Art Therapy in India

The art therapy school Swaasthyakala Niketan in Bangalore has been recognized by the Medical Section; the second training course will start in April.

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From 7 to 9 January 2019 a group of students from the art therapy school Swaasthyakala Niketan based in Bangalore came to represent their training at the annual meeting of the European Academy for Anthroposophic Art Therapies at the Goetheanum. The school is the first anthroposophical art therapy training in India. The training is of 3–4 years duration and is given in modules throughout the year. Up to now seven students have been certified.

The initiative was brought to life by the physician and painter Wahida Shaikh Murthy and the art therapist and painter Caroline Chanter, who teaches at the Rudolf Steiner Painting School in Dornach (CH). It grew out of the IPMTS (International Postgraduate Medical Training) conferences held in India, the first of which took place in India in 2005 with Michaela Glöckler. In this respect the training sees itself as part of the development of Anthroposophic Medicine in India. The physicians there have been accompanying the training with lectures and advice. Dr Harihara Murthy (Bangalore) and Dr Swapna Narendra (Hyderabad) have played a major role. Up until now four physicians have also taken part in the training.

The artistic-therapeutic foundation of the course has its roots in the sketches for painters given by Rudolf Steiner together with the methodology based on Gerard Wagner’s painting and colour research of these sketches. The course consists basically of painting with plant-based pigments, clay modelling, black and white drawing (slant technique), text study and medical lectures given by Rudolf Steiner.

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