Winnicott suggests that this is down to it being an evolutionary advantage to be like this. The implications this suggested to me for my own Art Psychotherapy were significant:

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bellebenhamma · 6 years ago

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Kara Walker- ‘Fons Americanus’ (Tate Modern)

Blog Post 4

Walker’s piece is ‘inspired’ by the Victoria Memorial and is a searing critique of these colonialist monuments. Walker explores the binaries of pomp and ceremony of such monuments that were built on the blood shed throughout the ‘Black Atlantic’ (Gilroy, Paul,The Black Atlantic :Harvard University Press, 1993).

Standing at over 13 metres the sculpture is an imposing and damning testament to the suffering and the death of millions of African people. Ginormous sharks lie in wait at the bottom of the structure and as you move around it the different layers of suffering and danger the enslaved people went through is executed with a restrained rage. There are layers of history present within the sculpture and one particular section at the front: a small boat that is half destroyed at the front certainly put me in mind of more modern injustices facing migrants coming to Europe in the present day.

Walker does not just aim her exposition at the past wrongs of colonialism but also shines a light on the more insidious affects of neo colonialism which can be more challenging to attack in the current political climate. The injustice around institutional and structural racism is still here Walker suggests. Next to the sculpture is a huge ‘notice’ written in the style of an 19th Century noticeboard: Walker is unremitting in her rage at the hypocrisy of such antiquated monoliths. The last comment of “Come, one and all,to marvel and contemplate the Monumental Misrememberings of colonial exploits yon...in a delightful family friendly setting” (Walker, Kara: ‘Fons Americanus’, 2019) seems also to even take aim at the Tate setting itself. There seems to be an implicit question of how people may ingest the work at the Tate; itself a very white and middle class institution.

The aesthetic borrows from the colonial architecture and monuments but cleverly inverts it not only with the subject matter of pain and suffering but also through the processes and techniques that Walker used. Walker decided to only use sustainable materials and processes: this attention to detail felt to me like a calculated comment on the waste of colonialism both in the human cost and the material one (the buildings, the stolen antiquities and sheer robbery of materials from ‘conquered’ lands).

When you view the sculpture from the gallery another angle becomes apparent: huge silhouettes of the sculpture are cast ominously around the walls. This is a direct self reference to Walker’s previous silhouette work. The silhouettes feel haunting at such a large scale and seem to work as some kind of visual echo to the piece.

‘Fons Americanus’ affected me profoundly and made me think about my own work and it’s themes of intersectionality. I also thought again about how my own work used to be more installation based and how this as a format can be utilised in a more overtly political way.

References:

Gilroy, Paul, 1956-. The Black Atlantic : Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge, Mass. :Harvard University Press, 1993.

Walker, Kara: ‘Fons Americanus’, 2019

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