Three Voices of Art Therapy: Client, Image, Therapist

The "three voices" of art therapy - the image, the client and the therapist - are the three essential aspects of the art therapy relationship. In this story, the client, Kim Terry, describes his own path from depression to health and creativity through a series of extraordinary images. When art therapist Gabrielle Rifkind first met Kim, he was withdrawn, isolated, had suicidal thoughts, and was encased in a metaphorical "suit of armour" to protect himself. In weekly art therapy sessions over two years, he began slowly to work through his difficulties, to face the real world, and, by exploring his own creativity, to learn to live with himself. This account provides an exceptional opportunity to hear the voice of the client as well as that of the therapist. It becomes clear how deep a relationship Gabrielle and Kim enter over the course of the therapeutic encounter. Therapy and process "come alive" in the descriptive text, which addresses the reality of the two individuals' experience and their reciprocal difficulties. The most permanent and powerful voice in the text, as in art therapy, is that of the images which are chosen to represent the stages of Kim's therapeutic experience.