Editorial

Abstract

We extend a warm welcome to Vicky Nicholls, B. Ed, Grad Dip Child, Adolescent and Family Therapies, M. Art Therapy, AThR, as she joins the ATOL Editorial Board. Vicky is Senior Art Therapist at Austin Health’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and a lecturer at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia on the Master of Art Therapy training. We are sorry to say goodbye to Diana Collins from the Editorial Board and to thank Diana for her input into this issue of the journal. 

The creative and diverse ways in which art therapists understand and use art are clearly seen in two papers published in this edition of ATOL: Art Therapy on Line. It reminds us of the power and potential of art to further our understanding of ourselves, each other and our contexts, both contemporarily and historically. Both papers are concerned with how art processes and art products can be understood and used to reflect upon and research complex questions and issues related to practice, identity, power and privilege; themes that are also present in the five reviews in this edition. The papers and reviews also share a common theme around collaboration, a process which is central to ATOL's ideology (and central to the endeavour of therapy) and which is especially important during a period where the contexts in which we practice continue to over-promote competitiveness and  market-place ideology.