Expressive Arts Therapy
~ Have you ever felt pent up or like you
have something important to say, but don't quite
know how to
articulate it?
~ Do you feel caged in by your current
identity and the roles that you play in your
career and personal
life?
~ Do you believe that deep down inside
your core, you're a powerful person that
nobody else seems to
acknowledge?
What would it be like if you could just
let it all out and explore your true self in a safe and comfortable
environment? Expressive Arts Therapy can help with this by addressing
the whole human capacity through the use of all forms of the arts.
Dance, movement, drama, visual art, writing, and music are some of
the possibilities available as means of expression. The use of
symbols through the arts is simultaneously more powerful and yet,
less threatening, because it allows you to explore issues without
having to directly, verbally communicate what may not yet be in your
own consciousness.
The creative drive lives in all of us,
but is often suppressed by the time we become adults. Sometimes it
can be scary to think of drawing a picture or writing a few lines to
let out our feelings. The beauty of this form of therapy is that it
focuses on the process of expression, however the means, safely
contained by the witnessing therapist. The importance is not placed
on the finished product. Rather, Expressive Arts Therapy is about the
release of emotions through the body, mind, spirit, and
consciousness, as well as the relationship you have to your
creative self-expression. Old traumas and restrictive patterns are worked through in the artmaking to build greater self-awareness, and
connection to your personal sense of inner power. The expressive arts
can facilitate a development of pure clarity of emotion and freedom
of the psyche.
Expressive Arts Therapy is also quite
effective in use with couples and groups, as difficult communication
patterns are bypassed through alternate means of expression. Intimate
partners are often surprised by how typical defensive reactions are
not elicited in this form of communication, and find more commonality
in their shared feelings of mutual understanding.
For further information, please visit
the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association.
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