History

Development of the Arts Therapies Professions Within Aotearoa/New Zealand

Any history of a movement is bound to be partial rather than definitive, not least when the movement or organisation is still in the process of developing. Any account represents one person's perspective, both by inclusion and exclusion of material. This article is written from the perspective of a founding and continuing member of the Creative Therapies Association of Aotearoa, and a founding member of the first recognised training programme in New Zealand. Mentioning names inevitably means some significant names are also missed. Nevertheless, key people must be mentioned and acknowledged, not least because of the significant amounts of time and thought contributed by individuals working to further opportunities for others. For those not mentioned, subsequent historical accounts may redress the balance. For others who follow the pioneers it may be useful to have an idea of history, and their place and contribution within this history. This article is about the founding and development of the Creative Therapies Association of Aotearoa, and the development of creative arts therapies as recognised therapeutic approaches; with the growing recognition of the development of professional status for creative arts therapists in New Zealand/Aotearoa. It includes the establishment of the first recognised training programme in New Zealand, and the development of closer links with similar organisations in Australia.

In this article the creative arts therapies are considered to be art therapy, dramatherapy, music therapy, dance/movement therapy, and psychodrama. Music therapy in New Zealand has a strong independent and documented history (Krout, 2003); as does psychodrama which is part of a joint Australia and New Zealand association (ANZPA) with its own training programme. Maureen Woodcock has traced the history of art therapy in New Zealand in an article which appears in this journal, and which provides the New Zealand aspect of the picture described by Annette Coulter (2006) in her historical outline of the development of art therapy in Australia.

Becoming a Profession
The development of creative and other therapeutic professions has followed similar stages in many countries. Generally a group of enthusiasts gather together for mutual interest and support, and increasingly gather others around them. The initial stages are followed by a widening of the pool of interested people, which is then followed by the identification of needs other than those simply to network and provide informal contact and support. These newly identified needs include a desire for greater communication, for professional development through conferences and workshops, and ultimately for recognised training, professional status and membership of professionally recognised groups, and for increased opportunities for employment. With these developments come the further steps of setting criteria for membership within a specifically defined professional group, and for a written constitution, code of ethics, and clearly defined and agreed principles for engagement with clients. Subsequently, in order to develop professional parity with other recognised groups, and to continue to develop and refine practice, there is a need for research into the varying approaches and the efficacy of different approaches with different client groups. Research into the Creative Arts Therapies, has fitted well with post-modern research paradigms. Gilroy (2006), McNiff (2000), and Grainger (1999) are among those who have documented the role of research, and identified compatible paradigms for the construction of research projects as part of this stage of development.

This process, of establishing a professional identity, is outlined by Gilroy & Hanna, (1998) where the authors give an outline of the development of art therapy in the United States of America, in Canada, in Europe and in the United Kingdom. Barham (1995) tracks the development of the profession of dramatherapy in Britain. Read Johnson (1999) has provided a comprehensive account of stages and issues in the development of creative arts therapies as professions.

New Zealand Historical Developments
The Creative Therapies Association of Aotearoa (CTAA) was formed in late 1995, following the inaugural New Zealand Conference for Creative Arts Therapists. The conference had the title Art and Expressive Therapies Conference, and was held in Hamilton. The conference was very much the initiative of Marnie De Wolf supported by Margie Maistry. The conference committee, for that first conference, included Ann Hurd, Margie Maistry, Lynda Foster, Russell Withers, Maureen Woodcock, and Marnie De Wolf. Some of the people who attended that first conference, and who are still involved with CTAA are those named above and Mary Brownlow, Caroline Miller, Barbara Scott McGrath, and Mary Harte-Barry.

At that first conference enthusiastic groups formulated aims for an embryonic association to be developed following the conference. The key aims were to bring together creative therapists to provide support and professional stimulation for each other; and to form a group to move towards establishing training standards and employment opportunities to develop the professional status of creative therapists in New Zealand. Because of the small population of New Zealand (then under four million), it was decided to form an umbrella organisation rather than to try to establish separate associations for each modality. Committees were formed to pursue each area of the aims, with an initial focus on networking through conferences, and locally held workshops, training opportunities, and the development of a directory of interested people. Sub-groups were formed in each of New Zealand's main regions, which were linked through a central steering committee. Members of the first Steering Committee were Mary Brownlow, Brigitte Frost-Schegula, Marnie De Wolf, Matthew Robinson, Heather Levack, and Carol Parkinson. Members of this group were therapists and non-therapists, and their geographical locations ranged from Auckland to Christchurch. This pattern of members and non-members, therapists and non-therapists working together to organise conferences, produce newsletters, and assist in a range of tasks has continued. The first Newsletter was produced by Heather Levack, and subsequent newsletter editors were Paula Crimmens, Caroline Miller, Barbara Eberhart, Christina Demmler, Janice Giles, Ffyona Matthews, and Beth St. Claire. Subsequently, conferences were held at other locations around the country.

CTAA Conferences
Up to 2007, eight CTAA conferences have been held. At the AGM held at each conference the same issues have been reiterated every year. These have mainly been attempts to define the role and nature of the organisation, the role of the organising committee, how training might be established and accessed, the nature of the relationship of CTAA to other organisations, how professional registration and career structures might be set up; and then who would do all the work which these driving questions indicated would be necessary. An overarching question, to which CTAA members continue to return, is how to formulate and establish an identifiably New Zealand approach to creative arts therapies. This would be a rigorous approach which acknowledges its derivation from British, European, and northern American traditions, and which includes, honours, and acknowledges the tangata whenua or Maori indigenous people of New Zealand and their traditions and established approaches to art and healing.

In 1997 the conference with the theme of Exploring Who We Are and What We Need: Expressive Therapies in New Zealand was held in Wellington and organised by a Wellington based group of Mary Brownlow, Anne O'Rourke, and Brigitte Frost-Schegula, supported by an Auckland group of Caroline Miller, Lisabeth Toomey, and Heather Levack. The 1998 conference was held on Waiheke Island with the theme No Art is an Island. This was organised by Isabel Gilbert-Palmer, David Brasted, Nora West, Anita Wacker, and Russell Withers. In 1999 the theme was The Heart of the Matter, for the conference held in Bulls, near the centre of the North Island. The organising committee members were Mayan Schraders, Julie Miller, Maria Merrick, Richard Ellis, Mandy Syme, and Phil Stanfield. The conference held in Dunedin in 2000, had the theme Creating a Future. This conference had a focus on training as well as on networking. The Dunedin conference was organised by Bridie Lonie, Pam Wilson, Suraya Langston, Kovido Maddick, Kaia Ariel, Phill Kranz, Philippa Loan, Lisa Ward, Kay Row, Pamela Wilson, and Geoff Layton. Bridie is now Head of Faculty at Otago Polytechnic, and she has remained a strong and effective supporter of the development of creative arts therapies in New Zealand, although not an arts therapist herself. The Dunedin conference was attended by Joanna Compton- Jaaniste, a dramatherapist from Sydney, attending as the representative of the Australian association Network for Exploring Creativity in Therapy Through the Arts (NECTA). This was the beginning of informal links with Australian practitioners. Although this link with NECTA has not been developed strongly, the 2000 AGM of the CTAA passed a resolution that NECTA and CTAA keep institutional membership of each other's association, and this has continued. In 2001 Caroline Miller and Heather Levack attended the NECTA Conference in Sydney and presented at that conference as well as participating in a forum to discuss the issues each association had in common. NECTA had similar aims and approaches to the CTAA, but had made a clear decision to be a networking organisation rather than a professional body. Nevertheless NECTA had already been in existence for eighteen years, and continued to hold an annual conference. In 2002, the CTAA conference held in Christchurch had the theme Braided Rivers. It was organised by Pam Shanks, Janet McGrath, Caroline Hearst, John Cohen du Four, and Sue Beesley.

Prior to 2005 each CTAA conference had been run over two days. After something of a hiatus, a one day conference was held in Auckland in 2005, with the theme of Travelling Light. The CTAA conference committee members were Beth St Claire, Brigitte Puls, Gwen Mann, Barbara Eberhart, Christina Demmler, and Lynne Darroch. Tarquam McKenna, who was prominent in the Australian Art Therapy Association (ANATA, soon to become ANZATA or Australian and New Zealand Art Therapy Association), was invited as a keynote speaker. While a small number of New Zealand Art Therapists were members of ANZATA, this marked the beginning of a relationship between ANZATA and CTAA. Maureen Woodcock, a founder member of CTAA, had been a member and committee member of ANATA/ANZATA for a number of years. As a committee member with strong links with Art Therapists in New Zealand, Maureen was keen to keep developing professional relationships between the two countries.

A second one day conference, Healing Ways, was organised in Auckland by the CTAA conference committee of Brigitte Puls, Edna Heled, Nisarg Dey, Gwen Mann, Johanna Hood, Caroline Miller, Christina Demmler, Lynne Darroch, and Beth St. Claire. ANZATA committee members were invited to fill two free conference places and to submit abstracts for conference presentations at this 2007 conference. Maureen Woodcock organised for the annual ANZATA face to face meeting of committee members to be held in Auckland in association with the CTAA conference, with an invitation for CTAA committee members to attend the meetings. CTAA also organised two full day workshops to follow the one day conference, and ANZATA members and others offered a day of workshops at Whitecliffe College on the third day. All three days were well attended.

Further Development of CTAA Identity
In 1997 Nora West, a fabric artist involved in working with communities, won a competition to design the logo for CTAA. This logo has been in use since. Nora also designed an information leaflet for CTAA with text by Caroline Miller. The logo and the leaflet design were voted on by participants at the Waiheke conference. Nora designed and printed T-shirts for the Waiheke conference and later, with a different design, for the 2007 conference in Auckland. In 1997 Nora designed and supervised the printing of the CTAA banner, with Auckland CTAA members providing unskilled enthusiasm and their best efforts to complete the printing in time for the Wellington Conference. This banner has appeared at all subsequent CTAA conferences. Between 1999-2000 members were circulated with a draft constitution for the CTAA, which was then ratified and CTAA became an Incorporated Society in 2000. Work had been begun in 1996 on a Constitution document. This went through many revisions with feedback solicited through the mail from members. The Constitution was revised in 2006, and mailed out to members for feedback. In 2001 a Code of Ethics was drafted by Ffyona Matthews, Paula Crimmens, and Mary Brownlow. The Code was discussed at the Christchurch conference. It was revised in 2007 and ratified by members by mail.

Following the Waiheke conference an amount of money was set aside to establish a library of books relating to creative arts therapies. The library stock has grown each year. Members can borrow books and return them through the post.

Creative Arts Therapies in New Zealand Prior to 1995
The first conference established that there were trained arts therapists who had been working in New Zealand for some time. All arts therapists working in New Zealand had trained abroad, in Britain, the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands. Most had retained membership of the professional organisation of their training country. In addition to these people there were a number of people who had done short courses or who were self taught, who incorporated art therapy in their work as counsellors and therapists. Well structured training programmes were in place for psychodrama and for music therapy with their own processes of certification and accreditation. In addition there were local initiatives like the Kairos Centre in Havelock North, with Artistic Therapy, following Steiner Anthroposophical approaches. Margaret-Mary Farr led this course, and invited art therapists trained within other theoretical frameworks, to present to the artistic therapy students, with an idea of developing understanding of different approaches and forming collegial relationships within the profession. In Auckland training was available in Psychosynthesis. Individuals had set up private training/personal development programmes, such as the Wings Programme of Expressive and Creativity Centred Learning of Suzanne Vesty and Raewyn Thorburn (established 1988). As mentioned earlier Psychodrama and Music Therapy had well established training programmes, as did Gestalt Therapy. Marnie De Wolf began to run an Art Therapy course through the Continuing Education Department of the University of Waikato. With her initiating of the first CTAA conference, Marnie is very much the key figure in this history. She brought together a number of people who had been struggling to establish themselves as various kinds of arts therapists, and who had been doing this in isolation, largely unaware of others doing the same thing. She also initiated the creation of an ongoing forum and point of contact for those therapists, for arts therapists entering New Zealand subsequently, and for counsellors, therapists, and others with an interest in arts therapies from a variety of backgrounds. Some of the people who joined CTAA in the early years have gone on to train in Australia, or more recently in New Zealand.

Other Intiatives
In 1998 Unitec, in Auckland, introduced an elective module in Creative Arts Therapies for students studying for the Bachelor of Social Practice degree. Lisabeth Toomey- Music Therapist, Anita Wacker-Art Therapist, and Caroline Miller-Dramatherapist, designed this course and then taught the course for three years. Unitec then moved to different counselling models and decided not to continue with this module, in spite of the fact that it was over-subscribed and always positively evaluated by the students. From 1996 Maureen Woodcock ran short courses in Sandplay Therapy and Art Therapy, in Auckland. Paula Crimmens established the Institute of Dramatherapy in 2000, in the same city. She designed and taught dramatherapy courses and which included multi-modality elements. In 2000 and 2003, Wellington based art therapists, Irena Stenner, Janie Nott, Mary Brownlow, Saskia Cameron, and Jenny Jordan, ran one and two day art therapy seminars. Mary Brownlow introduced art therapy in one day workshops to students studying counselling at the Central Institute of Technology, in Wellington, between 1997 and 2004. She continues to run short introductory courses through the Art Therapy Centre. Barbara Eberhart established a Dance and Movement Therapy Course in 2002, in the Waikato. Christina Demmler continues to run courses in Gabrielle Roth's Five Rhythms, based in Auckland and also held in other centres. Suraya Langston returned to Dunedin after training as an Art Therapist in Britain. She linked up with Geoff Layton, a psychiatrist, who had worked with Art Therapy in Britain, and who had begun an art therapy programme within mental health services in Dunedin. They were instrumental in introducing art therapy to a number of health professionals and health services. Throughout this period and subsequently Russell Withers continued to develop his Interactive Drawing Therapy with associated training programmes, throughout New Zealand. Russell brought his previous experience as an architect and psychotherapist to devise this model of working. Interactive Drawing Therapy is now a very popular approach in which a number of New Zealanders have trained. Recently members of the Counselling Faculty at the University of Auckland began to research the use and outcomes of Interactive Drawing Therapy. Similarly, Marnie De Wolf has continued to develop and teach her Art Therapy Course through the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Waikato.

Alongside these developments, community arts programmes were developing services to specific groups on the margins of mainstream services. These included open art spaces for youth at risk, psychiatric service users living in the community, and those in prison. These programmes, run by Arts Access Aotearoa, were supported and partially funded by Creative New Zealand, and continue to have continuing and strong support within many communities. Although they have often stated non-therapeutic intent, they have provided the opportunity for many people to see and experience the beneficial effects of engagement in a variety of arts practices. In turn this has supported the development of the acceptability of the arts therapies as valid therapeutic approaches.

Although Music Therapy training had been available since 1975, the first post-graduate programme in New Zealand began in 2002 at Massey University in Wellington. An American Music Therapist, Robert Krout, was appointed to lead this programme. This programme meets the requirements of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority for post-graduate study, as well as meeting international standards for the training and registration of Music Therapists. A Postgraduate Certificate in Health Science (Expressive Therapies) was introduced within the psychotherapy training at Auckland University of Technology in 2001, with Brigitte Puls leading this course.

During the mid to late nineties, arts therapists began to be employed by Health Boards, in Special Education, and in Child, Youth, and Family Services of the Department of Social Welfare. However, most of these positions were not designated as arts therapy positions, rather arts therapists were employed within psychotherapy or counsellor or social worker positions. Nevertheless, there was a growing awareness of what creative therapies can offer with some services like those for eating disorders, and those for refugees, as well as Hospice, now advertising specifically for creative therapists. Greater numbers of people are working as creative therapists, and these numbers are increasing in mainstream services like mental health services. This indicates a greater public awareness of, and acceptance of, creative therapies and the role they can play among other modes of therapy. At the same time individual arts therapists still often work in private practice, and necessarily assume an ongoing role of educating potential clients or potential employers about the arts therapies and the benefits they can bring.

Development of Recognised Training in New Zealand
In 1998, Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design in Auckland began the journey towards a course which met all the requirements for professional registration benchmarked upon international training standards. Whitecliffe College can confer degrees at Bachelors and Masters levels, and the course was designed to meet Masters level standards set by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. The course at Whitecliffe College was initiated by Ken Cooke, with development supported by Greg Whitecliffe, and by Fionna Scott-Milligan. Ken was a glass artist on the faculty of Whitecliffe, who brought an enthusiasm for arts therapy training from the United States. Greg was an artist, then President and founder of Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, with a wide vision of the role of the arts as a benefit to society. Fionna continues in a supportive role as Dean of Research and Post-Graduate Studies at Whitecliffe College. The first intake of students to the course was in 2001. The two-year MA programme was designed as a research based programme. In 2007 this means that students spend three semesters studying through six taught papers and in the fourth semester are engaged in research activities and the writing of a dissertation. This provides all students with a sound theoretical base for future work as a therapist. It also allows the possibility of students deciding against a career path as a therapist, but with considerable learning and skills to enhance their current work or to enable them to work with increased awareness and skill as facilitators in community arts spaces. Three Co-Directors of this programme, Amanda Levey, Caroline Miller, and Maureen Woodcock cover dance/movement, drama, and art therapy respectively. Between 2005 and 2006 Maureen and Caroline designed a third year to the MA programme to be taken by students planning to become creative arts therapists. This course includes additional elements to meet international standards for entry to professional organisations with ability to offer accreditation as registered therapists. Maureen Woodcock has continued to work with ANZATA to find a route to professional membership and registration for those who complete these additional hours of an internship and supervised practice. January 2007, saw the first intake of students into this level of training at Whitecliffe. Since 2001 NZQA has monitored the MA at Whitecliffe, by documentation and meetings, and by contracting a monitor to make six monthly and then annual visits to observe the teaching of the course, to meet with students and faculty, and to provide NZQA with a written report on each occasion. From 2001 the monitor has been Jill Westwood, who co-ordinates the art therapy training programme at the University of Western Sydney. In her University position, as well as her long term membership of ANATA/ANZATA, Jill is well placed to have an overview of the courses offered in Australia as well as her overview of this course in New Zealand. She has provided an important link in the developing relationship between Australian and New Zealand arts therapy professions and training programmes, and with individual practitioners.

Current Issues and Future Development
The CTAA conferences have always been supported by the attendance of between seventy and just over a hundred participants. Following each conference there has been a surge in membership. Membership has then tended to fall away as people realise that active participation requires committed and time-consuming voluntary work, with only a small number of benefits for continuing membership. These benefits include conferences, locally run workshops, occasional other events, and an intermittent newsletter. In 2007 CTAA provides a website with a discussion forum, an occasional newsletter, a one day conference, and the opportunity to network by being placed on a directory of members. Membership remains open to all who are interested, and although the association is an incorporated society with a code of ethics, it does not provide the added benefit of full professional membership and registration which would be recognised by employers nationally and internationally. Practitioners within New Zealand, who have trained in recognised courses, have gained professional membership of the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists (NZAP) or the New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC), while generally maintaining membership of the relevant professional groups in the country where they completed their original training. Currently, CTAA is involved with a number of associations considering the implications of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act (2003) (HPCA), and whether or how a joint submission could be made to the Minister of Health for registration of creative arts therapists within New Zealand under the general scope of counselling. Art Therapy, Dramatherapy, Dance/Movement Therapy, and Music Therapy are all recognised and coded as professions within the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (2006). With the increase in counselling and therapy related organisations becoming registered under the HPCA Act, there is some concern that arts therapists may be excluded from employment in health related services unless a route is found for them to join with larger associations and register under another umbrella. This would be very unfortunate at the point in time when these therapies are gaining wider recognition and acceptance with both the public and with agencies providing employment opportunities.

There continues to be a degree of tension between the need for professionalism including proper training and professional membership and registration, and the desire to meet with like minded others to network and exchange ideas about practical work. More than fifty percent of CTAA members, and a similar number of CTAA conference organisers, are not fully trained arts therapists. Nevertheless they contribute fully in time, ideas, and vigorous debate about the role of the CTAA, and the needs of members. Criteria which excludes them would lead to the loss of a vital part of the association.

While we investigate routes to registration under the HPCA within New Zealand, ANZATA negotiates the acceptance of therapists trained in modalities other than art as associate members, and as full members. ANZATA has still to find the route to State and National recognition of the professional status of registered arts therapists and to clear career structures. ANZATA now provides a journal where specifically Australian and New Zealand experience and research can be shared and celebrated.

Although the career paths for arts therapists in New Zealand are still not well established, a new generation of graduates is finding more doors opening more easily in health, education, and child welfare. In creating career opportunities for themselves they are finding an increased openness among potential employers in agencies and other private organisations, to consider the benefits of arts therapies for a range of purposes. It is essential that this continues in order for student therapists to be provided with appropriate placements for their further learning as interns. For all of us, a crucial question is how to stay in dialogue with all parties to develop a truly relevant arts therapy approach for New Zealand communities which include Maori, Pacific, and increasingly multi-cultural communities, and to provide training programmes which attract members of those communities to be full participants in this process.

References
ANZCO. (2006). Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations. Retrieved 2.10.06 from http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSTATS/abs@nsf/

Arts Access Aotearoa. (2003). Creative Spaces. Arts Access Aotearoa Publication.

Barham,M. (1995). Dramatherapy: The Journey to Becoming a Profession. Dramatherapy Vol 17, 34-38.

Coulter, A. (2006). Art Therapy in Australia: The Extended Family, ANZJAT Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art Therapy. Vol.1. No.1, 8-18.

Croxson, Morva (2003). Music Therapy in New Zealand (online). Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved February 28, 2007 from http://www.voices.no/country/monthnezealand_february2003.html

Croxson, Morva (2003). Music Therapy in New Zealand (online). Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved February 28.2.07, from http://www.voices.no/country/monthnewzealand_february2003.html

Creative Therapies Association of Aotearoa archived material from 1995 to 2007.

Gilroy, A.(2006). Art Therapy, Research and Evidence-based Practice. London California New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Gilroy,A. & Hanna,M. (1998). Conflict and Culture in Art Therapy An Australian Perspective. In (Eds.) Hiscox,A.R. & Calisch,A.C. Tapestry of Cultural Issues in Art Therapy. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. (pp.249-275).

Grainger, R. (1999). Researching the Arts Therapies A Dramatherapist's Perspective.<.i> London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Krout,R.(2003). Music Therapy Training Aotearoa -Embracing and Accessing a World of Perspectives. Music Therapy Today (online), Retrieved 28.2.07 from http://musictherapyworld.net

McNiff,S. (2000). Art-Based Research. London & Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

New Zealand Society for Music Therapy website. Retrieved January 30.1.07, from http://www.musictherapy.org.nz/training.html

Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre website. Retrieved January 30.1.07, from http://www.rmtc.org.nz

Read Johnson, D. (1999). Essays on the Creative Arts Therapies Imaging the Birth of a Profession. Springfield Illinois: Charles C Thomas Publisher, Ltd.