School of Creative
Industries
Giang Le
Giang Le left her homeland of Vietnam to embark on the MA Art Therapy programme at LASALLE College of the Arts to pursue her dream of becoming an art therapist. Prior to the programme, she was a therapist with a background in psychology and family system therapy. Her experience working at a kindergarten and a domestic violence shelter had provided her with opportunities to work with a wide range of populations including children, adolescents and their mothers in individual and family art therapy as part of the MA programme. Through the symbolic language of art, she had the privilege to enter the inner world of children to deeply touch the pain of relational trauma with the healing power of art and nurturing relationships. She aspires to develop art therapy in Vietnam where the discipline is still in its infancy.
Work
Inner being
Mixed media
25 x 34 x 26 cm
2021
C.G. Jung expounded on our shared experience of having an inner world filled with archetypes and inner images, with a life of their own. Connections with one's inner world are essential in the realisation of self. Inner being depicts a part of the artist’s inner world, where characters that keep the treasures of her childhood are befriending each other. Inner being invites viewers to reach within themselves and explore their own inner worlds with curiosity and tenderness.
Thesis abstract
The individuation process: art therapy with a male adolescent experiencing cumulative adverse childhood experiences in a domestic violence shelter
A life-long inner process of individuation is characterised by resolutions of a paradoxical relatedness between one's autonomy and connectedness with others, which peaks in early years and adolescence when the individual learns to separate from the caregiver to establish a distinct identity. This study explores this phenomenon in the context of cumulative Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and examines the role of art therapy in supporting the individuation process of a male adolescent residing in a domestic violence shelter in Singapore. A qualitative, practitioner-based approach was applied, investigating a single case study of a male adolescent and his mother in both individual and dyadic art therapy. Findings show art therapy provided the opportunity for developing body/mind self-concept through sensory interventions, internalising the containing function for traumatic feelings and altering inner self-representation through interactions with the art therapist and art materials, as well as repairing mother-child relationship through dyadic joint art-making, all of which are important to support the adolescent, who experienced severe developmental ruptures, in his continuing individuation process.