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Regulations defining the Scope of the Profession of Arts Therapy, 2024

Government Notice 5627 of 2024

Regulations defining the Scope of the Profession of Arts Therapy, 2024
Citation
Government Notice 5627 of 2024
Primary work
Health Professions Act, 1974
Date
6 December 2024
Language
English
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South Africa
Health Professions Act, 1974

Regulations defining the Scope of the Profession of Arts Therapy, 2024

Government Notice 5627 of 2024

The Minister of Health has, in terms of section 33(1) of the Health Professions Act, 1974 (Act No. 56 of 1974), and on the recommendation of the Health Professions Council of South Africa, made th regulations in the Schedule.

1. Definitions

In these Regulations, and any word or expression to which a meaning has been assigned in the Act shall bear such meaning, unless the context indicates otherwise—“arts therapy” means the profession of a person registered under the Act as an arts therapist, dance movement therapist, drama therapist, or music therapist; and"the Act" means the Health Professions Act, 1974 (Act No. 56 of 1974).

2. Act pertaining to the profession of arts therapy

The following are acts pertaining to the profession of arts therapy:—
(a)Assessment of the physical, emotional, cognitive and social needs of individuals or groups through observation and the use of standardized and non-standardized assessment tools, activities, interviews, questionnaires and media for the formulation of the therapeutic goals and treatment plan;
(b)The use of verbal and non-verbal arts therapy methods and techniques to aid individuals or groups in—
i.addressing the therapeutic goals of symptom relief, the development and integration of emotional, cognitive, psychosocial, and physical functioning and personal growth;
ii.improving interpersonal relationships between individuals and groups as part of a wider matrix of community and ecological networks;
iii.enhancing resilience through the development of creative capacity;
iv.improving, remediating, and rehabilitating cognitive, physical, emotional, and psychosocial functioning; and
v.promoting health and quality of life.
(c)Acts specific to art therapy include but are not limited to the psychotherapeutic use of art as a medium to:
i.produce images and objects through the creative use of various physical materials in service of the therapeutic relationship and process;
ii.make, manipulate, and interpret visual images, objects, and materials (paintings, drawings, constructions etc.) by the client and therapist;
iii.the use of image, object, material process as a means through which the subjective and objective nature of the client’s experience is connected, mediated, explored, integrated, and clinically informed;
(d)Acts specific to dance movement therapy include but are not limited to the psychotherapeutic use of body and movement as a medium to—
i.facilitate the interconnection and continuity between internal physiological and cognitive processes and external interpersonal meanings, relationships and influences;
ii.link emotional and sensory experiences to one another and to process these experiences verbally and non-verbally;
iii.connect physical, cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of self and thus foster integration;
iv.facilitate therapeutic change through the therapeutic encounter in which the therapist’s body, through non-verbal communication, acts as a receiver that attunes to the client’s improvised non-verbal and expressive movement and becomes a medium for expression, whether spoken and unspoken communication;
v.encourage development and integration of new adaptive movement patterns together with the emotional and relational experiences that accompany such changes by the therapist’s use of the medium to acknowledge and support the client’s movements;
vi.create awareness of intrapsychic processes in groups, as well as their interpersonal behaviour, allowing clients to modify how they form and maintain patterns of expression; and
vii.yield metaphor and imagery through shared movement, which illustrates the unconscious emotional life of a group.
(e)Acts specific to drama therapy include but are not limited to the psychotherapeutic use of one or more of the following processes: dramatic play; mime; puppetry; mask work; role play; enactment; ritual; improvisation; storytelling; theatre-making; theatre production; drama games and text to—
i.facilitate the client's ability to: tell his or her story; solve problems; set goals; gain insight into personal behaviours; practice new behaviours; express feelings appropriately; achieve catharsis; extend the depth and breadth of inner experience; improve interpersonal skills and relationships; strengthen the ability to perform personal, social and professional life roles while increasing flexibility between these roles;
ii.review personal experience in a symbolic, personal, and metaphorical way utilising the structure and distance offered by dramatic text, dramatic play, ritual or traditional stories;
iii.reconstruct difficult group situations and explore alternative group systems, contracts, goals, and roles through role play, observation and experimentation with alternative behaviours and strategies;
(f)Acts that are specific to music therapy include but are not limited to the therapeutic use of one or more of the following processes: clinical musical interventions ranging from structured to improvised, song writing, music listening, Guided Imagery and Music (The Bonny Method), music-centred arts processes, clinically informed musical performance practices and musical movement techniques to—
i.facilitate non-verbal and verbal communication through the structural properties of music and music making within the therapeutic relationship;
ii.express emotional, cognitive, physical, interpersonal, and transpersonal resources and concerns;
iii.offer intra and interpersonal awareness, catharsis, relaxation, stress release, pain management, and behaviour modification;
iv.explore symbolic material elicited by the projective affordances of music; and
v.process and integrate insights gained.
(g)The control, development, management, and quality assurance of arts therapy interventions.

3. Short title

These Regulations are called Regulations Defining the Scope of the Profession of Arts Therapy, 2024

History of this document

06 December 2024 this version
Commenced
05 November 2024
Assented to
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