Therapeutic Art Directives and Resources ― Activities and Initiatives for Individuals and Groups

Susan Makin has written a unique resource for art therapists working with patients or clients who find the concept of spontaneous artmaking daunting, and feel more comfortable with a structured framework. Therapeutic Art Directives and Resources: Activities and Initiatives for Individuals and Groups consists of a series of directives or suggestions for group and individual activities, with guidance on the suitability of each directive for clients with specific needs and ideas for further development. Her directives protect clients' creative freedom while providing a safe environment for exploring difficult issues.Commentaries by Cathy Malchiodi alongside the directives highlight particular uses of the directives and possible adaptations. Included at the front of the book are useful sample forms and hand-outs to give clients at the beginning of therapy as well as forms for the therapist's own record-keeping. These forms, like all the directives, have been used many times in clinical practice.

Susan R. Makin is currently pursuing her career as a professional artist, writer, and advisor, in Boston and Toronto. She was previously Psychotherapeutic Services Coordinator and Expressive Arts Therapist at The Welcare Center, Toronto, while a lecturer in Psychosomatics at the University of Toronto, Department of Medicine and field faculty advisor at Vermont College of Norwich University. She has also led and created arts therapy programmes at the Toronto Hospital for seven years. Dr. Makin presents workshops internationally, and is the author of three books on arts therapies. Cathy A. Malchiodi is Director of the Institute for the Arts and Health in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Editor of Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association. She is on the National Board of the Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children. She is a licensed art therapist and clinical counsellor, and has written five books and over forty articles on the use of art therapy with trauma victims, victims of physical and sexual abuse, and art and medicine.