Judith  Siano, a prominent art therapist living and working in Israel, talks with philosophers and art therapists, some of whom are no longer with us, to find meaning in life amid war.  Tal  Siano assisted in reviving and editing her guests.   Edith Kramer Judith Rubin and Judith Siano Judith Siano: judithsiano@gmail.com Judith Siano - The Box Opens

“We are all three, no four, generations, in the helping professions, my grandmother was a nurse, my mother a social worker, and I am a developmental psychologist, no, actually four, as my daughter is a clinical psychologist.” “Oh, how interesting,” people say at dinner parties, smiling, hoping to move on to something more interesting, away from our older people’s obsession with our family trees - as if flinging ourselves into the history that we will soon become. My grandmoth

A Roadmap for Art Educators and Art Therapists Art teachers, art therapists, and artists express themselves, among other ways, in the language of materials, classification of the different media and tools, organizing furniture and shelves, serving as a text with its own intrinsic logic, which influences both body and mind. Every shelf of materials can be perceived as a sentence, every cabinet as a paragraph. They function as an alchemical, metaphorical basis supporting the cre

I was born in Israel in 1974, nine months after the Yom Kippur War. I was five years old when my family moved to a new town. My first memory from there was getting out of the truck that was transporting our belongings and meeting a woman who asked me who we were. I told her enthusiastically that we had come to live here and that we were relatives of my aunt, who already lived there. Her response was: "Oh, another family of Farsi miduna..." *   It was my first encounter with t

«С точки зрения молодости жизнь есть бесконечно долгое будущее, с точки зрения старости — очень короткое прошлое». Артур Шопенгауэр Oh God! May I be alive when I die. Donald. W. Winnicott Что может предложить терапевт пожилым людям, которые идут к финальному этапу своего жизненного путешествия? В этом материале я делюсь своим пониманием сути такой работы, их воспоминаниями и опытом. Всё это стало частью и моей жизненной истории. Я работаю со стариками, с их душой и телом. С т

I feel many of us are trying to help each other survive. At some point in my life, I chose to create a family of my own and to place my eyes on beauty. I accepted a deep desire for balance. I chose this over a part of me that was very much in shadow. For decades, I felt tied to a rock. I felt constant discord, loneliness, and anger. I used art to give a voice to my raw emotional world, but I paid a price. My mental health was challenged. I tried to feel better but could not s

Tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic… A needle taps over and over on a sheet of paper, each stroke piercing it. The action focuses on a specific area,...

The crickets sing a melody that indicates that night is coming. There is a constancy, as if breathing were permanent, keeping the music...

In March 2025, I took part in a supervision group for therapists. We were invited to create a container, a three-dimensional structure...

When she passed away, we lost ourselves in her art room. Piles of drawings and paintings heaped on top of each other Of all sizes and...

Unconditional love . I am eight and a half years old. I’m returning from school to the village using the shuttle like I used to every...

The Botanisierbüchse my mother gave me (photo by Ami Siano) Found I walked the woodland, A lonesome man To look for nothing- That was my...

Kyoto path Encountering Nona Orbach and her world of art therapy has frankly had many ripple effects on me – her love of Kyoto and...

My job at Grandma Onyo’s home in Petach Tikva was to open the door to the customers who brought items for “artistic repair.” Grandma sat...

In recent years, many art therapists have begun to use art journals. Unlike conventional art surfaces, ledgers or journals are readily...

Plasticine as a means of dealing with life’s passages My journey with plasticine began when I was teaching the art of color mixing to my...

When I was nine years old, during the languid days of summer vacation, my mother enrolled me in a painting workshop just a short walk...

PHILOSOPHY OF SPONTANEOUS IMAGE-MAKING WITHIN AN ENVIRONMENT A wide sandy beach off the Atlantic Ocean was my first studio. Throughout my childhood, I played there, sculpting and drawing in the sand. I was unaware that countless generations of children before me, even centuries ago, had played on this same beach with this same sand, and created forms, mounds, tunnels and holes, that probably resembled my own. The children of my generation had limited art materials and often p

It’s Monday. Gali appears at the doorway in her pyjamas. “Slime!” The glue cap is stuck, it has been fused to its body since last Monday....

Turmoil in the room – wet sand, a pool of glue, newspapers, hammer and nails. Paint stains on the carpet and on my skirt. I’m on the...