Abstract

In this research paper I use my own process to assist in the discovery and evolution of a personal approach to art therapy, which I call a "Soul Approach to Art Therapy Self Inquiry". The impetus for this project arose out of a painful initiation to the Master's program in art therapy, and what I perceived to be an incomprehensible gap between my personal experience of art therapy, which welcomed and affirmed one's soul yearnings, and the demanding program's seeming heedlessness of such needs due to pressures to meet academic and professional criteria. Discovery of the heuristic research method granted me the necessary creative freedom to track soul's movements in the way I desired. This approach, elaborated by Moustakas (1990) in his book Heuristic Inquiry , recognizes personal experience and intuition as valid ways of knowing. Through research inquiry parallels emerged between the stages of heuristic research, creative process, and soul processes. The result is an extensive documentation of my soul process, as expressed through journal writing, intuitive readings, and personal artwork, out of which I was able to outline some essential features of a soul approach to art therapy self-inquiry. While the basic principles revealed through my heuristic process, such as the key dynamic of the transcendent function, have been articulated elsewhere, in particular in Jungian psychology, the strength of this research paper lies in its unintentional, experiential demonstration of these dynamic processes creating an embodied theory. It has also provided me with a personalized blend of theoretical orientations and selected therapeutic modalities, which comprise a soul approach to art therapy self-inquiry.