A Conversational Model of art therapy

This paper illustrates a 'Conversational Model' of art therapy. The Conversational Model was jointly created by Robert Hobson and Russell Meares. It is a developmental theory unique in its clinical application. The focus of the paper is two sessions that altered the course of therapy. In these sessions, variations on Donald Winnicott's "squiggle-game" and Hobson's "party game" were used to engage an isolative, reluctant incarcerated patient. The interventions illustrate the basic tenets of the Conversational Model. The theoretical process--from disruption to repair--is visually recorded in the artwork. The central argument of the paper is that interactive art therapy interventions can be effective, when used appropriately. By engaging the patient in a 'visual' conversation, he/she may develop an emotional vocabulary, a prerequisite for a psychotherapeutic conversation. The paper begins with a brief historical overview of the interface between art and psychoanalysis, the context out of which 'art therapy'--a distinct body of theory--evolved. Theory interweaves with clinical material in a narrative style. What I say and do in therapy is aimed at promoting understanding: a 'conversation', a meeting between two experiencing subjects (an I and a Thou), here and now, in such a way that learning can be effective in other relationships. If, as I believe, psychotherapy is a matter of promoting a personal dialogue, then we need to know how to receive, express, and share feeling: how to learn a language of the heart in its 'minute particulars'.