Integrating personal values and professionalism (part 1 of 3)

Both personal and professional values are qualities that guide my interactions with the world. They help me to navigate complex decisions, guiding my actions. However, in contrast to personal values that were formed during my personal development, professional values differ in the sense that they relate to a professional community, with values that are assigned to me by the profession, as outlined by ANZATA (2017).

During the creation of my art therapist’s online identity I found that whilst many personal values such as trust, safety and transparency were expressed through text and image selection, with each page and image uploaded, I became keenly aware of the responsibility of representation – whereby I am no longer simply representing myself. As a registered art therapist, every decision I make regarding how I promote and position my services has the ability to alter perceptions of the industry as a whole.

I noticed that as I built my website, I found myself wanting to include aspects of my personal identity and complimentary services which may benefit clients, but questioned if this was in the profession’s best interests, considering the frequency of role-ambiguity outlined in the literature (Feen-Calligan, 2012; Moon, 2002; Van Lith & Fenner, 2011). Feeling my personal and economic needs in conflict with my own perceptions of professionalism, I added, deleted, added and deleted services such yoga classes and sound healings, concerned that this may also negatively impact perceptions about my role commitment. Considering the low professional self-esteem (Johnson, 1999) and my own concerns about employment outcomes, I noticed tension between a strict adherence to the art therapy discipline for the betterment of the industry and wanting to differentiate myself in order to gain competitive advantage.

With this in mind, I explored a number of web-platforms, ultimately settling on WIX.com, which was able to offer desirable functionality (payments and bookings) for free, with an option to upgrade.

I created my account and stubbled towards the first hurdle: Picking a domain name. I see if my name is available, immediately noting “I’m concerned that it gives the wrong impression (too much focus on me, not enough on art therapy)” (Rowan, 2017, p.4). I try ‘my location’ + ‘art therapy’ yet fear this appeared deceitful, as if I was an entire art therapy centre and I wondered how this would impact my art therapy business if I moved location. In a Winnicott-esque moment, I found a domain that felt good (enough), eventually settling on [‘art therapy’ with ‘my name’], privileging both the person and the practice whilst maintaining professionalism.

With the name confirmed, the search began for a suitable template. I was elated to find a Music Therapy template. This was immediately followed by envy as I began the process of de-music-therapy-ing my site, replacing instruments with paintbrushes. Whilst I have first hand experience of the benefits of art therapy, the process of creating my website heightened my own anxieties about professional inferiority. Feeling defeated, I noted “just another example of how art therapy isn’t yet recognised” (p.5), surprised by how quickly this thought arose, given that I have barely begun my journey as an art therapist.

Recalling my previous vocation as a product manager, I speculated what it would take to get an art therapy template created for WIX. I resolved that, whilst it is technically simple to create a template, WIX likely get a lot of template requests. Besides, what I would suggest might differ from what another art therapists requires. I questioned if it is in the best interests of the profession to take renegade action and just ‘get it done’, or to propose it to an art therapy association, which would likely involve a range of approvals to adhere to ethical guidelines, delaying a potentially valuable resource. I reflected on how having this template, seeing it as an option, would have raised my professional self-esteem and made the process of setting up the site much faster, and how excited I would have been to share it with my student cohort. I resolved to add ‘investigate creating an Art Therapy template’ to my post-studies to-do list.