What is Expressive Arts Therapy?
An expressive arts therapist combines the visual arts, movement, drama, music, writing and other creative processes to foster deep personal growth and community development. By integrating the arts processes and allowing one to flow into another, we gain access to our inner resources for healing, clarity, illumination and creativity.
The arts are all interconnected; an easy way to understand this is realizing that there is movement and rhythm in an image, as well as sound and a story. In a story there are scenes, images, sounds and movements which are embedded in the story. In music or sound we also find images, movement which is implied in the rhythm and in the silence and so on.
Sometimes an expressive arts therapist focuses on one art modality; other times the suggestion is to use several art modalities at the same time ( eg: storytelling and music) and other times the therapist might suggest to use one art modality and then deepen the experience with another modality ( eg: 1st asking patient to do a painting of an emotion and then inviting patient to let the painting speak or interpret the image using his body in movement)
The expressive arts therapists relies on his/her intuition and knowledge about the art forms and his/her patient to make this invitations / or suggestions.
The expressive arts therapy session is a co- creation of the patient/s and the therapist.
Links
- International Expressive Arts Therapy Association - www.ieata.org
The arts are all interconnected; an easy way to understand this is realizing that there is movement and rhythm in an image, as well as sound and a story. In a story there are scenes, images, sounds and movements which are embedded in the story. In music or sound we also find images, movement which is implied in the rhythm and in the silence and so on.
Sometimes an expressive arts therapist focuses on one art modality; other times the suggestion is to use several art modalities at the same time ( eg: storytelling and music) and other times the therapist might suggest to use one art modality and then deepen the experience with another modality ( eg: 1st asking patient to do a painting of an emotion and then inviting patient to let the painting speak or interpret the image using his body in movement)
The expressive arts therapists relies on his/her intuition and knowledge about the art forms and his/her patient to make this invitations / or suggestions.
The expressive arts therapy session is a co- creation of the patient/s and the therapist.
Links
- International Expressive Arts Therapy Association - www.ieata.org