Placing art at the centre of art-based practice and research

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the author’s creative experience of developing an art-based approach in practice and research as a registered art therapist in the United Kingdom and the influence that Shaun McNiff has had in shaping the author’s work. The first section describes a visual narrative documenting the author’s experience of a creative arts studio group facilitated by McNiff during his London visit in 2018. The second section extends these art-based experiences into a research design format developed by the author in relation to clinical response art. Both areas converge through the intersection of internal embodied affect and externalized expression through art.