This paper describes a phenomenological approach to art therapy based on hermeneutic grounded theory methodology. The study investigated the lived experience of art therapy with international students from 10 world regions. Nineteen international students from an Australian university took part in 10 weeks of group art therapy. Data were hermeneutically analyzed across participants’ artworks, behaviour and spoken and written narratives and core themes were developed for each participant. Where verbalizing in English as a second language (ESL) was often laborious, the aesthetic dimensions of participants’ artworks served as both an anchor and signpost for organizing thinking and expressing emotions. Furthermore, the images provided a context for exploring autonomy, identity and personal growth in relation to sojourn adjustment. This paper illustrates a method for analyzing synergistic processes in art therapy where translating thoughts and feelings into tangible form functions as a way of knowing through the universal language of human experience. Importantly it adds to our understanding of suitable counseling methods for international student adjustment.
The current study is presented as an exploratory investigation into phenomenological art therapy counseling with international students. The research was undertaken at an Australian university, and represents my doctoral work. As both a researcher and university lecturer I have been approached by international students over the years regarding their difficulties adjusting to the demands of study or life in Australia. In the main, university faculties have offered support to assist students with study skills or to familiarize them with the host society. However, where cultural differences have prevailed over contrary philosophies, values, and ways of life, some students have failed to adapt or thrive.
On the whole, these analyses show how participants were able to mediate conscious and subconscious realities through their art in relation to their sojourn adjustment. However, where some were conscious of issues they wanted to explore, others were less prepared for the deeper associations that came out through it. The discussions seldom went beyond the superficial, owing to privacy needs which meant that therapy had to be shaped in accordance with a prevailing need for cultural integrity and psychological safety (Gray, 2003 and Riley, 2001). This is not to suggest an ad hoc approach, but more to emphasize a need for flexibility and innovation in tempering discrepancies between western and non-western methods of counseling.
The reflexive process was ongoing and commensurate with the need for hermeneutic spiraling. Where the therapeutic dialogue at times lacked mutual engagement (Anderson & Goolishian, 1988), or the meaning-making process was hindered verbally, both participants and I needed to find ways to comfortably and effectively communicate. In these instances, empathic and congruent responding enabled me to “be with” participants, rather than to “do therapy” with them (Rogers, 1961). As such, post-session narrative reflections became part of the “architecture of the sessions” (Knill et al., 2005), where things like fear, anger, and depression were played out privately and then re-introduced, debriefed, and normalized in more general terms at the beginning of the following session. This was to avoid singling anyone out.
Preconceptions of “the expert” were important in understanding what participants were expecting, and in informing them of what was being offered. As the sessions progressed, participants gradually accepted the study as a context for problem-solving and self-empowerment rather than as a service for the mentally ill; hence providing tools for reducing mental suffering without the stigma. As participants became more familiar with the process dialogue tied in more toward meanings that were tacitly contrived.
Overall, group art therapy provided a culturally sensitive and sensible style of counseling intervention for this student cohort. The benefits of art therapy enabled participants to communicate deeper feelings that many found difficult to harness or put into words. Where the phenomenological approach offered a method of therapy in which to explore these feelings, it also provided a context for addressing hermeneutic breakdowns that thwarted sojourn adjustment.
In a pragmatic sense, the art experience synergized analytic and intuitive mental processes where participants could streamline competing realities into visual grammar (Betensky, 1995 and Kaplan, 2000). In a therapeutic sense, the art made hidden structures visible. Moreover, as an insightful method of therapy, participants were able to achieve both emotional distance and self-awareness which enabled them to render emotions comprehensible through the aesthetic dimensions of their artworks. As a communicative resource, visual language enabled participants to grasp and convey vague stirrings in relation to their adjustment.
As a final word: In reflecting on the therapeutic process, it was not surprising that the art experience brought “insight” (my emphasis). For the capacity to problem-solve through art, from within participants’ personal and cultural sensibilities helped to facilitate thinking processes, and bring to light that which may have otherwise remained hidden within language or cultural barriers.
