Painting together: how joint activity reinforces the therapeutic relationship with a young person with learning disabilities

Abstract

By making art with clients, I have been able to understand how the joint activity is a fertile communication in which the countertransference is experienced and explored. In doing so, the joint activity mirrors the dyadic encounter between parent and child. In this paper, I discuss how working on a joint activity with a young person with learning disabilities enabled a robust relationship to form. The joint activity offered a shared experience on many levels; of being together, a non-verbal communication and felt experience within the here and now. Through this phenomenological approach I could meet the client on her terms at her level; in doing so, helping to address some of the power imbalance inherent when working with a young person with learning disabilities. Within learning disability services there is a need to protect and contain clients. Yet in doing so, we can start from a stance of limitations and infantilisation. The joint activity can offer this containing and protective space that is forged by and with the cooperation of the client.Plain-language summaryThis paper argues that making art with or alongside a client in art therapy is a form of non-verbal communication that depends on the therapist's understanding of the client's current situation. The back and forth process of working together on a joint activity is much like a conversation as one mark responds to another. By working together, past traumas and experiences can be worked through in a new and positive way that enables the client to have a better understanding of their own emotional well-being. This case study documents how a joint activity can enable a young person with learning disabilities, to develop more confidence and form a stronger sense of self. The art therapy work took place in a state secondary school for pupils with complex and interrelated special educational needs. The young person presented attended weekly one-to-one art therapy for one academic year.

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