This book offers inspiring stories of how art humanizes the despair of incarcerated people. David Gussak thoughtfully presents how hopelessness, transformed through the freedoms of imagination and art, becomes expressive passports for aesthetic self-determination.
Michael A. Franklin, PhD, ATR-BC, chair and professor of graduate art therapy, Naropa University
Art and Art Therapy with the Imprisoned
draws on David Gussak's renowned experiences and remarkable history of art therapy in prisons as a clinician, researcher, educator, and advocate. David Gussak's vast knowledge, pioneering work, and valuable vignette examples of facilitating art therapy in correctional systems and with individuals who are incarcerated fill the pages of this text with an abundance of practical resources and empowering, creative considerations for art therapy practitioners in this setting.Gretchen M. Miller, MA, ATR-BC, ACTP, registered board certified art therapist; Advanced Certified Trauma Practitioner; adjunct professor, Ursuline College Counseling and Art Therapy
Art and Art Therapy with the Imprisoned is a most welcome addition and expansion on Dr. Gussak's previous work. Its importance has undoubtedly gained great respect and momentum over time and the new book makes a substantive and unique contribution to the profession of art therapy for professors, students, and practitioners.
Janice Hoshino, PhD, ATR-BC, ATCS, LMFT; director, The Creative Arts Therapy Institute; chair, Art Therapy, Antioch University Seattle
With a courageous and engaging post-modern flair, Dr. David Gussak offers a well-researched compendium that illuminates the healing potentials of artistic engagement with people who are incarcerated. Gussak's contemporary work is action-based and helps the reader distill more clearly the interactive systems involved with incarceration, the consequent effects on the psyche, and the power of art therapy to help people feel, and be, more human.
Juliet L. King MA, ATR-BC, LPC, LMHC; The George Washington University; Indiana University School of Medicine, Dept of Neurology
A cogently written text demonstrating convincingly the use of art as a metaphor of self-awareness and self-study, and as such its powerful therapeutic potential for change. Art is a particularly effective tool in a context of incarceration in light, also, of shared elements such as time and solitude and the book ably shows how the transformation of matter may parallel and accompany the transformation of a life story.
Mark T Palermo, MD, MScCrim; The Law, Art and Behavior Foundation
