59-05-032 Proceeding

297 Proceedings of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Congress emotions through the creative process (N. Rogers, 1993).The term ‘expressive arts therapy’ is used to describe a multi-modality, and an integrated approach to the use of art in psychotherapy, also can be adapted to use for mental health services, in helping profession as well as for education. As N. Rogers (1993) points out, expressive arts is considered to be one form of therapy, once known as part of daily life for particular groups in the form of ritual and creativity; however the purpose remains the same: for healing, growth and development. This signifies that creative intervention has been used in the past, yet may still remain necessary to address mental health needs across a wide range of clients. Creative art practices in Malaysia: Historical development Historical development of guidance and counselling services in Malaysia began in 1960 when the Ministry of Education agreed to appoint teachers who taught in secondary schools as a guidance teacher to help deal with deviant behaviour and provide career guidance for when students finish school (Mey, 2004; Glamcevski, 2008; Mey & Kok-Mun, 2010). Despite negative stigma toward those who seek counselling services as problematic or having a mental disorder, the Malaysian Government increasingly supported the development of a certificate in counselling at teaching colleges and in professional undergraduate and postgraduate programs at several universities (Glamcevski, 2008; Mey & Kok-Mun, 2010). The number of people who obtained undergraduate and postgraduate degree in counselling and psychology locally and internationally grew. There were substantial growth of trained counsellors and training programmes for a variety of counselling offered including crisis intervention, marriage and family counselling, relationship counselling, career counselling, rehabilitation counselling, mental health counselling, sexual trauma counselling, AIDS counselling, philosophical counselling, grief and bereavement counselling, substance abuse counselling and transgender counselling (Mey, 2004). Furthermore, the establishment of Malaysian Counselling Association (PERKAMA) in 1992 and the approval of Counsellors Act 1998 (Akta Kaunselor 1998) by the Malaysian Parliament reached a milestone, indicating significant movement of counselling at school and across communities. For more than a decade, the development of counselling in Malaysia has rapidly grown, indicating that this society has becomemore open to accessing support froma variety of counselling services offered for enhancing well-being (Mey & Kok-Mun, 2010). However, the approach has relied only on verbal therapy. After the disaster of the 2004 Tsunami that hit some parts of the Malaysian coast, the counsellors whom provided services during this disaster realized the need for a wider non-verbal approach to work with children and young people; however the lack of local expertise limited this development. Nevertheless, for instance, a few scholars attempted to introduce the concept, and conducted empirical research in order to bring a different perspective on the use of creativemethods in counselling, particularly in the field of play, art and expressive art therapy (Mey&Kok-Mun, 2010; Balakrishnan&Nasir, 2009). To date, there are no undergraduate or graduate programs for either creative art, or play therapy in the higher institutions inMalaysia;