Comics in clinical practice: a grounded theory exploration of how sequential art is applied to talking therapy

The clinical practice of counselling psychology and psychotherapy requires therapists to engage in a continuous process of development and learning regarding the range of their knowledge of theory, skills, and clinical tools. This research project explores the application of sequential art (comics, comic books, graphic novels, manga, comic strips etc) as a clinical tool in the practice of talking therapy. To date, there is a clear sparsity of research regarding this practice and the potential validity of sequential art as a legitimate clinical tool in counselling psychology and psychotherapy. This study used social-constructivist grounded theory (GT) in order to explore how therapists used sequential art in their clinical practice. It focused on exploring what kinds of clinical interventions sequential art was used in, which client groups sequential art was used with, what presenting issues sequential art was applied to, and how therapists viewed the effectiveness of applying sequential art to their clinical practice. Ten therapists with experience of applying sequential art to their clinical practice were interviewed. The findings of this project are presented as a substantive foundational model of how sequential art can be applied to talking therapy as a clinical tool. The findings indicate that, for some clients, interventions based on the application of sequential art can be a useful tool for a range of presenting issues and can be applied to therapeutic work with clients across a very broad range of demographic groups. The clinical application of sequential art takes three broad forms; interventions based on the creation of sequential art, interventions based on the consumption of sequential art, and some combination of these two forms. The findings also indicate that, for some clients, the application of sequential art can support communication between therapist and client, collaborative working between therapist and client, client engagement in therapy, the development of empathy and self-compassion, and the client’s development of insight.