Art Therapy and the Neuroscience of Relationships, Creativity, and Resiliency

"Having been doing art therapy for more than 50 years, I believed that I was familiar with the majority of theories informing our work. However, until I read this book, I did not fully appreciate the significance of neuroscience to our discipline. This thoughtful and carefully organized volume masterfully presents the vast literature from which it draws, and is teeming with information on interpersonal domains and art therapy. Most helpful is that the authors have also developed very creative clinical and pedagogical approaches to implementing and explicating their art therapy relational neuroscience approach." -- Judith A. Rubin, Ph.D., ATR-BC, editor of Approaches to Art Therapy: Theory and Technique "What a fascinating book! The authors apply a sophisticated knowledge of interpersonal neurobiology to the practice of art therapy, especially highlighting the activation and processing of relational schemas and other memories in the context of attachment neurocircuitry. Both intellectually stimulating and focused on real-world interventions, this book has dramatically increased my appreciation of the underlying neuroscientific basis of art therapy. This is an exciting, nearly quantum leap forward in our understanding of the power of expressive therapies." -- John Briere, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California "Hass-Cohen and Findlay have created a bridge that links art therapy and neuroscience in a creative and practical way. As an art therapy educator and clinician, this book is an invaluable tool for helping my students, clients, and their families understand how art therapy naturally aligns with systems of the brain to heal the mind. Their rounded approach is anchored as much in art and relationships as it is in empirically supported brain science. For art therapists who want to learn more about neuroscience but remain uncertain as to what such integration has to do with their daily work, this is an essential text. The authors do not rely upon neuroscience as a silver bullet for the legitimization of art therapy; they move beyond science-versus-art arguments towards collaborative frontiers that are still unfolding." -- Christopher M. Belkofer, Ph.D., ATR, LPC, Director, Graduate Art Therapy Program, Mount Mary University