درک تنوع، اشتراک و متعالیه از طریق هنردرمانی

Pergamon The Arts in Psychotherapy, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 225-226, 1997 Copyright 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in the USA. All rights reserved 0197.4556/97 $17.00 + .OO PII SO197-4556(97)00047-6 APPRECIATING DIVERSITY, COMMONALITY AND THE TRANSCENDENT THROUGH THE ARTS THERAPIES PENNY LEWIS, PhD, ADTR, RDT/BC* The call for papers for a journal issue on the “Mul- ticultural Application of the Arts in Psychotherapy” resulted in such a high response on a special focus for The Arts in Psychotherapy that it prompted a decision to publish two issues on this profoundly significant topic, What we have discovered is that the use of the arts in the area of multiculturalism is a many-faceted subject. In the first special issue (Vol. 24, No. 2, 1997) Dosamantes-Beaudry began the ex- ploration of how culture is developmentally trans- ferred. Bradt and Coseo focused on the need for the therapist to be aware of his or her own world view as well as what it means to be a culturally sensitive creative arts therapist. Application articles from Farr, Linden and Landy addressed the use of the arts in psychotherapy with individuals whose race and cul- ture differed from those of the therapist. Antinori and Moore discussed the use of drama in diversity aware- ness training. In this second special issue on multiculturalism and the arts in psychotherapy, Pallaro furthers the exploration of Dosamantes-Beaudry’s article with an in-depth discussion of “Culture, Self and Body-Self: Dance/Movement Therapy with Asian Americans.” Pallaro holds a magnifying glass up to some of the Western psychological theorists’ views of such topics as healthy human development and their focus upon separation and individuation and the spiritually reduc- tive approaches that devalue and ignore the profound and pervasive significance of the transpersonal in the daily existence and world view of Asians from vari- ous cultures. She views dance/movement therapy as a medium that creates and supports a facilitating envi- ronment for the process of biculturalization. Dance/ movement is capable of holding both cultures allow- ing participants to explore their relationship to both world views without discounting either one. Lewis’ article, “Transpersonal Arts Psycho- therapy: Toward an Ecumenical World View” con- tinues Pallaro’s discussion of the religious and spiri- tual biases of therapists and their perceptual frames and their effect upon psychotherapy with individuals who hold divergent belief systems. The history and range of Western theories of transpersonal psycho- therapy are traced and current or neo-transpersonal approaches discussed. Lewis then explores the role of the arts therapist as the modem priest and shaman who, as in early civilizations, combine art and spiri- tual beliefs toward the healing of the individual and the well-being of the community. Clinical cases fol- low, describing creative arts processes with three cli- ents who hold differing transpersonal frames. Linden’s “A Festival of Light” describes the cre- ation of a healing arts event in a high school that utilized an archetypal transpersonal symbolic theme to assist in the celebration of diversity and common- ality among a multi-ethnic school body. In describing the creation of this celebration, Linden discusses the way in which the “transpersonal draws individuals together through manifesting a conscious intention that had the power to transform all who participated” (p. 255). The creation and perhaps invocation of the *Penny Lewis is Guest Editor of this issue, Senior Associate Faculty at Antioch-New England Graduate School and in private practice in Amesbury, Massachusetts. 225