Masters in Arts Therapy Artefact

In 2018 I completed my Master’s thesis in Therapeutic Arts Practice in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, where I explored the relationship between people, space, and place. I discovered that everything is energy and can be held, transferred, or dissipated.

My research was conducted in a women’s resource center that provides childcare, research, social enterprise, and community well-being services in a remote Indigenous community of Western Australia. While I cannot share my entire thesis for confidentiality reasons, I have created an artefact that summarizes my findings and recommendations for establishing and maintaining a therapeutic creative arts space.

The artefact has two components: a visual arts representation of the relationship between space and people and recommendations for acknowledging, clearing, forming, and empowering a space. These recommendations are based on my experiences and learnings from the research and can be used reflexively in future practice and integrated into the workplace.

The image in the artefact illustrates the influences between space and people and how this relationship influences the therapy process and awareness development. My findings show that being present and connecting with space brings meaning to it and ourselves. We can relate to and within these spaces as a reflection of our state of being.

Raising awareness of the influences of energy and the intersubjective interactions with space, place, and otherness, along with interpretations of therapy, allows for an integrated place to be. The recommendations in my artefact serve as a recipe for bringing meaning to space and being meaningful in place.

“Being present and connecting with space brings meaning to it and ourselves as we inhabit the spaces within our lives. These can be internal and external. How we relate to and within these spaces is a reflection and or projection of our state of being.”

In summary, my qualitative Master’s thesis in Therapeutic Arts Practice focused on the relationship between people, space, and place. My findings suggest that acknowledging and creating a relationship with space can bring meaning and awareness to ourselves and our surroundings. The artefact I created offers recommendations for establishing and maintaining a therapeutic creative arts space, based on my experiences and learnings from the research.