The client experience and the needs of therapy practitioners: Finding a balance when focussing research topics in the creative arts therapies

Increasingly the arts therapies community of inquiry has embraced the need to find research methods that allow clients' stories to be told in their own words (for example, McCaffrey & Edwards, 2016). Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 2004) is one of the methods that has provided a rigorous and substantive method within the creative arts therapies for the analysis of client interviews (Papagiannaki & Shinebourne, 2016; Solli & Rolvsjord, 2015). Analysis of surveys and retrospective analysis of client written narratives about therapy experiences have also shone light on client experiences within art therapy (Rankanen, 2016). Arts based methods are gradually developing as a way to assist research processes that can consider the client's experiences of creative arts therapies (McCaffrey & Edwards, 2015). As the focus on reporting the lived experiences of the client, or stakeholder (Gwinner, 2016), has expanded, research has also developed further regarding mental health therapists’ experiences of working in demanding professions in which a high level of personal commitment and well-being resources are required.