Hi Hoda!

You make a good observation. The sense of community is increasingly absent from the world, and therefore from the practice of art therapy. Many things in our society seem to discourage us from practicing the art of relating to one another. Look at reality TV for example: It gives the illusion of emotional depth but is in fact very shallow. We have become remarkably defficient in our ability to relate to each other and to the world around us. In fact, tribal people whose direct experience with community is recent, or even current, can recognize westerners instantly by that characteristic impairement.

It is also relevant to art therapy, not just because it makes your work harder to have to toil in relative obscurity, but also because community is a necessary ingredient for healing. True community, which I distinguish from the buzzword of community often bantered about by opportunistic corporations, is something like a theatre play. The play is successful only if the cast is whole and if every role is filled. True community invites variety, diversity, an ecclectic peanut gallery that creates wholeness. And wholeness, the antidote to division and disease, restores balance and invites healing.

So for a brutal transition. Go buy my book, Havens: Stories of True Community Healing (Praeger Publishers, 2004, co-authored with Leonard Jason, Ph.D.). How is that for opportunism!

http://greenwood.com/books/BookDetai...id=1&sku=C8320

All kidding aside, Hoda, your observation touches on something very important. I hope you encounter community, recognize it, maybe even create it. One way I know when I find it: I make one friend and suddenly I have 100 friends.