Loss, adaptation and growth: The experiences of creative arts therapists during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, mental health professionals have been called upon to cope with various challenges, including the shift to telehealth without prior training, overload in the workplace, increased risk of infection, and personal stressors relating to the pandemic. This article presents the qualitative findings of a larger international mixed-method study that explored the experiences of creative arts therapists around the globe during the first year of the pandemic (Feniger-Schaal et al., 2022). Twenty creative arts therapists were interviewed between July 2020 and March 2021. Transcriptions of the interviews were qualitatively analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis. Three main themes were identified: an experience of processing the losses caused by the pandemic, a restorative orientation that focused on adaptations the therapists made, and innovations that lead to personal and professional growth. Artistic engagement and creativity were found to be a resource when coping with losses and helped therapists adapt to the shift to tele-creative arts therapies (tele-CAT). Although this shift can lead to advances in the field of creative arts therapies, it requires further consideration, including the need for ethical guidelines, specific training, the development of digital methods that support the creative process, and dedicated supervision for therapists. The findings also point to the importance of psychological support to mitigate the burden therapists experience during stressful events.

Shifting to tele-creative arts therapies during the COVID-19 pandemic: An international study on helpful and challenging factors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented shift to online treatment. For the creative arts therapies (CATs) - a healthcare profession that involves the intentional use of the visual art, drama, music, dance, and poetry within a therapeutic relationship - this shift has been highly consequential for practice. This study examined (a) how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted clinical practice in the CATs, and (b) the features characterizing online practice in an international sample of 1206 creative arts therapists aged 22-86 (92% female). It aimed to identify changes in the use of the arts in therapy, resources that contributed to the delivery of therapy, and the role of therapists' creative self-efficacy in adapting to these changes. Respondents completed close and open-ended questions providing examples of what does and does not work in online practice. The results indicate that creative self-efficacy plays a meaningful role in buffering the impact of therapists' computer comfort on their perceived difference in online clinical practice; confidence in one's abilities positively contributed to their adaptation to online practice. The qualitative analysis yielded four main categories: the challenges of tele-CATs, continuing the therapeutic process through tele-CATs, adaptations for tele-CATs, and future directions. Overall, the results present a timely report on the inevitable transition of the CATs to online practice.

A Space to Speak: Therapeutic Theater to Address Gender-Based Violence.

This article examines the experience of eight graduate students in the drama therapy program at Lesley University when creating and performing a theater piece centered around gender-based violence. The performance piece, A Space to Speak, used the performers' real-life stories to highlight their vastly different, yet strikingly similar, experiences and invited the audience to examine their own relationship to those stories. A description of the process used to create and perform the piece is followed by a discussion of the impact the process had on the performers and audience members.