This book explores the notion of creativity as an internal fire or sense of aliveness and vitality in the self. Moving from the author's own painting experience to an understanding of the emergence of creativity in the earliest mother-infant interactions, Ellen Levine brings together a theoretical understanding, drawn from psychoanaly-tic literature, with clinical material from practice as a child psychotherapist and expressive arts therapist. According to the author, using the arts in therapy is a process of fire-tending, of allowing play and experimentation to enter the therapeutic space and enliven the experience. --- from the publisher Reviews: Here is the fascinating testimony and guide of a practitioner of the expressive therapies who never left the core of the matter, the arts. Ellen Levine, an articulate teacher and well-experienced therapist, speaks a passionate language that asserts a commitment to the creative process and affirms a truly phenomenologically-oriented practice of interpretation. Based on this expertise, she eloquently presents a rich body of theory that comes out of the psychoanalytic perspective. What a great gift from an "arts-indigenous" scholar to the expressive therapies training community. -- Paolo Knill, co-author of Minstrels of Soul: Intermodal Arts Therapy Ellen Levine offers a host of new ideas that contribute to shaping the emerging vision of multidisciplinary expressive arts therapy. Faith in creation is that spirit that gathers us into an ever-expanding circle, constantly fueled by the expressive fire invoked in this book. The community now includes Levine's detailed account of how the writings of D.W. Winnicott and the psychoanalytic tradition inspire her practice. Tending the Fire beautifully demonstrates how the bedrock and common stream for all our different philosophies is a personal relationship with art, with its ethic focused on the sanctity of the creative act and its images. -- Shaun McNiff, author of Art as Medicine: Creating a Therapy of the Imagination Ellen Levine's beautiful art invites body-thought. Her body of thought invites us into art. -- Margot Fuchs, co-author of Minstrels of Soul: Intermodal Expressive Therapy Contents: Preface to the Second Edition Acknowledgments Foreward Introduction PART ONE - A Painting Journal PART TWO - Tending the Fire: Towards a Theory of Creativity in Therapy Building the Fire: Phantasy and the Formation of the Self Lighting the Fire: Illusion, Transitional Space and Primary Creativity Tending the Fire: Psychotherapy and the Arts Shaping, Giving Form, and the Holding Environment Being Moved Action and Expression Playing with Images Distancing Intermodality as the Creation of Pathways Art-in-Relationship PART THREE - Working with Fire: The Practice of Expressive Arts Therapy Introduction Creativity: Constriction and Containment Creativity: Reality or Phantasy Creativity: Collective Co-Imagining Creativity: Mutual Recognition and Discovery Creativity: Art-in-Relationship Working with Fire AFTERWORD - Playing with Fire: Reflections on Ethics of Expressive Arts Therapy Bibiliography About the Author: Ellen Levine, M.S.W., Ph.D., ATR-BC, REAT is a senior staff social worker at the Hincks-Dellcrest Centre for Childrens' Mental Health in Toronto, is a Professor and Core Faculty member in the Arts, Health and Society Division of the European Graduate School in Switzerland, and co-founder and faculty member of The Create Institute - Centre for Expressive Arts Therapy Education. She is also co-editor of the book Foundations of Expressive Arts Therapy: Theoretical and Clinical Perspectives. |