CEO’s Lynn Cedar and Deborah Haythorne present final keynote at European Arts Therapy conference in Lithuania.

Lynn and Deb are delighted to be attending the 16th European Arts Therapy Conference, alongside fellow team members. They will be presenting Memory, Attitude, Childhoods and the Arts Therapies: from Research to Practice, based on innovatory theory, research and practice that challenges the power of such cultural memory and attitude.

Day 1

The 16th European Arts Therapies Conference in Lithuania began with a warm welcome from Richard Houghman

Janek Dubowski explained there are now 32 institutions who are part of the European consortium of arts therapies.

Daiva Vyciniene, Vytautas Tumenas and Dalia Urbanaviciene present Therapeutic Aspects of Lithuanian Traditional Creation.they talked about telling ‘our story’ through textile design in traditional textile patterns and colours.

Vilmante Aleksienė and Audrone Brazauskaite explained the development of art therapies in Lithuania.

Peace Day Performance – a great live sound action painting performance ending with the flag.
“A joint creative result of professional artists, academic youth and disabled actors, and the performance features the texts of disabled Lithuanian and Ukrainian poets – a call for peace in the world and within us.”

Day 2

To Be and Not To Be’ Memory, Care and the Contradictory Imagination’ keynote speech on day 2 of the conference by Nisha Sajnani.
“What do we memorialise and for how long?” – in the context of discussing taking down monuments of slavery, colonisation.
“Lets not forget to remember”- work by Lithuanian artist Egle Grebliauskaite to transform statues of Russian oppression by covering them in moss.
These are catalysts for thinking about what is current in the collective and personal unconscious.

Therapeutic Songs Workshop with Galia Bitton.
Therapeutic songs as a way of finding strength using memories from difficult times – workshop and theory

Day 3

Unlocking Memory Knots

Unlocking Memory Knots masterclass with Audra Brazauskaitė

Book Launch: Child Agency and Voice in Therapy: New Ways of Working in the Arts Therapies by Phil Jones, Lynn Cedar, Alyson Coleman, Deborah Haythorne, Daniel Mercieca and Emma Ramsden.  
The book:

• considers different practices such as respecting the rights of the child in therapy and recognising and listening to children as ‘active agents’ and ‘experts’; 
• features approaches that: access children’s views of their therapy; engage with them as researchers or co-researchers; and that use play and arts-based methods; 
• draws on arts therapies research in ways that enable insight and learning for all those engaged with children’s therapy and wellbeing; 
• considers how the contexts of the therapy, such as a school or counselling centre, relate to the ways children experience themselves and their therapy in relation to rights, agency and voice.

Day 4

Keynote Presentation : Memory, beliefs, childhoods and the arts therapies: challenges and innovations

Our ECArTE conference Keynote offered the following:

• explored theory, research and debates addressing the relationships between children’s rights and their wellbeing

• explored how the new sociology of childhood relates to children and their wellbeing

• examined how children’s rights connect to concepts and practices concerning child agency and voice

• examined the relationships between child rights and the arts therapies

• considered recent debates and research exploring what is being discovered in relation to children’s rights and the arts therapies in terms of different identities, lives and contexts

• considered how arts therapists personal experiences relate to their practice with children by exploring the dynamics between areas such as culture, memory and attitude 

The combination of the information about the issues in the book and how they were expanded in the keynote, really inspired the delegates to think about child agency in their own practice. A number of the delegates were shocked at how little the children were taken into consideration in their different countries and workplaces. In addition to the slides the four presenters made short films in very different ways, of their four personal stories, with regard to how they were treated as children. Four very different memories which added an extra personal layer which was very touching and thought provoking.

“Great keynote delivered with great professionalism.” – Art Therapist

“Extremely interesting- the perspective of the childrens voices needs a lot of attention because it is so easily gone, and only from the adults perspective. :

“It was made very vivid – the studies and presentation excellent! “- Art Therapist

“The subject, the way it was presented very effective to hear the children’s voices.”  Art Therapist

“The way they all presented everything was almost like a performance itself – very professional! The theme was so important – who is the expert?” Art Therapist

“The Presentation, the videos the music the presenters own experiences- their stories from their own lives and all the modalities included – this spoke to us all”.  Art Therapist – Norway