Intercultural Arts Therapies Research ― Issues and Methodologies

Intercultural Arts Therapies Research: Issues and methodologies is the first overarching study on intercultural practice and research models in the arts therapies. It provides a new departure from traditional arts therapies education and research in that it focuses on research studies only. Written by international experts in the field, the book offers a selection of diverse research undertaken within four arts therapies modalities: art, dance, drama and music.

Drawing on methodologies such as ethnography, phenomenology and case study research, chapters focus on cultural identity, the transposition of cultural practices to a different context, and the implications of different languages for arts therapies and disability culture. With reference to primary research, it aims to help practitioners and students to develop further research, by making the mechanics of the research process explicit and transparent.

Intercultural Arts Therapies Research will appeal to arts therapists, psychological therapy practitioners, postgraduate students and other health and social care professionals. It will also be of interest to students, artists, teachers, social workers and those working for international aid agencies.

Ditty Dokter is the course leader of MA Dramatherapy, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. She has held posts within NHS trusts and universities and is currently affiliated with the KENVAK arts therapies research centre (Netherlands). She also worked in the tertiary sector to support and advocate the integration of clients with learning disabilities and refugees. Her most recent edited publication is (2011) Dramatherapy and Destructiveness.

Margaret Hills De Zarate originally trained as an Art Therapist (Goldsmith’s, University of London), as well as in Counselling, Group Theory and Applications at the Scottish Institute of Human Relations (1990-94). She has been awarded a Master’s degree in Education from Edinburgh University (1994) and a PhD from Queen Margaret’s University (2006). She has also worked extensively in social and mental health services in the UK, Latin America and Eastern Europe.