Development of a manual for dyadic parent-child art therapy

This thesis explores the development of a treatment manual focused on a dyadic approach to art therapy that involves both children and their caregivers. The research took place in four phases: a survey of 85 British art therapists to establish the prevalence of, rationale for, and influences on dyadic art therapy; a Delphi study involving a panel of eight experts to gain consensus on core principles, practices and competences; a qualitative study involving six practising dyadic art therapists and four service users; and finally the construction of a web-based draft manual based on the empirical research findings and feedback from stakeholders on the first draft. The survey demonstrated that in the United Kingdom the use of dyadic art therapy is common, that few art therapists have received any specialist training in this approach, and that there is a desire amongst art therapist to develop their knowledge and skills further. The Delphi and the qualitative studies were used to develop content for a draft manual. A web based manual was constructed which stakeholders were invited to review. Feedback from the stakeholders indicated that the manual was seen as a refreshing, aesthetically pleasing resource with potential applications in training, practice and research and also as charting new territory for the art therapy profession as a whole. The expert-informed research-based manual developed here seeks to present a developing and evolving description of dyadic art therapy rather than a definitive one. The content of the manual is based on therapists' and service users' accounts of dyadic art therapy. The research which led to the development of the manual did not focus on mechanisms of change. The manual is a resource which can be used to train art therapists and specify the intervention for future research into dyadic art therapy.