Melbourne

Institute for

Experiential

&

Creative

Arts Therapy

"Humankind is
a being in search
of meaning"
— Plato

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General

This course is currently only available in Melbourne, Australia. The Graduate diploma comprises eight (8) units of part time study completed over two years. This course offers students an experiential approach to learning, and focuses on an inquiry into the nature of experiencing, multi-modal representation, the implementation of MIECAT process to personal knowing and its applications in various contexts such as therapy and education. Please read the Study Information page for general student and study matters.

Purpose

The MIECAT Graduate Diploma has three (3) often intersecting and mutually related purposes which need to be understood by intending students:

  1. It can be the opportunity for intensive personal development in experiential arts work, although the course is not structured as a therapy for participants, but rather to teach the MIECAT form of inquiry;
  2. It offers a form of inquiry into human meaning, using experiential and multimodal procedures, which can be used by those already in work and who wish to bring aspects of this approach into their work. This might be in any agency, community or educational setting, whether the work is seen or titled as counselling or as a form of learning that aims to understand life meanings in those contexts;
  3. It can be an entry point for those wanting to start or continue a career as a counsellor, using the experiential arts procedures of inquiry. In this regard, it should be understood that a Graduate Diploma is not regarded by us as a complete training for a counselling career. It must be followed by the Master of Arts (by Supervision) to enter the profession.

Admission Requirements & Selection Criteria

Candidates will have normally completed an undergraduate degree or equivalent and have a demonstrated interest in acquiring knowledge and skills in this field. This may include having appropriate work related experience in education, therapy, arts practice, health and health promotion in the community. All applicants are initially required to submit a written application to MIECAT for consideration of entrance to this course of study. The written application should consist of:

Selection of students will be made via:

Verified copies of all tertiary qualifications will be required prior to admittance to course.

Content & Structure

The Graduate Diploma is taken as part time study over the full two years. There are eight (8) units, each of 30 hours / 1 semester duration.

Year Unit Description
1 Core 1
Experiencing		 Students will investigate and practice the key procedural steps in the MIECAT form of inquiry, along with their exploration of the experiential and conceptual knowing related to experiencing. Specifically students are expected to articulate and show basic competence in the procedures of: description, identification of key words, bracketing, the intersubjective experience and the intersubjective response. These procedures are aimed at providing a "rich" description of lived experience. An inquiry will be made using the procedures described above, to explore the spatial, temporal, relational, and embodied responses to everyday experiences such as: having a conversation with another; telling a story of one"s life; arranging and sorting a drawer; taking a walk, and so on.
1 Core 2
Multimodal experiencing & the arts		 Students will inquire into the nature of multi-modal presentational knowing and the MIECAT form of inquiry as Participatory Inquiry. Throughout this unit students engage in giving musical, visual, kinaesthetic, dramatic and verbal forming to experiences of ordinary events (i.e. giving or receiving an ordinary act of kindness; writing a letter; etc.) Students are encouraged to explore their experience of the different arts as ways of knowing, and how MIECAT inquiry processes align with Heron and Reason"s (1997) conceptualisation of a collaborative, extended epistemology.
1 Core 3
The form of inquiry		 Students learn the MIECAT form of inquiry as it applies to a research activity. Research procedures are taught experientially, as students undertake their own inquiry into everyday experiences (i.e. "The experience of belonging"; "The experience of finding your voice" etc.) In addition students review the ethics requirements for research and are required to submit a MIECAT Ethics Application, and gain approval, should they wish to use another"s data. Research procedures include: accessing the lived experience, bracketing, indwelling, creating "thick" descriptions, identifying key words, clustering, creating depictions, amplification, identification of themes and creating approximations to meaning.
1 Core 4
Applications to counselling		 Illustrates how the concepts of the form of inquiry into human meaning, taught specifically in Core 3, interact with three major questions: What do we think we know? What might we do with what we think we know? How do you wish to be in your life now (post reflection)? The nature of a counselling inquiry is explored by moving through the concepts from attending - depthing - description - representation - emotional and value aspects of experiencing, to mapping themes and patterns of lived experience in context. Approximations to meaningfulness are made and upgraded until understanding enables reflective knowing to be applied to the life concerns explored.
2 Core 5
Working with emotions		 Looks at the nature and functions of emotions in daily living, and the ways in which they can be explored and understood, and their connectedness to value-laden dilemmas and existential choices that arise therein. Specific major emotions are explored, such as love and hate, shame, guilt, hurt, anger and fear. The relationship of these to secondary-derived emotions is examined, and the patterns of such experience are considered in relation to values and preferred choices about meaningful ways of being. Specific examples of working with emotions in counselling are made in the areas of depression and anxiety states, as well as in the ordinary patterns of living.
2 Core 6
Working with children, youth & families		 Students will enter into experiential exercises related to their own childhood and/or adolescent material as a way to access their understandings of the experience. Following this, via the use of actual case material of therapy with young people, a range of creative modalities is experienced and described. These modalities are - visual art, sandtray, dramatic enactment, collage, clay, movement and music. These modalities are the vehicles through which young people give voice to their concerns. The intersubjective relationship is explored in working therapeutically with young people. Ethical questions concerning 'who is the client', confidentiality issues, who 'owns' the information regarding the young person, report writing and court appearances are discussed and experienced in class.
2 Core 7
Working with relationship & groups		 Examines working in the present with a relationship that can be companioned in the MIECAT way, because the relationship is present in the room. Thus the experiencing is able to be with the relationship, rather than simply talking about it. The patterns of relationships allow the themes, emotions, values and stucknesses to be identified and explored. The purpose is to gain understanding to allow choices to be made about the nature of the relationships. Arts such as drama, drawing, voice and movement, will feature to explore the meanings of relationships that develop in small groups.
2 Core 8
Working in various contexts		 Students are afforded the opportunity to work with arts therapy/education practitioners and consultants from a wide range of employment situations. Each workshop explores the application of the MIECAT form of inquiry with specific client populations, the ethical implications inherent in this inquiry in different work contexts. Students will also engage in an evaluation and reflective activities related to their study in the Graduate Diploma. There is a requirement for students to create a succinct statement of their knowing and how they intend to apply this knowledge in their practice.