Open studio process

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Pat B. Allen, Dayna Block, Deborah Gadiel · 1991 · Chicago, USA

What it is

What it is: a studio-based art-and-writing practice, not a phased psychotherapy. Each session has three steps: write an intention, make art freely, then write a "witness" in response to the image, which may be read aloud to the group. Nobody comments on anyone's art or writing, positive or…

Format

• OSP has no treatment phases, session counts or criteria for moving on. It is a repeatable session structure used in drop-in studios, closed series, community programmes and (adapted) in therapy.
• Session structure (as practised):

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Professional frame: OSP is a facilitated studio practice, not a regulated profession or a protected title. Facilitators at the original studio and its offshoots train in-house or with Allen (e.g. the Cancer Lifeline facilitator trained under Allen). The Open Studio Project runs introductory one-day workshops in the process (about 2.5 hours in a 2015 listing). A practitioner bio from 2022 uses the title "certified…
• Version followed: the Open Studio Process (OSP) of art therapist Pat B. Allen (PhD; registered art therapist, ATR, since 1977; on the art therapy faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago 1988–2011), as practised at the Open Studio Project. Allen co-founded the studio with art therapists Dayna Block and Deborah Gadiel. It started in Wicker Park, Chicago, and moved to Evanston, Illinois, in 2000; it is…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• the offer turning into a directive. Keep it optional.
• louder members dominating the consensus. Use a round so each voice is heard.
• pressure to exhibit, and loss of confidentiality (clients of a therapist should not be identifiable without informed consent).
• : sharps and tool counts, ligature-risk items (string, wire, twine), patients' mental-state changes; liaise with ward staff about risk before each group.
• sliding back into interpretation (the clinification Allen warns about); clients who feel abandoned by your silence. Name the agreement and check how it lands.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.