Towards Wholeness: Exploring the Transformative Healing of the Creative Process with Dr. Patricia Allen

Creativity emerges in all walks of life and disciplines, requiring diverse approaches and ways of thinking. This article series has taken a wide view to exploring creativity through interviews with experts in different fields (Keenan-Lechel and Henriksen 2019). Beyond disciplinary diversity, it is valuable to think broadly about the types of purposes that creativity relates to. Here, we focus on the work of Dr. Patricia (Pat) Allen, a noted art therapist who uses art and creativity toward mental, emotional, and spiritual wholeness. Her expertise relates to artistic, healing, and therapeutic purposes—and she shares ideas about how education and technology have a role in this. Our conversation offered an illuminating perspective on the role of creativity in healing and wellness, and the education possibilities. We distilled the wide-ranging discussion into themes that include: building systems to support human need; connection to the creative source; rethinking art therapy through the Open Studio Process educational applications for creative wellness; and the affordances of technology for creativity and healing.