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An art therapy intern's experience within an educational setting: an arts-based heuristic inquiry
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An art therapy intern's experience within an educational setting: an arts-based heuristic inquiry

Nicole Christine Updegrove
Master of Arts (M.A.), Drexel University
May 2017
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-7340
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Abstract

Counseling psychology Psychology
The purpose of this arts-based heuristic inquiry was to examine the experience of a clinically trained art therapy intern working within an educational setting. The researcher utilized Moustakas' (1990) six-phase process of heuristic inquiry to better understand her experience working as an art therapy intern within a school. Heuristic research is an inquiry about one's own experience; therefore, the researcher was also the participant, analyzer of the data, and interpreter of findings within this study. Twenty-six pieces of artwork and 19 journal entries were collected as reflections of daily internship experiences. These were later analyzed to gain deeper understanding of the phenomenon in question. Three artwork themes and 5 written themes emerged from the journal entries. Information gained from the artwork and written journaling included the following: 1) the art therapy intern had feelings of being lonely and distant throughout the internship days, 2) The art therapy intern was constantly challenged to maintaining therapeutic boundaries, 3) it was difficult to find physical therapeutic space, and 4) the art therapy intern worked with children presenting with a wide range of symptoms: depression, anxiety, attention deficit/hyperactivity, and social difficulty. This thesis answered the question of what was the experience of an art therapy intern working within an educational setting.

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