In other words, your creative process becomes your road to emotional health and healing.The aim of the Expressive Arts Lab is to promote well-being and healing through creative expression and connection, by providing a space for people to develop, express and experience their creative selves while interacting with others in a congenial setting.įrom the beginning of time, humans have expressed their creativity in a myriad of art forms.
Creativity becomes the pathway to the expression of inner feelings, leading to a process of self-discovery and understanding. Because art comes from a deep emotional place inside you, creative endeavors enable you to undergo a profound process of self-discovery and understanding. At the core of expressive arts therapy is the concept that the process of moving from everyday expectations into the world of imagination and creativity that results in art making is natural. Throughout the process, you learn new and different ways to use the mostly nonverbal language of creativity to communicate inner feelings that were not previously available to you by simply thinking or talking about them. Since the therapeutic work is based on the creative process, not on the final result, it is not necessary to have a background or training in the arts to benefit from expressive arts therapy.
Your therapist helps you communicate your feelings about the process and accomplishment of art making, and together, you use the creative process to highlight and analyze your problems and issues. In expressive arts therapy, you use multiple senses to explore your inner and outer world through the experience and creation of different art forms. Creative writing, journaling, storytelling, reading literature and poetry, and making life maps, videos, and memory books are all forms of expressive art therapy that can help older individuals review and make meaning of their lives, and to tell their life story, as well as help them engage with family and other significant people in their lives. The therapist observes the child’s processes, behavior, and impulses, and then encourages the child to talk about the experience. For instance, expressive arts therapy for children with behavioral issues might include music, movement, or finger painting. Expressive arts therapy is used with children and adults, as individuals or in groups, to nurture deep personal growth and transformation. The difference between expressive arts therapy and art therapy is that expressive arts therapy draws from a variety of art forms, while art therapy tends to be based on one particular art form. This multi-arts, intermodal, approach to therapy uses our inborn desire to create-be it music, art, play, drama, dance, poetry, or other artistic form-as a therapeutic tool to help initiate change. Expressive arts therapy combines psychology and the creative process to promote emotional growth and healing.
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