Background & aim:
In this presentation we will critically examine the ways that creative arts therapies are situated in regards to theory, research and practice. Drawing on our experience in designing a new drama and dance therapy masters curriculum for University of Melbourne, we will question the balance of emphasis demanded by larger governmental and institutional forces. The Australian Qualifications Framework is one example of government requirements and the positioning of creative arts therapies at Level 9 of this framework has enormous implications. Changing policies about international student visas is another force at play. Further, being in a research-led university adds demand for quality research education that prepares graduates for PhDs, whilst also training them to be practitioners. ANZACATA also influences decision making, with Tiers of Membership and competency requirements.

Knowledge shared:
Having positioned the debate within the context of these larger forces, we will present how this is addressed across a two-year span of training. Our case example will demonstrate how a student can learn about creative methods for engaging people experiencing psychological distress, examine the theory of people’s needs in a medical health context, study quantitative research methods, and complete a placement in a secure mental health unit focusing on emotion regulation, social engagement and positive affect. Alternatively, a student on the same trajectory might pursue an understanding of how people build physical and artistic skills through creative movement, consider how these skills developed might support their engagement in the community as a lover of hip hop and street dance, be intrigued by how research participants perceived and describe their experience, and complete a placement focusing on practice with a young mental health consumer accessing services through a community-based mental health organisation.

Contribution to the field:
The benefits of canvassing a range of theoretical, practical and research positions within a program are that students learn to conceive of people and their needs from multiple perspectives. The challenge is learning to hold multiple perspectives with only minimal practice experiences to rely on.

In this presentation Karen draws on moments in her research during her doctoral inquiry "A search for presence" (2020). The focus is on a number of reveals, a number of new coming-to-knows, made visible and explicit, through this auto-ethnographic, arts-based lyric inquiry; in particular, through reading and writing poetry, visual arts making and in ordinary moments of noticing. In moments, "moments in which the parties are fully in the present or the “now,” caught in a pivotal space where any action, or even inaction, will change the destiny of the situation and the actors themselves" (Stern, 2004, p. 365), as was her experience. She gradually emerged from the fog of grief into the present through the transformative ability of these moments of presence with and alongside the arts. This is explicated in her words "When reading poetry, lyricism snuck under any barriers I had created, the words softened my anger, the spaces on the page created room for me, the emotional content seeped in, passing by my critical gate keeper" (Schaller, p. 27, 2020). The key insights in this presentation are the power of the poetic and the lyrical, to support healing and as a site for the unknown to be made known. Poetic, lyric inquiry is a modality which can support researchers and therapeutic arts practice. Karen hopes to highlight its potential through her research. Sandra Faulkner (2020) writes "Poetry in research is a way to tap into universality and radical subjectivity, the poet uses personal experience and research to create something from the particular, which becomes universal when the audience relates to, embodies, and/or experiences the work as if it were their own" (p. 210). Poetry and lyric inquiry is a modality that offers spaciousness, ambiguity, metaphor and an opportunity for meaning making.

University of Queensland art therapy trainees complete a minimum of 750 hours of placement in a variety of mental health settings. All members of ANZACATA (the peak professional association for Creative Arts Therapists in Australia, New Zealand and Asia or Pacific regions) have to complete these placement hours. Each trainee has an on-site supervisor and a UQ off site art therapist supervisor.On-site supervisors are art therapists or from other allied health disciplines. These supervisors have stated that they do not feel confident in their ability to supervise the trainee art therapists, they have expressed their desire to become more skilled to supervise art therapy trainees. Malchiodi, C. and Riley, S.(1996). write that there is little information regarding the training of art therapy supervisors. These issues informed the decision to facilitate a 4-week online art therapy training for on-site supervisors in 2024. The aim was to evaluate the outcomes. It was expected that post training, on-site supervisors would feel more confident in their ability to supervise art therapy students.