Dual-cultural identities: An analysis of images by Arab art therapists in Israel

Background: The study explores the integration that art therapists from a collective society, such as the Arab society in Israel, a minority in a mostly Western society, create between the knowledge they acquire in their training and their fieldwork with members of their own cultural group. Aims: The study aims to learn from the art therapists how they experience the two cultures and how they combine them when using art in the therapy they conduct. Method: The study consisted of semi-structured in-depth interviews and an analysis of visual images drawn by 13 experienced and student Arab art therapists in Israel. Findings: The findings showed that the therapists expressed different levels of integration between their training and their fieldwork: integration, lack of connection, and an attempt to create integration. The therapists whose work resembled integration reported that they choose artistic materials and tools that were suited to the clients’ culture and that they found unique ways to integrate art into the therapy. Findings also showed that the experienced therapists were more likely to create conditions for integration in their work, remember their training as a good and beneficial period compared to the students who experienced their training and their fieldwork as difficult. Conclusions and Implications: Learning from therapists who have formed a unique dual-cultural identity can assist cultural minority therapists in their fieldwork to integrate between their studies and the cultural values and meanings of their own society, and to build art therapy curricula more suited to collective cultures. Plain-language summary: Art therapists from the Arab society in Israel have to bridge gaps between Arab culture, which is characterised as collective, and Western knowledge, which is characterised as individual, which they acquire in their art therapy training. The current study examines to what extent and how they have been able to integrate between these different cultures, and how such integration manifests in fieldwork with members of their culture. The findings suggest that there were therapists who were not able to integrate the two cultural worlds, mostly students, while others managed various forms of integration. Most of the experienced therapists managed to bridge the gaps, used artistic materials and tools that were adapted to the client’s culture and found unique ways to integrate art into the therapy. In addition, the experienced therapists viewed the training process as a good and beneficial period, while the students experienced difficulties both in training and in the fieldwork. The research can assist therapists and construct curricula for art therapy tailored to collective culture.