Singapore, 6 January 2010

From hospitals to family service centres to schools, the use of the creative arts in the therapeutic process has increased rapidly in Singapore and Asia over the last few years. In view of this growing practice and awareness, LASALLE College of the Arts is organising Singapore’s first international Art therapy conference.

The three day conference, “The Internationalisation of the Creative Arts in Therapy” consists of a series of workshops and talks helmed by experts from New York University, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Whitecliffe College of the Arts and Design, and many other practitioners from around the world.

Coming together to share the latest in various creative arts in therapy methods being developed, they will present on case studies, research and discuss the use of the creative arts in therapy for a wide range of social and cultural situations including detainee rehabilitation, refugee clients in Australia, trauma centres, dementia in the elderly, forensics and education.

Dr Ikuko Acosta, Director of the Graduate Art Therapy Department at New York University will be delivering the keynote speech and talk about her work in Asia, Africa, Europe and the USA.

Other notable speakers include Dr Ephrat Huss of Ben Gurion University (Israel) who will present a case study of artwork within a Bedouin women’s group.

Dr Ami Angell who was in charge of various rehabilitation programmes in Iraq will also be giving a workshop on detainee rehabilitation. She is a Visiting Research Fellow with the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the National Technological University.

In addition, local art therapists will be conducting workshops and presentations to give a Singaporean prespective to the field.

Elizabeth Coss, Programme Leader for the Masters in Art Therapy course at LASALLE and organiser of the conference said, “It’s time to think about how our regional ways of working can have an influence on how we work. With such an internationally diverse platform to discuss the different approaches in Art therapy, this will aid in raising the standards of the profession and the sharing of best practices”.

On the benefits of art therapy, Dr John Wong of National University Hospital’s Department of Psychological Medicine said, 'We are very pleased working very closely with LASALLE's Art therapy programme. Many of our paediatric and adult patients have benefited greatly with the new medium of therapeutic interventions, offering them refreshing hope to recovery.'

Not limited to art therapy practitioners, the conference is open to doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, educations, creative art therapists and other mental health professionals. The public may register to attend the first day comprising the keynote address and some workshops and presentations at S$250 or individual presentations/workshops at $75 - $150. Actual day registration is available at the door on a first-come, first-served basis.

LASALLE College of the Arts has been running the two year Masters in Art Therapy programme since 2006. Students must complete at least 816 hours of clinical placements as part of their training.

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