What is the theoretical ground on which art therapy stands?

Abstract

I am an Art Psychotherapist and a Jungian Psychoanalyst and, whilst my theoretical influences have developed from traditional Jungian views, his call to us to ”˜follow the image’ is still central in my thinking about art within analysis. I do not have time to discuss the details of this picture so I hope it will give you a feast for your eyes and for speculation (in every sense of the word) as I speak. (Speculate = conjecture Imagine]. This is what Jung did with alchemy; he speculated about these images, about their meaning and he imagined. He knew alchemy had been a physical art with spiritual resonance. The chemical reactions were thought to transform matter into gold - and Jung turned this into a metaphor for the analytic journey and for psychological transformation.