FAQs (cont.)

Other Leaders in the Field Answer the Question: Why Expressive Arts Therapy?

From “The Creative Connection” by Natalie Rogers (1993)
Expressive arts therapy uses various arts- movement, drawing, painting, sculpting, music, writing, sound, and improvisation – in a supportive setting to facilitate growth and healing. It is a process of discovering ourselves through any art form that comes from an emotional depth. It is not creating a ‘pretty’ picture. It is not a dance ready for the stage. It is not a poem written and rewritten to perfection.

We express inner feelings by creating outer forms. Expressive art refers to using the emotional, intuitive aspects of ourselves in various media. To use the arts expressively means going into our inner realms to discover feelings and to express them through visual art, movement, sound, writing or drama.

We use the arts to let go, to express and to release. Clients report that the expressive arts have helped them to go beyond their problems to envisioning themselves taking action in the world constructively. Involving oneself intensely with the creative process brings an alignment of mind and body, creating an opening to receive divine energy. Discovering one’s spirituality through creativity actually happens.

From “The Foundations of Expressive Arts Therapy” (1999) Stephen and Ellen Levine
Wholeness and self-actualization are seen as the goals of therapeutic work: the arts are necessary precisely because of their capactity for expressing the totality of the self.

No matter what the framework, we sense a common concern with human suffering and the possibilities of an artistic response.

Expressive Arts are those activities in which creative expression fosters psychological, physical and spiritual wellness.

From “The Arts and Psychotherapy” Shaun McNiff (1981)
The psychotherapeutic use of the arts offers an opportunity to integrate scientific knowledge about the psyche with the more imaginative and spiritual hemisphere of the mind, where the power to heal lies.

6 major client benefits:

  • Identify and be in touch with feelings (heart)
  • Explore unconscious material
  • Release energy
  • Gain Insight
  • Solve Problems
  • Discover intuitive, mythological and spiritual dimensions of the self

Real Benefits For You With This Program

  • Immediately apply new skills and techniques to your professional work and personal life.
  • Create a deepening and developing connection to your Highest Self and your Best Work.
  • Open your heart to express freely and fully all the colors of your own Creativity.
  • Using the arts to co-create clarity and solutions, honoring our lives and building safe community.
  • Learn an interdisciplinary approach to body/mind health and wellness.
  • Receive the ability to promote creativity, self-awareness and risk-taking.
  • Through creativity and spirit, re-connect with the inherent knowledge we have available in our bodies.
  • Take this opportunity to become nationally certified as an expressive arts therapist after the completion of the year-long program. Take the creative leap. It’s time!

Remember, there are no stupid questions.

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Please feel free to call me at 949-278-2624
or email me at Jane@expressiveartstraining.com

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