Humour, exuberance and resilience

Art Therapists have always adapted their therapeutic approach to different historical circumstances. They do this in order to work. 

Service users are an inspiration in how they make use of us as people and of the art therapy. One man joked with me in his picture about how he is seen with two heads since having a ‘that' diagnosis. A shy young woman moved from hiding to doing cart wheels with the help of her streetwise group members. The 

go-cart was built by the man in the picture, to show youngsters who visited his old people’s centre, the equivalent of skate boarding in his day. 

Service User Movements are a source of hope and art therapists do well when they collaborate with them. The real lunatics are those in all parties who advocate austerity: blind to the impact on education; health; and communities. Humour, exuberance, and resilience are good ways to resist when we can muster it…

Acknowledgement to the service users, and to the art therapists Asha Munn and Bobby Lloyd. Asha photographed the cart wheel and Bobby the go-cart.

Chris Wood is an art therapist and an educator with the Art Therapy Northern Programme: a base for training and research in Sheffield (part of SHSC NHS Trust and Leeds Beckett University).