Integrating Arts Therapies into Education

A Collective Volume

Dafna Regev, Sharon Snir, Dafna Regev, Sharon Snir

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000359008
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

This book offers a variety of effective, concrete ways to better assimilate arts therapies in the educational system.

Featuring leading art therapists and the models they have honed as a result of theirarts experience in education, Integrating Arts Therapies into Education discusses systemic issues and challenges related to work in the education system such as confidentiality, multidisciplinary teamwork with educators and contact with parents. Divided into two parts, the first discusses systemic issues related to work in the education system, and the second presents a series of dedicated models that can be implemented in the education system. Each chapter consists of a theoretical background, a description of the working model, a clinical example or case study and a summary.

Creative arts and expressive therapy practitioners will find this guide filled with the most effective ways to approach and deliver arts therapies in a school setting.

Part I

Systemic Aspects of Work in the Education System

1 The Collaborative Arts Therapist-Teacher Model

Theory and Practice

Anat Ayalon

Introduction

The work of an arts therapist in the school setting addresses the constant to and fro between the inner world expressed in the therapy room and the external reality that exists in the school space. Transitioning between the classroom and the therapy room often requires flexibility and the ability to bridge between the therapeutic and educational languages. The collaborative working Arts Therapist-Teacher model presented in this chapter was designed to connect these two spaces and optimize the therapeutic process taking place in the educational system. It incorporates therapeutic work with the student, joint work on the part of the arts therapist and teacher in terms of collaborative thinking and training sessions, as well as joint sessions involving the teacher and the student in the presence of the arts therapist. In this collaborative working model, the student enjoys a personal relationship with the arts therapist and the teacher, thus expanding the therapeutic space beyond the confines of the therapy room and into the school space. The implementation of this collaborative work as a function of this model reinforces arts therapy by empowering both the client (student) and the educational staff.

Theoretical Background

In recent years, increasing numbers of students in the education system are diagnosed with Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder (ADD/ADHD), impulsive behavior or Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). Integrating these students into the educational system is not a straightforward process, and they often struggle to control their emotional experiences. Rebellious or aggressive behavior is occasionally a way to avoid confronting overwhelming emotions (Chethik, 2003). Many of these children who are referred to arts therapies within the school framework find it difficult to control and regulate their behavior. The goal of arts therapy is to provide emotional support and help these students improve their academic performance.

In general, the purpose of arts therapy within the education system is to assist and ease students’ adjustment process to the educational framework and reduce the emotional barriers that hinder learning. At the turn of the millennium, the World Health Organization (2001) outlined a biopsychosocial model for therapists in the health professions. This model links the medical and environmental components of individuals with special needs and considers the functioning of the individual and the difficulties faced to be the outcome of dynamic interactions between health conditions and environmental, social and cultural factors (Garbarino, 1992; Greenberg et al., 2003). Students’ behavior is influenced and shaped by the environment; hence it is impossible to evaluate a student’s behavior without observing him or her in a range of environments. Approaches that view the development of the individual as a series of life cycles underscore the importance of interventions in the medical, emotional, social and environmental arenas. They also emphasize the importance of the integration and joint activities of the staff in each of these areas. This perception of the importance of systemic teamwork forms the groundwork for the collaborative working model associating the arts therapist with the educational team proposed in this chapter. Arts therapy within the educational system addresses the emotional and interpersonal aspects of students’ functioning. In the educational setting, therapists can observe students outside the therapy room, which can lead to a better understanding of the nature of their interpersonal interactions in different social settings.

The need to address the therapeutic aspects of these different spheres prompted me to search for ways to engage the educational staff in promoting arts therapy for students. Arts therapies in the education system are part of an overall vision of students’ optimal integration into school life educationally, socially and emotionally from kindergarten onward.

The arts therapist’s work in schools and pre-schools has three key features: (1) The arts therapist engages with clients in a setting where they spend a great deal of time for many years. (2) The arts therapist aims to identify difficulties in students’ development and encourage the proactive implementation of solutions. (3) Arts therapists who work in the education system are the fulcrum for three systems: the family, the education system and the student’s personality (Osterville, 1995). There is an overwhelming consensus (e.g., Proulx, 2003) that parents are essential to the success of the therapeutic process in children. Therefore, working with parents has become more prevalent in therapeutic work in schools. However, this is often not possible, and the therapeutic intervention is largely implemented with the student separately, without the involvement of the social or family systems. This is due to the lack of sufficient therapy hours, a lack of parental awareness of the need for therapy for their children and even a lack of parental awareness of the availability of therapy in the educational setting. Typically, we meet with parents at most two or three times during the academic year (see Belity, Chapter 2). Is it possible to work with a student without the involvement of his/her parents? Is it possible to achieve significant change with one weekly arts therapy session? The answers to these questions are complex. The reality is that in many cases we are able to accomplish meaningful processes of change, alleviate those feelings that hinder integration and help these students integrate with their peers despite the lack of substantial parental involvement (Case & Dalley, 2002).

When implementing a collaborative working model, the differences between the therapeutic language and the educational language must be taken into consideration. Becoming acquainted and conducting preliminary work sessions are essential to creating an inter-professional dialogue. A collaborative working method supports the therapeutic process significantly but demands a greater level of commitment on the part of the teacher to actively listen to the student and work with the arts therapist, who engages in a dialogue with the teacher to accompany, contain and guide him/her.

The alliance between the teacher and the arts therapist is contracted for the sake of the student and has several notable benefits. First, the student is exposed to a “therapist-teacher” relationship that allows him/her to feel supported by overall systemic attention and interest. The second benefit relates to the ability to maintain continuous therapist-teacher communication. The teacher regularly updates the arts therapist about life events that the students and their families go through, as well as unusual events that occur at school. The teacher interacts with the student for several hours a day and is aware of his/her difficulties and strengths. The events in the students’ lives affect their emotions and can lead to different, and at times, unusual behavior. With the help of the teacher, the arts therapist gets to know the student in his/her daily environment and learns about these life events. Updated reports by the teacher as to positive experiences, such as the birth of a sibling or moving, which can cause students to feel uncertain and occasionally have ambiguous feelings, are significant and can help the arts therapist assess the nature of behavioral changes and process these experiences with the student. These updates are important to bridging between the arts therapy room and the outside world. At the same time, the arts therapist, who meets the student individually in the therapy room, is privy to aspects of the student’s life that are often not seen outside of therapy, and can also share certain information with the teacher (for more on confidentiality issues, see Chapter 3). This exchange of information enables the teacher to become familiar with the way students experience the world and have a better understanding of what motivates their behavior. The information provided by the arts therapist is conveyed solely for purposes of dialogue and is limited to the needs of the student; personal content that emerges during therapy remains undisclosed to preserve the subjective needs of the student while providing a window on external reality.

The teacher’s willingness to commit to the therapeutic model leads to greater collaboration and acknowledgment of the role of the therapeutic process. This acknowledgment is of utmost importance and may help avoid situations common to many schools where the arts therapist does not get good quality support from the education system (Snir et al., 2018). When this type of exchange does not take place, this can hinder the circulation of information between the teacher and the arts therapist. For example, the educational staff may not inform the arts therapist of school activities that conflict with a therapy schedule or may not let the therapist know that the student has had a tough day and needs help organizing and mustering strength for the rest of the day.

Collaborative work with the teacher allows for manifestations of empathy for the students and their problems, but also allows the teachers who interact with them on a daily basis to express their concerns. The teacher’s empowerment and accompaniment in sessions with the arts therapist during their collaborative work and their discussions about the teacher’s own difficulties in working with the student may enable these teachers to deal better with them because they are given the space to express their difficulties. I believe in the strength of such dialogues and during my work I have discovered that this space in fact provides another containing space for the student in therapy. This may enable the teacher to assist the student in the transition from his or her personal space to the reality of the classroom. The arts therapist’s interaction with the teacher can develop into another safe space for the student beyond the therapy room.

In arts therapy sessions, students confront emotional difficulties. These issues are acknowledged, and a space is created to deal with them and learn ways of coping with them, as well as a variety of possible alternative behaviors (Nissimov-Nahum, 2008). In the working model, the teacher and the arts therapist are only exposed to some of the students’ emotional content and behaviors in different contexts, and both also understand the importance of systemic work that completes the picture.

Description of the Working Model

The model presented in this chapter combines arts therapist-teacher work in parallel with therapeutic work. Its aim is to maximize the effectiveness of the therapeutic process for students within the school setting, and to develop an awareness of their feelings and behaviors by bridging between the therapeutic and classroom experiences. The novelty of this model lies in its routine integration of collaborative work between the arts therapist and the teacher, and the impact of these exchanges on individual arts therapy sessions between the therapist and the student.

In the first stage, before the therapeutic process commences, I hold an intake session with the student’s parents. The purpose of this session is to obtain information about the student’s medical, emotional and developmental condition, as well as information about their integration in family life and in their social surroundings. During the intake session, the parents sign a consent form allowing their child to receive arts therapy in the school setting.

Soon afterwards, the first session with the teacher takes place. In this session, I outline my rationale for the importance of our collaborative work and emphasize its significance to the therapeutic process. Throughout this discussion, the importance of the teacher’s role is highlighted as the student’s main accompanying figure during the week who can be a fulcrum for change in the student’s behavior. Acknowledgment of the importance of the teacher’s role and understanding the implications of the teacher’s engagement in the process and contribution to the fulfillment of the therapeutic goals are ways of confirming the teacher’s commitment to the process. During this first meeting, we agree to a contract which outlines our collaborative working model. This includes setting a regular time slot for future meetings and deciding on the nature of our exchanges about the student. Special emphasis is placed on the importance of maintaining confidentiality.

Ensuring the teacher’s awareness of the issue of student privacy is crucial. Teachers often share complex stories and experiences in the staffroom about specific students who exhibit challenging behaviors. The teachers’ need to share and unload their daily interactions and experiences is an obvious one, since most of the time they have to deal with classroom behavior on their own. However, with respect to students who are in therapy, the collaborative model provides teachers an opportunity to use these meetings as a place to speak out about experiences and difficulties which also prompts them to avoid talking about the students in public spaces such as the school corridors. The first meeting also explores initial ideas that can lead to a common goal, starting from becoming aware of the student and showing empathy until a therapy plan can be formulated.

During the first therapy session with the student, I assess his/her difficulties in different frameworks, including the school setting. I define a contract which emphasizes the rules of conduct in the arts therapy room, including issues such as mutual respect, using the art equipment properly and a pledge to maintain confidentiality. Upholding the confidentiality of therapy is one of the pillars of the professional code of ethics that arts therapists must adhere to and is essential to maintaining trust between the student and the therapist. However, working within the educational system places the arts therapist in a position where he/she also needs to share information with the multidisciplinary staff who referred the student to therapy. I ask all students in therapy how they would feel about my talking to their teachers. I discuss what is shared and with whom in terms of the content that emerges during the sessions. I emphasize that the arts therapy room is a safe place for them and that the content and behavior that emerges during therapy will remain in the therapy room and between us. I also note that working with the teacher enables further support for the therapeutic process and the student’s optimal integration into the classroom and the educational setting. Students are informed that they will meet individually with the teacher and may also use these sessions to strengthen the educational experience. In addition, we agree on behavior and reactions in times of crisis. For example, if students feel they want to leave the classroom, they need to say so and try to find an acceptable solution with the teacher or the therapist (a number of alternatives are suggested such as comfort blankets, taking a few minutes to calm down in the bathroom or returning to class). I inform the students that I will meet with their teachers and inquire whether there is anything that they would like me to ask or if they would like me to convey a message from them.

In the conversations when both the teacher and the student are present, the basis for behavior change is also examined and the client’s experience as a student in the classroom and as part of a peer group are discussed in detail. Student and teacher also enter into a contract that ...