School of Creative
Industries
Joyce Low
In her previous life, Joyce Low trained as a lawyer and worked in various legal portfolios. In her journey towards a gentler and more sustainable way of living and being, Joyce obtained qualifications in professional life coaching and counselling, in addition to pursuing an MA in Art Therapy. Joyce’s art therapy placements saw her working with adults with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers, healthcare staff as well as patients in rehabilitation, diagnosed with dementia or receiving palliative care. Joyce’s current interests lie in salutogenesis, gerotranscendence, mindfulness and shinrin-yoku.
Work
Impermanence
Dried seeds, dried stems, twine, pebbles, clay
43 x 43 x 10 cm
2021
Nature teaches us impermanence. That everything has a beginning and an ending, that change is certain and inevitable. We can take comfort from the assured cycle of birth and decay, renewal and passing, and ultimately life and death. Since all things, animate and inanimate, are impermanent, we therefore live mindful of each moment suitably respecting each moment as a precious pearl – transient, ephemeral and all too brief. The bi-color woven mat illustrates our interconnection with each other and with the natural world that sustains our fragile human existence as encircled by the seed-bearing cotton fruits. The clay quadrants lightly stained with the dye of blue pea flowers represent our material world as we know it. Death and decay in the form of the dried stems of the spinach plant co-exist alongside life as encapsulated in the seeds of the basil, cosmos caudatus and saga seeds. The pebble topped with a disintegrating seashell rests like a silent stupa, a testament to the common experience of impermanence shared by all.
Thesis abstract
Mindfulness in time-limited medical art therapy: an arts-based qualitative study of art therapy conducted in a community hospital in Singapore
This thesis examines how mindfulness may be applied in art psychotherapy conducted with service users of a community rehabilitation hospital in Singapore. Art works from case vignettes comprising of patients, a caregiver and the art therapy trainee are employed to demonstrate how mindfulness tenets of open monitoring, focused attention, de-centering and loving-kindness can positively influence therapeutic interventions and outcomes in time-limited art therapy sessions in a medical setting. The therapist’s state and trait of mindfulness reinforce therapeutic congruence and presence, containing and holding without judgement, joint witnessing and attunement, all of which facilitate a deeper therapeutic experiencing for the client. Additionally, therapist mindfulness in and outside of session is also essential in combating compassion fatigue and burnout especially in time-limited medical art therapy.