Action Therapy with Families and Groups: Using Creative Arts Improvisation in Clinical Practice

This title introduces clinicians to innovative therapeutic options that can be used with families and groups: action methods or therapy approaches involving physical movement and expressive arts techniques. These methods provide clients and therapists with new ways of both looking at problems and discovering solutions to these problems and are thus especially appropriate to skills training, role-development and expansion, relationship enhancement and short-term treatment with groups, couples and familes. Contributors provide a brief overview of featured action methods and illustrate the application of their particular method to specific therapy cases, discussing the rationale behind their clinical choices and how they handled any special challenges or complications. Chapters illustrate family therapy that focuses on dealing with grief and loss, family reorganization and the effects of trauma as well as group therapy approaches to the treatment of addictive and compulsive disorders, self-mutilation, substance abuse, autism, chronic mental illness and career difficulties.