KEY PUBLICATIONS

Submitted and Published Papers

The Metaphor Project!!

Many thanks to Dr. Theresa Van Lith and Emma Cornwall for this first in our series of projects exploring metaphors as evidence for art therapy! I was so honored to contribute along with Ashley He and Madeline Centracchio.

"Visual Narratives as Evidence: Surveying the Role of Metaphors in Art Therapy"

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2025.102296

We are pleased to present our two article series about the art therapy research strategic plan project!

VanLith, T., Gerber, N., & Centracchio, M. (2023).Preliminary modeling for strategic planning in art therapy research: A multi-phase sequential mixed methods study. Advance online publication. The Arts in Psychotherapy.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2023.102055

Gerber, N., Van Lith, T., & Centracchio, M. (2023). Creating an art therapy research strategic plan: A community participatory approach. The Arts in Psychotherapy,85, 1-9.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2023.102061

Dr. Theresa Van Lith, Ph.D., ATR-BC, AThR

Van Lith, T. & Bulason, J. (2022) Creating our own suspension bridge between practice and evidence. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 39(3), 119-120. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2022.2113728

Van Lith, T., Quintero, A., Johns, S., & Grzywacz, J. G. (2021). Promoting kindergarten readiness using early intervention Art therapy with Latinx farmworker children. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 73, 101753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2020.101753

Van Lith, T., & Beerse, M. (2019). An examination of contemporary and promising research strategies in art therapy. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 36(3), 141-148. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2019.1645499

Van Lith, T., & Bullock, L. (2019). Do art therapists use vernacular? How art therapists’ communicate their scope of practice. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 35(3), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2018.1540961

Van Lith, T., & Voronin, L. (2016). Developing a critically reflexive practice for art therapists using external perceptions of art therapy. Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 17(2), 194-206. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2016.1146580

Van Lith, T. (2014). A meeting with 'I-Thou': Exploring the intersection between mental health recovery and art making through a co-operative inquiry. Action Research Journal, 12(3), 254-272. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476750314529599

Van Lith, T., Schofield, M., & Fenner, P. (2013). Identifying the evidence-base for art-based practices and their potential benefit for mental health recovery: A critical review. Disability and Rehabilitation, 35(6), 1309-1323. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23116320/

Nancy Gerber, Ph.D, ATR-BC

Gerber, N. (2025). Translation in arts-based research. In P. Leavy (Ed.). Handbook of Arts-Based

Research (2nd ed., pp.659-680). Guilford Press.

Gerber, N., Hannes, K., Gemignani, M., Biondo, J., Siegesmund, R., Carriera, L., Biffi, E.,Centracchio, M., Archibald, M., Chilton, G., Khunke, J., Dawson, A., Lucero, J., Scott Shields, Sara. (2024). Sustaining life on earth: An arts-based exploration of collective lived experiences of COVID-19. Methods in Psychology,11. 1-16.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.metip.2024.100162

Gerber, N. (2022). Imagination and Arts-based practices for integration in research. Routledge.

Gerber, N. & Siegesmund, R.(Eds.) (2022) Innovations in arts-based research: ABR provocations from the 16th International Congress of Qualitative Research [Special Issue]. International Review of Qualitative Research, 15(2). DOI: 10.1177/19408447221090651

Gerber, N., Biffi, E., Biondo, J., Gemignani, M., Hannes, K., & Siegesmund, R. (2020). Arts-

Based Research in the Social and Health Sciences: Pushing for Change with an Interdisciplinary Global Arts-Based Research Initiative. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 21(2), http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-21.2.3496.

Gerber, N., Kapitan, L., Gussak, D., Forinash, M., Kaimal, G., & LaCivita, J. (2020).

Doctoral Education in Art Therapy: Current Trends and Future Directions. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association. DOI: 10.1080/07421656.2020.1761735

Gerber, N. (2020). Saving our soul: Imagination as social activism. In N. K. Denzin & J.Salvo

(Eds.) New Directions in Theorizing Qualitative Inquiry (pp. 115-130). Myers Education

Press.

Gerber, N., Bryl, K., Potvin, N., & Blank, C. A. (2018). Arts-based research approaches to

studying mechanisms of change and transformation in the Creative Arts Therapies [Special issue].

Frontiers in Psychology Special Issue: The state of the art in Creative Arts Therapies.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02076

Archibald, M., & Gerber, N. (2018). Arts and mixed methods research: An innovative methodological merger [Special issue]. American Behavioral Scientist. Advance online publication, https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764218772672

Gerber, N., & Myers-Coffman, K. (2018). Translation in arts-based research. In P. Leavy

(Ed.). Handbook of Arts-Based Research (587-607). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Scotti, V., & Gerber, N. (2017). Rendering beyond_words in transitioning to motherhood

through visual and dramatic arts [Special Issue]. Voices, 17(3).

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15845/voices.v17i3

Gerber, N. (2016) Mixed methods research and art therapy. In D. Gussak M. Rosal (Eds.). The Wiley- Blackwell Handbook of Art Therapy (pp. 654-662). Oxford,UK: Wiley-Blackwell

Chilton, G., Gerber, N., & Scotti, V. (2015). Towards an aesthetic intersubjective paradigm for arts based research: An art therapy perspective. UNESCO Observatory Multi-disciplinary Journal in the Arts, 5 (1), 1-27.

Gerber, N., Templeton, E., Chilton, G., Cohen-Liebman, M.S., Manders, E., Shim, M. (2012). Art based research as a pedagogical approach to studying intersubjectivity in the creative arts therapies. Journal of Applied Arts & Health, 3(1), 39-48.