This image...

This image which hangs on the wall of my consulting room is now 23 years old and starting to show the signs of damage and wear that come from simply enduring time. When it was made on a freshly bought pad of ring bound paper with Chinese inks in 1995 it marked the end of a depression that I had endured following the completion of my training as an Art Psychotherapist in 1994 (a story partly represented in ‘Art Therapy in Private Practice’ (West 2018)).  In marking the end of the depression that has never returned in any comparable way, it also marked the end of a series of nightly paintings made as part of a set. It ended the project that had begun with a commitment to make a drawing before sleeping each night to express my feelings in the moment and provide a concrete example of my creativity and productivity to help lift my mood.

As the image sits on the wall of my consulting room, which is also a living space, it is often commented on by both clients and guests. At the time of its construction, it appeared to me to represent a container or caldron productively bubbling away.  However, to others it has signified a bizarre number of things including; ‘two babies in a pushchair’, ‘two figures having sex’, ‘two adults in a bath in conversation’. It appears to always provoke notions of dialogue and productivity in the viewer (whether sexual, conversational or alchemical) but always active and interactive in some way.

If I run the duration of this image alongside the contemporary history of Art Therapy it has ‘seen’ significant movements in the profession towards greater openness about the therapist’s own vulnerability as the person offering themselves as vehicle of therapy, and also a greater attention to the way images signify openly and can be used as part of creative research strategies.  I am grateful for these developments as this image, as a provocation to imagination and a celebration of the learning that comes in ‘recovery’, ‘speaks’ of the open signification of images that gives art therapy its most therapeutic power.

James D. West qualified as an art psychotherapist in 1994. Since qualifying he has been self-employment and in private practice, working mainly with elders, adolescents, people with learning disabilities or addictions. He is also a clinical supervisor. James is the current coordinator of the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) Self Employed, Independent and Private Practice Special Interest Group (SIPPSIG) and was co-founder and coordinator of the BAAT Addictions Special Interest Group (ADDSIG).