Art Therapy – The Person-Centred Way is an enlarged edition of the first book published on person-centred art therapy, and includes many more exercises and ideas. It demonstrates that by bringing the person-centred facilitative approach to images expressed in art form, healing and growth can occur at every level of development. We need to engage both our verbal and non-verbal intelligence to become integrated.
To illustrate the effectiveness of this process, the book chronicles twelve students as they make their way through a year’s person-centred art therapy course, sharing their step-by-step difficulties and successes in becoming person-centred, learning from their images, and applying person-centred art therapy in their diverse work settings.
The process, based on self-discovered learning, negotiated decision-making, self/peer assessment and certificating, demonstrates the collective aspect of the person-centred approach in action. This radical model can be transposed to a wide range of settings.
With its many exercises and illustrations, refreshing ideas, and wide scope of application, this book is a rich resource manual and a must for everyone – both in training and in practice – involved with human development.
To illustrate the effectiveness of this process, the book chronicles twelve students as they make their way through a year’s person-centred art therapy course, sharing their step-by-step difficulties and successes in becoming person-centred, learning from their images, and applying person-centred art therapy in their diverse work settings.
The process, based on self-discovered learning, negotiated decision-making, self/peer assessment and certificating, demonstrates the collective aspect of the person-centred approach in action. This radical model can be transposed to a wide range of settings.
With its many exercises and illustrations, refreshing ideas, and wide scope of application, this book is a rich resource manual and a must for everyone – both in training and in practice – involved with human development.
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Reviews
The book provides a fascinating glimpse into the person-centred approach to counselling and art therapy... this is a book which almost demands to be read from cover to cover, not randomly dipped into - Art Therapy - The Person-Centred Way does repay the time and attention given to it. This is, I feel, true for readers who may be largely umfamiliar with the work of Carl Rogers and his followers. Prior to reading Art Therapy - The Person-Centred Way I do not believe I had fully appreciated the core beliefs underpinning the person-centred model or, indeed, how challenging, in some respects, these are to my own psychodynamically informed ones.
[A] fascinating account of art therapy training. Silverstone…describes with clarity and transparency her unique hybrid: art and person-centred counselling. Silverstone's book not only illustrates that experience retold is more colourful than `grey theory' but that in this case, it can also offer a valuable insight into a group's life. Busy practitioners can gain much from this 'chatty', non-academic manual of group work ideas [which are] applicable in most settings.
An effective course in person-centred art therapy based on the philosophy which empowers the person and helps make them more self-directed.
The book is divided into short chapters which detail the thirty sessions the students had over the year. There are lots of examples, clearly laid out exercises, games, imaging, and suggestions as to applications of those techniques. I can recommend this book not only to those already using this approach but also as an introduction for others who would like the flavour of the technique.
This is a remarkable book. It tells the reader as much about counselling, experiential learning, and "managing" such a course, as it does about art therapy and so should attract a large audience. It should appeal to therapists, artists - and to all those concerned about human wellbeing. For dipping into, for reference purposes, or for a cover-to-cover read, it's well worth a try.
Reviews of the previous edition:
'It is a study of an exceptional student-centred facilitator at work.'
I enjoyed this immensely readable book. Silverstone and her students describe with honesty and sensitivity their development in both individual and collective terms. I would recommend this very interesting and forthright book to anyone who is interested in developments in person-centred therapy or in thinking about the use of art as a therapeutic tool in a person-centred counselling context.
It is clear that Liesl Silverstone is indeed a uniquely talented teacher, a sensitive therapist and an energetic and effective proponent of the person-centred approach.