Creative Transformation: The Healing Power of the Arts

This unique account by a dance and drama therapist is the first of its kind to integrate Jungian theory, creative arts therapy, and developmental object relations theory successfully. Using the arts as a psycho-therapeutic tool, trauma and addiction are explored and enacted, calling upon the imaginal realm of the arts as a vehicle for transformation and recovery. The author has a diploma in gestalt therapy and has taught the arts in psychotherapy for over 20 years.

Creative Transformation is a masterful integration of developmental object relations, Jungian theory, creative arts therapy, and clinical wisdom. Lewis teaches us about the subtleties and varieties of consciousness as they are revealed in her clients' journeys through the imaginal realm of the arts. The book offers many insights into the depths of the therapist-client relationship, the play of masculine and feminine, and the ever-present links to universal themes and images.

-David R. Johnson, past president of the National Association for Drama Therapy, former chairperson of the National Coalition of Arts Therapy Associations

Penny Lewis presents an engaging, passionate account of how she uses the healing power of the arts in clinical practice. Her theoretical synthesis is a valuable contribution that shows the natural interweaving of developmental and archetypal themes. An original and important work.

-Joan Chodorow, author of Dance Therapy and Depth Psychology

Penny Lewis, Ph.D., is a dance and drama therapist trained in Jungian analysis at the C. G. Jung Institute of New York. She has taught the arts in psychotherapy to graduate students for more than twenty years and is the author of Theoretical Approaches in Dance-Movement Therapy (2 volumes.). She has a private practice in Newburyport, Massachusetts, from which she sails with her family on day and night sea journeys.