A Living Quilt: The Journey of a Cohort of Emerging Arts Therapists in Aotearoa

Abstract

This article traces the collaborative creation of a final gift–a symbolic weighted quilt–recently given by a cohort of third year trainee arts therapists to their faculty and fellow students. The article uses poetry and narrative to present and explore the process of this group of emerging arts therapists being woven together via their experiences of creativity, uncertainty and trust during their time on the Master of Arts in Arts Therapy program. It notes the interconnectivity between the singular and shared identities found during this journey, and explores the precious, expansive, and universal nature of the arts therapy experience and profession. This creative collaboration is a representation of the experience of student arts therapists who, having been soaked in the heavy liquids of creative encounters and felted together as a community, are now on the cusp of taking this deep fluid identity and experience out into the wider community.