Therapy as a sacred ritual might sound a bit pompous to some. After all, therapy is often considered something of a “have to,” not a “want to.” I would like to consider that therapy is something other than a way out of struggle, depression, and pain. My clients teach me each week that something beautiful is explored, born, or manifested in our weekly get-togethers. As they make their weekly voyage to therapy, they pledge to themselves the opportunity to discover the full range of their experience.

Like a good cup of coffee in the morning, therapy is like a morning jog-so-you-can-get-going kind of ritual. Whether writing morning pages in our journals to scribe our thoughts, or pulling the garden vegetables from the earth for tonight’s dinner, therapy has its place in our lives. It is like sacred nourishment for our soul. It is a commitment to understanding ourselves more intimately, completely, and thoroughly, by doing our weekly sit-in with our therapist.

As my clients cross the threshold of becoming, I see the meaning therapy has become to them and the rituals that they encounter.

Setting the Stage
Upon making the first appointment, it has begun. The ritual begins with a friendly, “Hi, how are you.” The client’s “call” embarks on finding a therapist who will see, feel, and hear them most authentically. They seek to connect their experience with someone who will honor and embrace them. Testing the waters, they may begin with a brief explanation of their story in a “give and take” sort of fashion until a connection is made. Upon feeling a spark, the conversation deepens, which consummates an appointment. This reciprocal dance begins the sacred ritual of setting the stage of meeting, time, and place.

Entering Sacred Space
After arriving, entering the room, closing the door, and with sacred agreements signed, both the client and I begin entering into the depth of what will be shared and discovered. While sitting in front of me and releasing the tension, the client intimately begins the next ritual. The sacred opportunity to be fully seen, heard, and felt has begun. Time and space become a blessed opportunity away from tiring commitments, chores, and obligations. There is sacredness in saying the unsaid and feeling the unfelt before me as their therapist. A trust begins to unfurl as the holy journey to revealing and expanding is explored. Highs and lows, struggles and gains, celebrations and sorrows are all fruit for the harvesting. As my clients explore the depths of their experience, I enter my role of providing safety, empathy, and challenge. Each week, building on the last session, the client and I meet with a greeting and enter into sacred space.

Bridging the Gap
Often clients enter therapy with some blockage to unravel, relationship to untangle, or goal to achieve. As we work through the existing sludge to get to the other side of their desire, I notice that my role vacillates among many. The roles of mentor, educator, and guide work many vantage points to include inner-child work, adult development, and familial understanding. The gap of our work together contracts and expands as we discern emotional terrain, physical symptoms, and insight. Weekly, as we deepen, each of these becomes a sacred practice. Commitment to healing, commitment to knowing, and commitment to discovery become not only tasks, but a revered journey. Our deepening relationship begins to transform, soften, and deepen. There is a sacredness in the reciprocity and trust which now gather their place at the altar of unfolding.

Packing Up
As the merger of relationship between the client and therapist expands and deepens within the context of an hour, there must be time to choose the “take with” nuggets of insight and knowledge gained. Much like camping in the park, we sort through, pack up, and continue our journey back to the familiar. Reflecting, we ponder the sacred meaning of this particular hour. The client and I ask ourselves, “What did we learn?” We take a look back and gather threads of awareness and pieces of clarity as we seek to create meaning of this experience. Moments are given to encapsulate the importance of the discovery by way of closing statements, new visions, and take-home assignments. As the hour quickly ends, the door opens and we say our goodbyes. The sacred journey ends and begins with hope and uncertainty as we look forward to unfolding, yet again, what is to become of our meeting together.

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Grief arises as a product of a loss that we have experienced. It is associated with losses that may include a person’s health, job, relationship, pet, or loved one. We may not be able to describe the roller coaster of emotions, yet we do know that we are not ourselves. When we feel out of sorts, sensations surface such as low self-esteem, illness, depression, and confusion, which can manifest into thoughts that our feelings are out of our control. As a result, this full-body experience may be difficult to process or verbalize. To mend this sorrow, the expressive arts can create a doorway to the unspeakable by opening all channels to the grieving body.

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Opening Up to Grief

Expressive arts therapy encourages movement of the imagination that we may struggle with during our grieving process. Our art influences how we look at, unblock, wrestle with, and shed light on the need to distance and detach from our pain. When we dodge grief to avoid, deny, or block the inevitable pain, the arts invite the imagination of these stuck places to come to the surface in images, movement, color, and sound. Our art process releases the tension of grief, allowing it to expand and contract, while providing a safe container in which this process can take place. When we create, we give ourselves permission to examine all that is happening within our grieving bodies.

“Art shows how the difficulty can contain its cure if channeled into life-affirming expression.”
-Shaun NcNiff

Understanding the Experience of Grief

There are five to seven stages often associated with the grieving process. They may be experienced as denial, pain, anger, bargaining, depression, upward turn, reconstruction, and acceptance. The experience can feel like a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, mood swings, and erratic behavior. When we drop in to our art-making, the grief is given containment—a place to be held. This containment permits the pain to speak and encourages our healing. Making sense of what is happening comes to light. We may notice this in a color that strikes a mood, or a picture that recalls a memory, or an emotion to be felt. It is an opportunity for the most vulnerable parts of a grieving body to speak, feel safe, be heard, and be externalized. Once the art is created, we can then dialogue with it further and support our need to metabolize all that is going on within us.

“The reward for attention is always healing.”
-Julia Cameron

Facing Grief and Piecing Life Together

Fragments of memories, like bits of broken glass, can be difficult to hold emotionally around anniversary dates, picture books, and mementos. They can feel like a jab to the heart, invite an unwanted memory, or open a floodgate of emotion. These fragments seek meaning and solace, yet can wander in and out, tugging and vying for attention at awkward moments. As we seek to piece our lives together after a loss, the expressive arts can heal us by giving these bits and pieces the attention they deserve and need. For a moment, we can sink into ourselves and allow our memories, thoughts, and feelings—those we desperately struggle with—an opportunity to speak, to be heard, and to be felt. Each time that we engage the process using the arts, we give ourselves a break, a breath, and a reprieve from the pain that seeks expression beyond talk therapy.

References:

1. Cameron, J. (1992). The Artist’s Way. New York: Tarcher/Putnam Publishing.
2. McNiff, S. (2004). Art Heals. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications.

There are many different paths one can take to healing through Expressive Arts Therapy. Let’s begin by looking at a major component of this process, which is allowing the creative process to begin.

Releasing the Creative Spirit
Our healing journey is made possible by opening to our creative process. We invite flow again. We say, “Ah there you are, I’ve missed you.” When flow is permitted, we open a channel to buried treasures just beneath the surface of our unconscious yearning. We wonder why we waited so long to let go to our creative spirit. Perhaps we were bound by obligations, commitments, stress, and mundane efforts to keep our status quo. Whatever the reason, we find some comfort in releasing to our creative process again. Not all releasing requires that you pick up a paint brush, write a poem, or perform a yoga pose. And process isn’t just for painters, dancers, or musicians; it is blessed upon everyone in unique and interesting ways. I often find wandering in a gourmet kitchen store or letting my mind relax while sipping tea on a park bench to be useful when in need of some flow. You may prefer a brisk walk, baking a cake, or perusing a secondhand store as adequate letting-go activities. It is the releasing to yourself that is beneficial. It is the simple act of saying, “I matter enough” to allow myself this moment of time to release to what wants to come through me. Find what works for you, and don’t be afraid to try something new. There are jewels awaiting you when releasing to the unknown.

Decentering
We instantly know the feeling of decentering when we’ve hit it. It may come across as a silly fit of giggling or a playful rousing of exuberant combustive energy while forgetting the worries of the day. Decentering lies at the heart of Expressive Arts Therapy. It is letting go to the “imaginal reality through play, art-making or ritual” (Knill, 2005). It’s as if time has passed and we have forgotten, at least for a moment, the demands of the day and have awakened to the essence of ourselves by dropping into our senses. It is here that we notice and say to ourselves, “I’ve forgotten you.” Here, we release our creative spirit, welcome ourselves back home, and find missing parts of ourselves again. We get there not by way of doing, tasking, or driving, but by way of letting go to our deepest self—the playful unconditional child. We step away from ourselves as we know ourselves to be—lawyer, chef, accountant, candlestick maker—and release to the part of ourselves that doesn’t know, doesn’t plan, and doesn’t perceive what is going to happen next. This is the essence of decentering. Here, Expressive Arts Therapy may act as a vessel, assisting in bridging the gap between this tension of restriction and the releasing to flow.

Aligning With the Soul
Once we have been able to decenter from the outside work and into ourselves, the opportunity arises to align with the soul—the spiritual or nonmaterial aspect of ourselves. This alignment breathes new life into our expression by recalling a weightless way of being that we may have been missing. When we align with the soul, we say, “I remember you.” The lost part of our true being settles in to the wanting, needing, and arising of forgotten passions that our soul has longed for. Here, utilizing expressive arts, we might play with wild abandon, release to dance, stomp our feet, shake a tambourine, and howl at the moon. We remember our essence and it feels good. Whirling about, we thrust into our forgotten freedom and free our soul to experience again. We drop our roles, egos, and worries and rest into the place that we know satisfies us the most. When we allow this to happen, new information arises that we were not privy to before. Our insatiable longing is satisfied for a moment. At last, we have come home again.

Integration
Integration is a gathering and trying on of the bits and pieces we discover as we align with the soul. We have an opportunity to reflect, bring together, reinvent, and make ourselves new again. We can discard worn out habits, shed old beliefs, and remove residual roles of the past. We embark on meaning-making and try on this new information. Reflecting, we might take moments to journal our thoughts and ask ourselves, “What just happened—what does this mean?” Here, our process becomes one of answers and questions. Like trying on new shoes, we wonder, how does this fit?

Whether it is an instant “aha” or a deep look at a lifestyle change, we ponder the new information and attempt to assimilate it through our senses. Although not an expressive arts requirement, we might create a collage of images to bring together a clearer picture, write a lyric to express our feelings, or choreograph a narrative dance piece. Whatever comes to us, this is where we try on “Is this me; am I you?” The ego and spirit join hands and ultimately decide the usefulness of the new information. This process, throughout our lifetime, returns again and again.

Reference
Knill, P., Levine, E. G., Levine, S. K. (2005). Principles and Practice of Expressive Arts Therapy: Toward a Therapeutic Aesthetics. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

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Creativity as Innovation Combined with Utility (And How it Works in Counseling)
Active Mood States Encourage Creativity

Expressive arts therapy bridges the gap between the conscious and the unconscious mind. It can bring light to areas of therapy that are blocked, inhibited, and stuck, as well as bringing greater focus to those areas of concern. The primary focus is on the process, which allows a person to discover new insight and meaning that might not be achieved with traditional talk therapy. Appropriate for all ages, it can enhance a person’s emotional, spiritual, cognitive, and physical well-being. While no talent in the use of expressive arts is required, several modalities available within expressive arts therapy magnify and deepen the process.

This article will explore five common benefits associated with the use of expressive arts therapy:

1. Expressive arts therapy encourages the unfolding unconscious. When working with expressive media, people often benefit from the unconscious bubbling to the surface of their awareness. Various media like painting, psychodrama, dance, and sculpting draw forth unearthed material that may not have been seen, felt, observed, or accessed in some way via talk therapy. Through letting go and getting into the creative flow, a portal is created to the process, enabling listening, watching, and observing what might not be explained through words. An example of this would be a person viewing an image and recalling a buried memory shaping their current experience. Another example would be a therapist suggesting to a person that mask-making might deepen the process of a new sub-personality. Whether the choice is a specific media (i.e. paint or sculpture) or the person’s own media (i.e. voice and movement), the process of unfolding to the unconscious material is supported as the person allows the new material to emerge.
2. It informs communication between a person and their therapist. Another benefit that makes expressive arts therapy inviting is the increased depth of spoken and unspoken communication which results from the expression process and the product itself. [fat_widget_left]The process makes way for additional communication to be made known, which may inform the person and his/her therapist of new insights. An example of this might be when the process of creating an authentic movement piece stirs additional emotion within a person’s experience, resulting in a dialogue about the new feelings that have emerged. The product can also increase or enhance the meaning, infuse additional unseen material, and provide an externalized venue for further discussion. An example of this would be a therapist supporting a person in expressing his or her grief by tapping into his or her talent as a watercolor artist and creating an abstract of his or her grief. The therapist could inquire about the use of color, line, and symbols present in the art.
3. Expressive arts therapy externalizes and gives form to unfolding material. Giving process a physical form allows a person to feel in control of their process. It can bring depth and life to feelings and images. It shines light on ambivalent feelings by externalizing them and giving them shape and color. One example is having a person draw an image of how they are currently feeling. Doing this might elicit additional information that wasn’t available to the person cognitively. Additionally, one of the benefits is externalizing the process so that a person can witness and be an observer of their own process. This is especially helpful for painful and difficult images and memories by allowing the a person to observe things from a distance. An example of this would be to have the person talk and explain their experience as if they are watching a movie. This allows them to psychically remove him or herself from the painful somatic response that might be risky in the moment.
4. It awakens and sparks process. Probably the most obvious benefit of expressive arts therapy is the spark created in the imagination. This awakening process allows the person to experience something new. It’s like an a-ha moment, a new discovery. It can lead to new things, bring light to something stuck, open a new doorway to unarticulated feelings, and shed light on the past. It can provide a new language and foster existing language when current circumstances and words cannot describe the unfolding process.
5. Expressive arts therapy supports integrative learning. It encourages the undiscovered places of knowledge within each person. The opportunity for a person to experience a different way of knowing is enhanced by different sensory experiences. Each experience is enhanced by the other and forms new experiences, thoughts, sensations, and images not normally experienced in the person’s normal one-dimensional experience. As a result, a rich tapestry takes form. An example of this might be asking a person to explore sounds representative of their current experience, which then deepens into the depth of pain that had gone unnoticed.

As you can see, there are many deepening and enriching experiences that expressive arts therapy supports to create a richer, more vibrant therapeutic experience. Each modality is unique, as is each therapist’s use of the modality and the client’s comfort with the material. The beauty is in the process and not the product, which is at the heart of all therapy.