Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T22:49:58.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From You and Me to Us and We

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2017

Julia Sideris
Julia Sideris*
Affiliation:
Department of Art Therapy, NSW, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Julia Sideris, Department of Art Therapy, NSW, 2049, Australia. E-mail: juliasideris@iinet.net.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Drawing on a wide body of theory, including work on trauma and art therapy, this paper calls for art therapy to be considered a seminal player in the healing of childhood trauma across a range of service providers. The paper reflects on a therapeutic relationship between a recently graduated art therapist and a 7-year-old Aboriginal primary school boy living in rural Australia. Written from the therapist's point of view, this paper considers the responses of both the client and the therapist, and the transformative nature of this particular therapeutic relationship. The paper focuses on ‘Jannali’ (pseudonym) who was referred to the art therapy programme in the school, as he was distracted, difficult and disruptive in class. Struggling with his identity, his place in the community, his family and his skin, the relationship between the art therapist and Jannali developed through art and play. Reconciliation, not in terms of black and white, but in terms of relationship was a main theme: therapist and client moved from a state of ‘you and me’ to one of ‘us and we’. The paper shows how, through art making and play in a specific therapeutic context, cross-cultural relationships were forged, opening up liminal spaces in which the client's presenting issues and difficulties were both explored and supported and he was able to begin his journey as a learner where previously he was not. These changes also indicate that breaking the transmission of transgenerational trauma and its effects may be possible through art therapy.

Keywords

traumaaboriginalchildrenart therapyreconciliation
Type
Practice Commentary
Information
Children Australia , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 79 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to pay my respects to the traditional owners of this land and to their Elders past and present.

References

Andrade del Corro, M. (2017). Building a fort: Art therapy with a group of toddlers going through the adoption process. In Meyerowitz-Katz, J., & Reddick, D. (Eds.), Art therapy in the early years: Therapeutic interventions with infants, toddlers and their families (pp. 135–149). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Atkinson, J. (2002). Trauma trails: Recreating song lines, the transgenerational effects of trauma on Indigenous Australia. Melbourne: Spinifex Press Pty. Ltd.Google Scholar
Atkinson, J. (2013). Trauma-informed services and trauma-specific care for Indigenous Australian children. Resource sheet no. 21. Produced for the closing the gap clearinghouse. Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare & Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies.Google Scholar
Case, C. (2003). Authenticity and survival: Working with children in chaos. Inscape, 8 (1), 17–27.Google Scholar
Case, C., & Dalley, T. (2006). The handbook of art therapy. London, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Charles, M. (2014). Working with trauma: Lessons from Bion and Lacan. New York: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Conolly, C., & King, J. (2017). I do dots . . .: Art therapy with an Australian aboriginal preschool child. In Meyerowitz-Katz, J., & Reddick, D., (Eds.), Art therapy in the early years: Therapeutic interventions with infants, toddlers and their families (pp. 60–73). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Conquergood, D. (2002). Performance studies: Interventions and radical research. The Drama Review, 46 (2), 145–156.Google Scholar
Elbrecht, C., & Antcliff, L. R. (2014). Being touched through touch. Trauma treatment through haptic perception at the clay field: A sensorimotor art therapy. International Journal of Art Therapy, 19 (1), 19–30.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P. (2012). Art therapy and personality disorder. International Journal of Art Therapy, 17 (3), 90. doi: 10.1080/17454832.2012.740866.Google Scholar
Gerhardt, S. (2004). Why love matters: How affection shapes a baby's brain. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gilroy, A., & Hanna, M. (1998). Conflict and culture in art therapy: An Australian prespective. In Hiscox, A., & Calish, C. (Eds.), Tapestry of cultural issues in art therapy (pp. 249–275). London: Jessica Kinglsey.Google Scholar
Grosz, E. (2008). Chaos, territory, art: Deleuze and the framing of the earth. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Halloran, M. (2004). Cultural maintenance and trauma in Indigenous Australia. Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, 11 (4), 1–31.Google Scholar
Haraway, D. J. (2008). When species meet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Haywood, S. L. (2012). Liminality, art therapy and childhood sexual abuse. International Journal of Art Therapy, 17 (2), 80–86. doi: 10.1080/17454832.2012.687749.Google Scholar
Herman, J. L. (1992, 2010). Trauma and recovery. London: Pandora.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. R. (2005). Developmental transformations: Text for practitioners. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Linnell, S., & Galindurra, (2009). Becoming ‘otherwise’: A story of a collaborative and narrative approach to art therapy with Indigenous kinds ‘in care’. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Arts Therapy, 4 (1), 15–26.Google Scholar
Malchiodi, C. A. (1990). Breaking the silence: Art therapy with children from violent homes. New York: Brunner Mazel.Google Scholar
Malchiodi, C. A. (2012). Handbook of art therapy. New York, London: The Guildford Press.Google Scholar
Mayor, C. (2012). Playing with race: A theoretical framework and approach for creative arts therapists. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 39 (3), 214–219.Google Scholar
McKenna, T. (2013). Towards an Indigenous Australian knowing: A personalised perspective on art therapy – Carmen Lawson talks with Tarquam McKenna. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art Therapies, 8 (1), 15–26.Google Scholar
Meyerowitz-Katz, J., & Reddick, D. (Eds.) (2017). Art therapy in the early years: Therapeutic interventions with infants, toddlers and their families. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Muid, O. (2006). “. . .Then I Found My Spirit”: The meaning of the United Nations World Conference against racism and the challenges of the historical trauma movement with research considerations. Healing our spirit worldwide (HOSW) 5th Gathering. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.Google Scholar
O'Brien, F. (2004). The making of mess in art therapy: Attachment, trauma and the brain. Inscape: Formerly Inscape, 9 (1), 2–13.Google Scholar
Ogden, P., & Minton, K. (2000). Sensorimotor psychotherapy: One method for processing traumatic memory. Traumatology, 6 (3), 149–173.Google Scholar
Oliver, K. (2001). Witnessing; Beyond recognition. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press.Google Scholar
Perry, B. D. (1998). Maltreated children: Experience, brain development and the next generation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Incorporated.Google Scholar
Reddick, D. (1999). Baby-bear monster. Inscape, 4 (1), 20–28.Google Scholar
Rowe, P. (2017). On mark making and leaving a mark: Processing the experience of art therapy with a preschool child. In Meyerowitz-Katz, J., & Reddick, D. (Eds.), Art therapy in the early years: Therapeutic interventions with infants, toddlers and their families (pp. 32–45). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Russell, E. (2011). Swimming against the tide: Trauma and mess in art therapy with a 3 year old girl. Unpublished MA Theses. London: Goldsmiths College. Google Scholar
Saldanha, A. (2007). Psychedelic white: Goa trance and the viscosity of race. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Sandle, D. (ed.) (1998). Development and diversity new applications in art therapy (pp. 154–159). London and New York: Free Association Books.Google Scholar
Schore, A. N. (2001). The effects of early relational trauma on right brain development, affect regulation, and infant mental health. Infant Mental Health Journal, 22 (1–2), 201–269.Google Scholar
Schore, A. N. (2002). Advances in neuropsychoanalysis, attachment theory, and trauma research: Implications for self psychology. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 22 (3), 433–484.Google Scholar
Todd, S. (2003). Learning from the other: Levinas, psychoanalysis and ethical possibilities in education. New York: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Tracey, N. (ed.) (2015). Transgenerational trauma and the Aboriginal preschool child: Healing through intervention. London: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Turner, V. (1969). The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. London: Aldine Transaction.Google Scholar
Wesley-Esquimaux, C. C., & Snowball, A. (2010). Viewing violence, mental illness and addiction through a wise practices lens. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 8 (2), 390–407.Google Scholar