School of Creative
Industries
Du Shishi
With a background in the field of advertising and new media arts, Shishi pursued a MA in Art Therapy at LASALLE College of the Arts to blend her keen interest in psychology with her experience in artistic expression. During her clinical placement, she served in both a community setting and at a Catholic boys' school.
Work
Alive
3D-printed frame, glass, wool yarn, clay, electronic devices
30 x 25 x 25 cm
2024
Alive seeks to explore where vulnerability lies and its impact on relationships. The work raises a series of binaries to the audience: broken/whole, hard/soft, retreat/growth, resist/embrace, cold/warm – why do these expressions differ? How do they transform? How do we relate to these feelings?
The heart always beats in relationships. This work stems from the artist's experiences during the first year of her internship and as an international student facing new and unfamiliar environments. A question lingered with the artist: as a mental health professional, how do you perceive the vulnerability of both your clients and yourself?
Thesis abstract
Exploring the waiting process: art therapy with a preadolescent boy diagnosed with ADHD in a Singaporean primary school
The aim of this qualitative, practitioner-based thesis is to explore the importance of the waiting process and changes it brings to the therapeutic relationship, through an art therapist trainee's experience of working alongside a boy diagnosed with ADHD in a mainstream primary school. The thesis demonstrates the importance of the therapist's 'waiting process’ in building an effective therapeutic alliance with a child with ADHD and the impact of the client's 'compulsion to wait' on the effectiveness of therapy, through the author's experience via the lens of psychodynamic psychotherapy practices supported by attachment theories, Winnicott's theories, etc.