The four-sided reflecting mirror: art therapists’ self-portraits as testimony to coping with the challenges of online art therapy

ABSTRACT Background This study explored the ways in which online art therapy and its use of digital computer screens as an involuntary outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic, has affected art therapy. Aims It examined the visibility and self-concept experiences of art therapists as manifested in their self-portraits. Method Sixteen art therapists were asked to draw their self-portrait from their online image, and then responded to a semi-structured interview. Six stages of thematic analysis were used to define the themes that emerged from the interviews and the self-portraits, which was complemented by a phenomenological evaluation of the art products. Results The analysis revealed three main themes: locating oneself in the online setting of art therapy, the image of the art therapists as reflected on screen and in their self-portraits, and the art therapist-client relationship in the online creative therapy space. Conclusions and implications for practice This online therapeutic context, which forms a new four-sided set of relations, is dubbed the ‘four-sided reflecting mirror’, since therapist and client see both themselves and each other on the screen. The findings suggest that producing self-portraits as seen onscreen enabled the art therapists to achieve a greater understanding of the online medium and as such can contribute to advancing the goals of therapy. Plain-language summary During the COVID-19 lockdowns, many forms of therapy could no longer take place in person, and shifted online. Art therapists face specific challenges in providing online treatment because the relationship between the therapist, the client and the artwork is disrupted. The choice of art materials often depends on what the client has available. The home setting does not always provide a safe haven for client expression. Eye contact and visibility are affected by the quality of the internet connection and the camera. Therapeutic work online raises the issue of seeing and being seen. In this study, 16 art therapists were asked to draw their self-portraits using their onscreen image as a model and then take part in interviews. Three main themes emerged: locating oneself in the online setting of art therapy, the image of the art therapist as reflected onscreen and, in the self-portraits, and the therapist-client relationship. The therapists considered that the need to position themselves in the online space required containment, flexibility, and a rapid adaptation to change by both the therapist and the client. These themes are conceptualised as a four-sided reflecting mirror, where the therapists, their image, the clients and their images all interact. During an online session, the art therapist is both present and absent from the client’s creative space in a way that affects the arrangement and movement in the room, the creative process, the nature of the intervention and the observation of the artwork. The four-sided mirror shows how ‘I see myself and how the client sees me’. Producing self-portraits and reflecting on them enabled the therapists to better understand this dual gaze, and how creative and therapeutic processes can unfold in online art therapy in a way that affects the creative process, the nature of interventions and observation of the artwork.