The impact of the Art Therapy Large Group, an educational tool in the training of art therapists, on post-qualification professional practice

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a Likert scale survey that was sent to past graduates of the MA Art Psychotherapy, Goldsmiths, University of London asking them about the relevance of their experience in the Art Therapy Large Group (ATLG) to their subsequent employment as art therapists or work in another capacity. The ATLG comprises all the students and staff in a psychodynamically based experiential group that meets six times during the year. Survey questions were drawn from previously devised theory and related to learning relevant to the workplace and the development of professional identity. Though there was a low response rate (20%), there were some significant findings, namely that graduates found the ATLG to be helpful in their work, whether this was art therapy or non-art therapy work, and that those who had studied part-time were much more positive about the applicability of their learning in the group to their work than those who had studied full-time. The findings suggest that the ATLG has a particular role in meeting key performance indicators in professional regulation and teaching and in quality assurance and employability policies in higher education. Finally, the potential for the use of the ATLG beyond the university in the public, private and voluntary sectors is suggested.

Multimedia and Technology in Learning

“…As a result of the development of the hypothesis of a close relationship between soft skills and the competitiveness of students in the labour market, the author presents a schematic model, which demonstrates not only the importance of each of the selected groups of soft skills in general competitiveness, but also close relationship of these concepts, taking into account the changing factor of modern requirements of employers and the labour market in general [14,22,27].…”

“…If there is no positive outcome, it may be the result of poor implementation of the educational process. Thus, family breeding, the social environment of the student, and higher education together are important in the formation and development of soft skills [3,27].…”

The story of the camera, a case study of an art therapy large group

“…Our previous theory (Skaife and Jones, 2009; Skaife, Jones and Pentaris, 2016) spoke of specific learning outcomes for the ATLG. Our research has shown that we cannot know what a learning outcome will be prior to any group or session taking place, it has to be found, or re-found each time.…”

“…More recently Skaife et al (2016) gave a likert scale survey to 142 past graduates of the programme over a six-year period. The survey sought to find out if the learning objectives delineated in the 2009 articles had validity.…”