Interactive Drawing Therapy and Art Therapy

Interactive drawing therapy - IDT - is a New Zealand construct founded by counsellor, Russell Withers (2006), from "noticing what clients spontaneously and repeatedly did in session when given the opportunity to work with a page of paper as they talked", inspired by two decades "working as an architect, using annotated diagrams as the primary working tool" (2006, p. 1). 

The client literally draws on their own experiences using "words, images and behaviours" (2009, p. 75) in IDT, where behaviours include "actions, feelings, and bodily sensations", hopefully recorded as the client story-tells. As the author relates, "clients are encouraged to write, diagram, and draw as they talk and experience their emotions and, because this is all put onto paper, their pages become an archival record of their therapeutic progress. As layers of related (but now graphic) material accumulate on the same page, a perceptual shift occurs in the client, provoking new insight and an enhanced psychological response. As successive pages are developed, a process of preferred direction, psychological momentum, therapeutic gain, and observable steps and stages becomes evident" (Withers, 2009, p. 74).

IDT is defined as "a process-oriented practice, with the counsellor engaging in three primary roles: supporting the client’s welfare; managing the current session; and attending to the overall psychological process that the client is experiencing, leaving the client with the primary role of engaging with the content" (Withers, 2009, p. 75). As describing his thinking around IDT, it did not spring forth fully-formed, "but, like a complex jigsaw puzzle, it emerged a few tentative pieces at a time, with each cumulative component adding increased structure and detail to the big picture" (2009, p. 74), coming from the intersection of "psychodynamic (especially Jungian) personality theory, with certain aspects of art therapy, and with psychological research on brain functioning" (Withers, 2006, p. 1).

IDT may slot in well with IDT is a new US book, "Art Therapy and Career Counseling" (Parker-Bell & Osborn, 2023), which provides great theoretical and practical background linking career counselling and art therapy. The authors bring "art therapy into all elements of career development including ethics, assessment, relational development, diversity and social justice, school-based counseling, positive psychology, decision-making, job searching, clients with disabilities, career transitions, program design and evaluation, and counselor scope of practice" (Severy, 2023). "Each chapter provides a complete theoretical and practical framework, discussion questions, and references", with many chapters including use cases, and "an appendix of Career Counseling Art-Based Interventions included that consolidates all the interventions mentioned in each chapter" (Severy, 2023). The book touches on the use of collage (Severy, 2023), or 'vision boarding', as we know it in New Zealand, though is silent on IDT.

It is a pity that it does not explore IDT, as I suspect it would had some very useful things to say.

Sam

References:

Parker-Bell, B., & Osborn, D. (2023). Art therapy and career counseling: Creative strategies for career development across the lifespan. Routledge.

Severy, L. (2023, May 1). Art Therapy and Career Counseling: Book Review by Lisa Severy. Career Convergence Web Magazine. https://associationdatabase.com/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/506417/_PARENT/CC_layout_details/true?tcs-token=c5d672670ffda7c9af250c94151f65ab7cc8f66578ef1b7f03a4fc33f7a58f82

Withers, R. (2006). Interactive Drawing Therapy: Working with Therapeutic Imagery. New Zealand Journal of Counselling, 26(4), 1-14.

Withers, R. (2009). Chapter 6: The Therapeutic Process of Interactive Drawing Therapy. New Zealand Journal of Counselling, 29(2), 73-90.