Welcome to our Research and Development
page.
Animation Therapy is both a science and an art.
The Animation Therapy pilot project focused on beginning to
cross-pollinate knowledge from both professional fields as a way of
exploring complementary ways of using animation in therapeutic
practice. Research and development is an important part of this
process bringing together the theory, clinical and client feedback
and testing hypothesis.
As a company, Animation Therapy strives for excellence and
achieves this through evaluation, testing, watching and listening.
The company is only at the beginning of the journey to explore
animation's therapeutic potential, gradually building up an
evidence base to support practice built on firm foundations.
Correspondence is welcomed from academics and practitioners who
are furthering the knowledge base for animation's use in therapy,
and hope that this website can be used as a platform to showcase
innovative work.
Please select from the following options to find out more about
the pilot project papers and read about recent evaluation
activities:
Doing Animation -
Watching Animation
- The Animation Lab
Alternatively, scroll down to see recent papers, test films and
research activities.
...........................................................................................................................
Doing Animation
Dare to Dream
This is a reflective practice piece exploring the use of
animation within occupational therapy practice.
The Family Animation Paper
Drawing on the concepts of occupational science, which is
concerned with the science behind activity, the following study was
designed to look at family experiences of animating together.
The full paper is currently unavailable due to awaiting
publication and will be posted on this site in Summer 2010,
however the document below provides background information to the
family work.
You can also click on the animations below to see the films
created as part of this this project trial:
Following the family animation workshop, project animator Kari
Nygaard and occupational therapist Helen Mason developed the first
draft of the animation toolkit resource. The Animation
Therapy team went on to put together a six-week training programme
to train therapists in using animation in their clinical
practice.
The final version of the animation toolkit can be viewed on left
hand side of the professional's home page.
Therapist Clinical Trials
Animation Therapy provided the opportunity for seven therapists
from differing clinical backgrounds and three artists to take part
in a unique clinical trial with clients in clinical practice.
The therapists were supplied with the tools, technical support
and know how to be able to use basic animation techniques in their
work. The artists were offered the opportunity to work alongside
the project lead on community projects.
The therapists and artists were invited to give reflective
feedback about their experiences of using animation in practice and
a focus group interview was conducted with therapists from
different disciplines to capture the themes arising from the
work.
The full paper will be published in Autumn 2010 and posted
on this site. The document below provides background
information about the clinical trials.
...........................................................................................................................
Watching Animation
The Royal College of Art Programme
Animation Therapy has been working in collaboration with
Professor Joan Ashworth at The Royal College of Art to develop a
new technique combining animations that explore relevant themes
drawing on narrative therapy techniques.
Clients, groups or family systems are invited to watch an
animated film which is either subtle in nature, selected by the
therapist, or has been specifically filmed for purpose. Clients are
then encouraged to engage in a therapeutic narrative around the
film facilitated by the qualified therapist exploring the theme and
providing safe opportunities for projection and reflections.
Films that we Like
To illustrate the style of films that can be used or created as
part of the above approach we have selected a section of
professionally produced films that we like.
As each person, family system, therapist and therapeutic process
is different, these examples are selected for illustrative purposes
only.
We would like to thank the following artists
for giving their permission for us to show their film
(s) on this site:
Susie Templeton - Dog
Comfort Arthur - Red
James Sutton - Action for Children films
Watch this Space
The above work continues to be developed as part of the
'Animation Lab' pilot programmes. More information will be
available in the future as Animation Therapy continues to develop
and hone the techniques for use in practice.
...........................................................................................................................
The Animation Lab
Inspired by the concept of NESTA's Lab
(http://www.nestalab.org.uk) 'innovating health care services', the
Animation Lab has been created as an experimental space encouraging
the meeting of the art and science in exploring the therapeutic
potential of stop motion and multi media animation within clinical
practice fields.
Current work incubating in the lab include:
- New approaches to using animation with Autism and
Aspergers
- The use of Animation with Deaf communities
- Animation for Social Inclusion
- Specialist Techniques with Adolescents
- Animation in Multi Sensory work
- The Animation Wheel model of Practice
Current test projects busily growing:
- An animated resource for understanding anger
- A social inclusion project looking at exploring the theme of
prejudice
- A hospital pilot project capturing young people's thoughts
about coming into a paediatric ward
For more information, please contact Animation Therapy at
animation.therapy.direct@googlemail.co.uk