Credit Points 10

Legacy Code 102357

Coordinator Patricia Parish Opens in new window

Description This unit introduces students to key considerations for practicing therapy and research in a diverse and neo-colonial context. Students will study the emergence of research in the arts therapy profession and explore connections and tensions between personal, professional and research ethics. Through close reading of professional documents, case studies and research papers, students will examine how the 'subjects' of therapy and research are conceptualised and constructed. From a perspective that links knowledge and power, students will look at what the published research says about what works and how in therapy; ask whom therapy and research work for; and examine the work these therapy and research practices do.

School Social Sciences

Discipline Counselling

Student Contribution Band HECS Band 4 10cp

Level Postgraduate Coursework Level 7 subject

Equivalent Subjects HUMN 7036 - Research in the Social Sciences

Restrictions

Students must be enrolled in 4595 Master of Art Therapy or 1770 Master of Social Science Specialisations (Studies in Art Therapy).

Assumed Knowledge

Concurrent or previous study of any foundational subject in either counselling or art therapy.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1. Analyse the key discourses and power relations that shape professional, clinical and research practice in the arts therapies.
2. Critically evaluate what constitutes research evidence in the arts therapies and other psychotherapies.
3. Formulate a sound basis for ethical and relational decision-making in therapy and research.
4. Reflect on one's own positioning and intersectionality, in order to work sensitively with diverse therapy and research participants.
5. Engage art therapy as a practice of social justice to counter ongoing effects of colonisation and the widespread inequities that bring people to therapy.

Subject Content

History and significance of research in the psychotherapies and arts therapy.
Evidence in the psychotherapies
Values and ethics in arts therapy research and clinical practice.
Ethical considerations and scenarios for arts therapy research and practice within a culturally and socially diverse and neo-colonial context.
Historical and emerging discourses that shape the psychotherapies
Normality, abnormality, diversity and difference within counselling and art therapy research and professional literature.