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The Function of Aesthetics in Art Therapy: How Art Therapists Perceive the Role of Aesthetics in Art Therapy Interventions with Adolescents and Young Adults
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- Author / Creator
- Moerkerk, Remy
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This research was fuelled by observations of aesthetic subscriptions in adolescents and young adults. Combining a curiosity with this phenomenon with graduate studies, an intrigue developed considering the nuanced differences between how each of these sectors define, utilize, and approach aesthetics within their respective applications. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the assistance of three co-researchers was enlisted, who are practicing art therapists or art therapy practicum students, to discover how the topic of aesthetics with adolescents and young adults is understood and the role in which aesthetics is observed to have in meaning-making, spirituality, and identity formation. Through semi-structured interviews conducted with the co-researchers, data was obtained that indicates three predominant themes of Belonging, Image, and Hopelessness as relevant to aesthetic subscription in the perceptions of art therapists. Sub-themes were also identified relating to purpose, spirituality, expression, recreation, the internet, and worries for the future. Aesthetics was viewed by each co-researcher in a different light following the interviews, and an increased understanding into the motivations, drives, characteristics, and identities of their adolescent and young adult clients resulted from their participation. In the analysis of the data, it was determined that an understanding of the aesthetics of adolescents and young adults has become increasingly important in the provision of art therapy as it is an extension of whole-person care relating to the spokes of spirituality, as well as social, cognitive, physical, and emotional needs. The research suggests that this growing phenomena of claimed aesthetic identities will meld the perceptions of process and product within art therapy theoretical foundations, and that in order to provide adequate therapeutic care to adolescents and young adults increased understanding and awareness is essential.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- 2022
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Psychotherapy and Spirituality
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.