About the Book
With contributions from a range of expert voices within the field, this book explores the use of art therapy as a response to traumatic events. Offering rare insight into ways in which art therapists have responded to recent crises, this is a unique resource for art therapists looking to coordinate interventions for large-scale disaster and resulting trauma.
Chapters address a range of environmental and manmade disasters around the world, including hurricanes, typhoons, wildfires, mass shootings and forced migration, highlighting the impact of an art therapy approach in dealing with widespread trauma. Covering both community and individual cases, it provides an in-depth view into the challenges of working in these settings, including the effects on the therapist themselves, and offers practical information on how to coordinate, fund and maintain responses in these environments.
The first book to focus on disaster response in art therapy, this will be an invaluable contribution to the field in an increasingly vital area.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Wayne Ramirez
Introduction: Joseph Scarce
Part I Mental Health, Trauma, Ethics, and Self Care in Art Therapy Disaster Response
Chapter 1 Art as Therapy: Building Resistance in Long Term Disaster Recovery
Amanda Sanders, Maria Rollins, & Jill Charney
Chapter 2 Humanity and Humility, Ethics, Pedagogy, and Art Therapy Contributions in Response to Natural Disaster
Ronald P.M.H. Lay
Chapter 3 Art Therapists Respond to COVID-19, Viewing Art Therapy in a New Virtual World, Self-Care in a Pandemic
Joseph Scarce, Elia Khalaf, Alicia Ballestas, Devora Weinapple, Jess Linton & Cynthia Wilson
Part II Art Therapy for Hope and Recovery from Loss of Home and Community
Chapter 4 Arts for Haiti: Collaboration, Training, and Service-Learning Programming in
Post-Earthquake Haiti
Geri Hurlbut & Gaelynn P. Wolf Bordonaro
Chapter 5 The Dichotomy of Nature: Natural Disaster in Chile - an Art Therapy Response
Daniela Gloger & Eduardo Torres
Chapter 6 The Camp Fire of 2018: Art Therapist Stories of Response, California Burning: The Northern California Art Therapy Association's Community Service Response in Paradise, After the Most Destructive and Deadly Fire in California History
Katrina Bobo, Cynthia Wilson, Robin Valicenti, & Devora Weinapple
Chapter 7 Art Therapy First Aid: Growing Capacity with Arts Therapists in Communities Affected by Australian Bushfires
Carla van Laar
Chapter 8 Art Therapy After Hurricane Maria
Maricel Ocasio-Figueroa & Anaïs Lugo-Axtmann
Chapter 9 Hurricane Michael and Stars of HOPE
Stephanie Wray
Chapter 10 Art Therapy Interventions with Syrian Refugee Youth & Families
Mercedes Ballbé ter Maat, Soraya Obeid, Natacha Pirotte, &
Laurence de Groote Vandenborre
Part III Art Therapy for Community Healing in Response to Mass Violence: Hate
Crimes & Terrorist Attacks.
Chapter 11 Mending HeArts in the Holy City: Supporting Community Through Art After The
Mother Emanuel Church Shooting
Dianne Vincent, Barbara Naderi, & Leigh Ann Lichty
Chapter 12 Art Therapy After the Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting
Raquel Farrell-Kirk
Chapter 13 Art From the Heart: Community Support After the Pulse Night Club Shooting
Joseph Scarce
Part IV Art Therapy Collaboration with Expressive Arts Therapy Approaches in Disaster Response
Chapter 14 Not Just Another Arts Camp Using the Creative Art Therapies After a School
Shooting
Alicia Ballestas, Jessica Asch, Lisa Tricomi & Bree Gordon,
Chapter 15 Voces Arts and Healing: Working on the U.S.-Mexico Border with Asylum
Seekers
Kelvin A. Ramirez, Mitchell Kossak, & Joseph Mageary
Chapter 16 Art Therapy as a Cradle in Crisis Situations Healing from Typhoon Haiyan
Maria Regina A. Alfonso & Maria Johanna Pia G. Ortiz-Luis
About the Author :
Joseph Scarce, PhD ATR-BC, is an Assistant Professor of Art Therapy at the University of Tampa. He was the president of the Florida Art Therapy Association and presented on disaster relief work at the American Art Therapy National conference 2017-2019. He provided leadership in an art therapy response to the Pulse Night Club Tragedy, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria and the Parkland Shooting.
Review :
As I read Dr. Scarce's book, I was reminded of Vedran Smailovic, who became famous by playing his cello in the streets of Sarajevo during the siege to protest violence and murder. By playing during bombings and funerals he gave beauty and hope to people. Similarly, this book describes ways art therapists have used the arts in responding to natural and man-made disasters. As Scarce wrote, "It is not just creative art intervention or creative modality that we bring to a disaster site. We often bring hope to those suffering." This book reminds us of how essential art therapists are in times of crisis.
Scarce provides a powerful compilation of art therapists' ethical and compassionate responses to globally experienced disaster events. For professionals who aim to serve others and practice self-care following times of crisis, this book is a must-read!
Each chapter had me reflect on my own disaster response experiences as the authors remarkably illustrate art therapy frameworks and interventions across solitude and connection, immediacy and sustainability, universal loss and community needs, directed and spontaneous, suffering and hope.
The value of this book is not only that it provides a guide to things to consider but that it presents a model of ethics, humility and cultural respect towards survivors, which is evident in every chapter. Scarce has provided a great testimony to the depth of hearts and minds of creative arts therapists instigating arts-based community action and healing. To read the book is to look into the inside story, the honest recounting of, and reflection on, how things actually started for these programs.
