MA Art Therapy lecture: Emotional competency and art psychotherapy

After closely monitoring the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) situation in Singapore, LASALLE has taken the decision to live stream this event. Live stream information will be sent to all guests who registered before the closing deadline. Thank you for your understanding.

Alexandra Danner-Weinberger will present an evening lecture to the LASALLE and mental health communities as well as the general public as part of the visiting artist series by LASALLE’s MA Art Therapy Programme.

Nowadays, art therapy is regarded as an integral part of inpatient psychotherapy. Following an integrative approach, this form of therapy is perceived as an independent therapeutic method within the overall treatment plan – just like music therapy and bodywork – rather than an accompanying procedure.

Mentalisation-based art therapy has a consistent focus on the exploration of the mental states of oneself and others. It ideally avoids the interpretation and explanation of the work but places the 'chance' to gain emotional experiences in the forefront instead.

This lecture discusses the basic fundamentals of art therapy and describes techniques and interventions that foster one’s ability to understand the conscious and unconscious mental states of oneself and others. Moreover, it shows art therapeutic work around body image as an effective method for connecting physical pain with emotional pain. Examples of art therapeutic practices will be presented to give an insight into the psychotherapeutic work with various artistic media.

Alexandra Danner-Weinberger is an Art Psychotherapist in the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the University of Ulm, Germany a position she has held for more than 20 years. She holds a Diploma in Art Therapy from the Institute of Art and Therapy (IKT) in Munich and was trained in Analytic and Systemic Art Therapy by Professor Dr. Gisela Schmeer. Mrs. Danner-Weinberger received certification as a Practitioner of Psychotherapy in Tübingen. Over the years, she has worked with patients suffering from a variety of psychosomatic, medical and psychiatric conditions who were treated in both inpatient and outpatient units. She has been a driving force behind the movement to integrate mentalisation into art therapies. She lectures mentalisation-based art therapy at the Lindauer Psychotherapiewochen in Lindau, and also trains and teaches art therapy students from Nürtingen-Geislingen University (HfWU) and IKT. She supervises Bachelor and Master theses and is involved in research projects at HfWU and the University of Ulm in Germany as well as the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Mrs. Danner-Weinberger has been training psychologists in art therapy and lecturing Master students of clinical psychology at USSH since 2014.