Abstract:
This thesis explores the blending of worship and the expressive arts within an evangelical Christian context. As Christian leaders and scholars champion the value of imagination, creativity, and play within worship, contemporary churches are now inviting the reintegration of the arts. Although there are certain similarities between Expressive Arts Therapy and Christian worship, no research on their interrelationship has been published. While offering a weekly faith-based group experience, the researcher observed first hand the ways in which elements of each practice combine and interrelate with each other. The researcher’s observations and client responses indicate that the expressive arts do enhance worship experiences. Further research is required on the practice of incorporating Expressive Arts Therapy within worship and its potential benefits.

Abstract:
This thesis investigates the possibility of expressive arts therapy with elders living in a residential care environment. Theories on aging from the field of geriatrics, gerontology, and developmental psychology, offer perspectives which challenge misconceptions often associated with elders experiencing physical and cognitive decline. In her role as a volunteer, the authorʼs open and receptive approach, grounded in theories of play, followed and supported the eldersʼ spontaneous expressions and imaginative wanderings. The authorʼs proposed phenomenological research protocol did not meet the siteʼs requirements for a behavioral study, and permission to document the residentsʼ art material was denied. In response to this situation, the author developed a heuristic arts-based research design, which included her own aesthetic responses to the work created by the residents. The authorʼs paintings and poems, and enactments explored in supervision, communicate themes and essences informed by her work with two residents. The residentsʼ artistic expressions created a shared reality, a point of connection between themselves and the author. The opportunity to share their imaginative reality decreased the residentsʼ sense of isolation and despair. A restored sense of play increased the residentsʼ vitality and motivation, transforming the restricted space of a hospital setting into a world of limitless potential.

Abstract:
This thesis explores the possibilities of offering expressive arts
programming with a social change intention in a harm
reduction environment for people living with HIV/AIDS. How
can a social change perspective contribute to the field of
expressive arts and to therapeutic practice? The research
setting has been the Dr. Peter Centre West End in Vancouver,
Canada – a Day Health Program for people living with HIV/AIDS
who face multiple challenges. Stigmatization and
marginalization mark their lives; access to housing, social and
health support are challenging. This arts-based research project
engaged the perspective of dialogical action theory, and
employed a phenomenological and heuristic perspective.
Through the playground of the arts, participants experienced
themselves as listened to, witnessed, and valued – which
created a sense of belonging. Individually and in response to
each other, participants communicated what thus far had
seemed impossible due to fear of judgment and relegation to the
margins. The importance of an opportunity for expression, with
varied entry points and carried by a strong sense of acceptance,
was confirmed and emphasized by the artists. Adopting a social
change perspective is the recommended and possibly crucial
approach when working in a therapeutic context with people
living on the margins.

Abstract:
Is there an underlying structure to the metaphoric content of the field narrative of Intermodal Expressive Arts Therapy as taught at the European Graduate School and as practiced by its graduates? What might the metaphors of the field of expressive arts therapy reveal or conceal about the field itself? The topic is approached through a broad survey of published works and lectures by four prominent thinkers and practitioners in the field of expressive arts therapy; Shaun McNiff, Paolo Knill, Stephen K. Levine, and Ellen Levine.
This survey focuses on metaphor and poetics within the works, rather than upon theoretical content. The metaphors selected for closer examination are those related to the field narrative, which address the basic question: “How does the language we use to tell our field narrative reflect our overall impression of what we are doing?” For each thinker, three of the most prominent metaphors are examined in the larger cultural and linguistic context in which they reside. Then each is taken through a logical extrapolation asking what specific area of the field narrative might it address, and what implications for praxis can be drawn from the interpenetration of the field narrative and broader cultural context.
The author conducts a similar examination from a heuristic perspective of her own working metaphors, and those of her graduate students. A summary examines the question of whether the body of metaphors examined lead towards a congruent field narrative.
A literature review examines the prominence and role of metaphor in the related helping professions of psychotherapy, dance movement therapy and family therapy and within the literature of the arts.

Abstract:
Specialist knowledge, sufficient understanding and empirical experience are necessary to be able to guide a process of change with an artistic solution. The author describes the theories of the initial stages of the artistic solution accompanied by practical supervisory examples.
Intermodal Decentering (IDEC®), which is well explained, plays an important role in the artistic solution. The author shows the engagement of decentering using actual examples taken from her own supervising processes. She describes each phase of the supervision from the point of view of the supervisor as well as the supervised. The experienced cases are professionally connected and conclusions drawn. The author goes even further by asking herself if this knowledge could be employed in management.

Zusammenfassung
Damit ein Veränderungsprozess kunst- und lösungsorientiert begleitet
werden kann, braucht es einerseits Fachwissen und andererseits die persönliche Auseinandersetzung und Erfahrung mit der Vorgehensweise.
Die Autorin beschreibt die Theorien des kunst- und lösungsorientierten Ansatzes, immer begleitet mit praktischen Beispielen aus dem Supervisionsalltag. Die intermodale Dezentrierung (IDEC®), ist ein zentrales Thema in der kunstorientierten Arbeit und wird ausführlich erklärt. Die Autorin zeigt den Einsatz der Dezentrierung anhand von konkreten Beispielen und mit Hilfe eines eigenen durchlebten Supervisionsprozesses. Sie beschreibt alle Phasen der Supervision aus Sicht der Supervisorin und der Supervisandin. Die Erfahrungen werden fachlich verknüpft und persönliche Rückschlüsse gezogen. Die Autorin geht noch einen Schritt weiter, indem sie sich mit der Frage beschäftigt, ob das Wissen auch in der Führungstätigkeit zum Einsatz kommen kann.