Sourcebook in expressive arts therapy

Sourcebook in Expressive Arts Therapy

Sourcebook in Expressive Arts Therapy

Sally Atkins Lesley Duggins Williams

Artwork by Marianne Stevens Suggs

2007 Parkway Publishers, Inc. Boone, North Carolina

Copyright Š 2007 by Sally Atkins and Lesley Duggins Williams Illustrations Copyright Š 2007 by Marianne Stevens Suggs All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Atkins, Sally S. Sourcebook in expressive arts therapy / Sally Atkins, Lesley Duggins Williams ; artwork by Marianne Stevens Suggs. p. ; cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

Summary: "This book introduces ways of using the expressive arts in counseling and psychotherapy. It offers examples of ideas and structures which can be incorporated into practice in a variety of settings, including mental health and social service agencies, schools, organizations, and in the private practice of counseling and psychotherapy"--Provided by publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-933251-37-0 ISBN-10: 1-933251-37-9 1. Arts--Therapeutic use. 2. Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)--Therapeutic use. 3.

Art therapy. I. Williams, Lesley Duggins. II. Title.

[DNLM: 1. Sensory Art Therapies--methods. WM 450 A874s 2007] RC489.A72A85 2007 616.89'1656--dc22 2006016482

Book and Cover Design by: Terry Henry

Acknowledgements This work is born of the interdisciplinary community and collaboration that characterize expressive arts therapy at Appalachian State University. Many thanks go to our colleagues in the Appalachian Expressive Arts Collective, particularly to Marianne Adams for her excellent editorial suggestions, and to our departmental colleagues in the Department of Human Development and Psychological Counseling. We are grateful to other expressive arts colleagues across the university in the School of Music and in the departments of Art, Biology, English, Interdisciplinary Studies, Leadership and Educational Studies, Psychology, Technology, and Theatre and Dance.

We are also grateful to colleagues at The European Graduate School and their affiliate institutes around the world and to colleagues at the California Institute of Integral Studies, Lesley University, and the Person Centered Expressive Therapy Institute. These are pioneers in the field, with whom we continue to share exciting and ongoing conversations about working in expressive arts.

This book is a container for a community of practice in expressive arts. The diverse interests and backgrounds of the contributors to this book are reflective of the breadth and depth of expressive arts practice. We are grateful to each one of these expressive arts therapists, counseling professionals, faculty members, and former students.

Special thanks go to the wonderful graduate assistants who have helped in the creation of this book, both directly and indirectly, in many, many ways. Jessica Braun-Ferris, Jessica Chilton, Marisa Cornell, Jessica Espada, Missi Kale, Cami Maher, Siri McDonald, Anna MonlezunThibideaux, Jimmy Van Poplin, Ann Waters, and Jason Whisnant have made important contributions to this work. Particular thanks go to Jessica Chilton, Jessica Braun-Ferris and Cami Maher for their editorial assistance.

Sourcebook in Expressive Arts Therapy

Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................v Preface ........................................................................................................................ix Introduction ......................................................................................................................xiii PART I Chapter 1

Expressive Arts: Background ........................................................................1 Expressive Arts Therapy: The Appalachian Approach Premises of Expressive Arts Therapy

Chapter 2 Expressive Arts in a Therapeutic Context .............................................. 11

The Person of the Therapist

Philosophical Considerations

The Ground of the Therapeutic Relationship

Expressive Arts and Community

Chapter 3 Crafting Therapeutic Experiences in Expressive Arts ............................... 19

Stages of Creative Process

Principles of Practice

Cautions and Considerations PART II Chapter 4

New Growth: Beginning Work in Expressive Arts ................................... 29 Other People’s Art Doreen Maller A Place to Grow April Easter Triangles Marianne Adams My Muscles Are Not Afraid Marianne Adams Coming Out of the Jar Martha Rossi

Chapter 5 Taproot: Deepening the Work .................................................................. 45

Pivotal Moments Marianne Adams

Permanent Collage Doreen Maller

Timeline Martha Rossi

Instant Photo Art LeeAndra Miller

Body Wisdom Jessica Chilton

Ten Second Drawings Self-Portrait Dialogue Dream Gift

Patience Perry Ann Waters Joan Woodworth

Chapter 6 Caring for the Forest: Community Healing Work ................................... 71

Mothers and Daughters Dream Esteem Martha Rossi

Food Mandalas Marianne Suggs

Integrating Opposites Elaine Hathor

How Do I Love Myself Anna Monlezun-Thibodeaux

Grief in Motion Delores Gulledge

Storytelling: Personal &

Community Healing Diana Quealy-Berge

Community Museum Nancy Terry

Mosaic with Colored Paper Sarva Posey

Chapter 7 Water and Light: Expressive Arts and Spirituality.................................... 93

Embodying the Spiritual Self Maria Gonzalez-Blue

Looking Within Through Your Eyes Diana Quealy-Berge

Mirror Self-study Patience Perry

Cherokee River Rock Keith Davis

Loving Kindness Circle with Crystal Bowls Ella Hill Chapter 8

Planting New Seeds: Working with Children and Adolescents.............. 111 Plantwatch Siri McDonald Zulu Beads Elisabeth Bliss-Jaynes Reclaiming Girls’ Voices Martha Rossi Black and White Photo Essay Books Doreen Maller Feeling Ensemble and Symphony Keith Davis

Contributors Notes .......................................................................................................... 127 References

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Preface As young children we are all expressive artists. This was very true for me. As the daughter of a fifth grade teacher who taught all the arts, including drama, music, poetry, visual arts, crafts, folk dancing, and storytelling in the oral tradition, I was surrounded with invitations to participate in art making. I also grew up in the rich culture of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, where traditional crafts, dancing, music, and storytelling are taken to the level of fine art. I began keeping a personal journal and writing poetry at age nine, and this is still my best therapy.

Much of what I have learned about the integrative use of the arts in healing has come from cultures that are more earth based and less bound by linear thinking than ours. I have been privileged to learn from Native teachers in many cultures. I have witnessed the lessons of the sacred clowns and the dancing kachinas of the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico. I have danced with the drummers and dancers of West Africa in Togo and Cote D’Ivoire as well as the drummers and dancers of the Cherokee in the North Carolina mountains. I have participated many times in the q’oa ritual of the indigenous people of Bolivia. In such cultures the arts are integral to healing rituals, as well as to ceremonies marking the natural cycles of life and death and honoring the interconnectedness of all living things.

Before I ever knew that expressive arts therapy existed as an emerging field in psychotherapy, I was an expressive arts therapist. As a therapist for thirty-five years, I have always considered the stories shared in the therapeutic encounter as works of art, created and shaped by the storyteller within the context of the therapeutic relationship. I have found these stories to be inspiring, heart breaking and beautiful, even when they were not pretty. And I consider the opportunity to bear witness to these stories, in whatever form they are expressed, a great privilege.

In my discovery of expressive arts therapy I have found a way of working that is broad enough and deep enough to hold the multiplicity of who we are as human beings. I have found a field that goes beyond our contemporary models of mental health and illness, which, in recent years, are shaped increasingly by economic interests. In these models human beings are often seen as cases to be managed, human struggles as illnesses to be cured or fixed, and individual differences from the norm as deficiency. Expressive arts therapy for me offers a much larger perspective. It is a way of being in the world and a way of looking at human experience that honors the necessity of beauty and sees life itself as an act of artistic making.

Several years ago I had the opportunity to work with a wonderful woman, an artist, wife and mother, who suffered from ongoing bouts of severe depression. She had tried many forms of therapy, medication, and psychiatric treatment. When she came to me, she was open to working in expressive arts, although her own background and training in the visual arts had left her with the “never good enough” syndrome, not uncommon to those with formal training in fine and performing arts.

We worked together for about nine months, using various ideas we developed together in sessions, primarily with visual images, music, and words, and with many different homework projects of her own creative design. At the close of our sessions she gave me a most wonderful gift of the following image and quote:

She said that from her perspective, most therapy is about looking at the ruin and trying to fix it, while expressive arts therapy is about finding the treasure. I know of no better, more succinct expression of the contrast between expressive arts therapy and most deficiency-oriented approaches to mental health.

Sally Atkins Note: Rumi was a 13th century Sufi mystic poet, born in what is now Afghanistan. His work offers an example of how artistic expression can cross the barriers of time and culture.

At first, finding the practice of expressive arts therapy felt to me like finding others who spoke my childhood secret language. My earliest sensory memories are arts-related: I don’t remember the first five houses I lived in, but I do remember the smooth surface and lemon-wax smell of a small wooden hand-sculpture my mom made in art school, the black shiny musculature of the replica of Rodin’s The Thinker on my dad’s bookshelf, the physical delight of bouncing up and down to the infectious drumbeat of Simon and Garfunkel’s Cecilia. My magical fourth-grade teacher, “Miss Connie,” gave the whole class a half hour every afternoon for creative writing – time to write

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about anything that caught our imaginations, a precious gift of introducing us to the process of listening daily for our own creative voice.

As a young adult, I found the ability to access that deeper part of myself through artistic expression to be my key to navigating a confusing and chaotic time. My connection to creative work nurtured and sustained me during the process of putting the pieces back together from several years of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder after experiencing a sexual assault. Different modalities came to the forefront at different times as I “felt” my way back toward wellness – photography, poetry, directing and choreographing a collective movement performance piece; all yielded pieces of my emerging sense of myself in the world.

As a life-long expressive artist but a beginning expressive arts therapist, I had the great challenge and privilege to work toward developing and leading an arts group made up of residents of a year-long program for women who were both pregnant and diagnosed with substance abuse or addiction. Coming from a graduate student environment peopled entirely with colleagues and classmates who had chosen the field of expressive arts therapy, I learned quickly that it was crucial to do the imaginative work necessary to see the activities I was planning through the eyes and experience of someone for whom the arts are not a first language. I also discovered the joy of witnessing young women, many of whom stated in our first sessions, “I’m no artist,” or “I’m not a creative person,” beginning to hear their own creative voices. For one, her voice emerged in writing a simple and elegant acrostic poem, for another in making pastel mandalas with her older visiting children, for others through expressing their collective experience by creating a group collage on a plaster belly-cast and sharing it with the larger community. Another spoke of a dream image so haunting, beautiful, and packed with meaning that it profoundly enriched my understanding of the power and peril of early substance abuse recovery. There are many sources of imagery in our psyches: media/culture, collective or archetypal images, memories, dreams. These create the pool of images that are available as a means of communication – self to self, self to another, self to the world. Sarasvati is the goddess of the arts, music, and learning in the Hindu tradition and also the mytho-historical underground river that bears her name. That underground river is my favorite image and working metaphor for the source-place of creativity – flowing beneath the surface, sometimes bubbling up in unexpected places, always present when we take the time, attention and intention to send our taproots down. Expressive arts therapy encourages us to access this vast resource in a mindful way, connecting the sensory pleasure of the materials, the aesthetic pleasure of the created work and the exploratory pleasure of receiving and responding to the work. As we relearn how to quench our deep societal thirst for art-making in and as community, we relearn to be fully alive and present in an interconnected world.

Lesley Duggins Williams

Sourcebook in Expressive Arts Therapy

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Introduction The arts belong together and they belong to all of us, in the service of life and well-being. This is the message of expressive arts therapy. The primary purpose of this book is to introduce ways of using the expressive arts in counseling and psychotherapy. It offers valuable background and experiential expressive arts activities for students of counseling, psychotherapy, and expressive arts therapy; for counselors and therapists new to expressive arts work; and for expressive artists interested in the arts and healing. These ways of working may also be useful in a number of other learning experiences such as consultation, coaching, organizational development and education.

This book provides resources for seasoned professionals in a variety of professional fields looking for new ideas and inspiration. We offer examples of ideas and structures which can be incorporated into practice in a variety of settings, including mental health and social service agencies, schools, organizations, and in the private practice of counseling and psychotherapy. These structures have been used with diverse populations from children to adults, including those dealing with problem issues such as substance abuse and domestic violence, as well as those seeking personal growth and development through the arts. Here readers will find practical considerations in designing and using artistic experience in promoting personal growth, change, and healing.

In Part One we summarize some of the major concepts and ideas of expressive arts therapy. In Chapter One we offer background information and review the distinguishing features and premises of the work as it has developed at Appalachian State University. In Chapter Two we further elaborate on the practice of expressive arts within a therapeutic context. We discuss the person of the therapist, philosophical considerations of therapeutic work with the arts, the nature of the therapeutic relationship and the role of the arts in community. Finally, in Chapter Three, we discuss crafting therapeutic experiences in expressive arts, including the stages of creative process, principles of practice and special cautions and considerations in using expressive arts experiences in therapeutic contexts.

In Part Two we offer examples of specific expressive arts experiences. These expressive arts structures have been developed and adapted by many individual therapists and educators contributing to our expressive arts community: expressive arts therapists, school counselors, community counselors, public school teachers, professors, eco-therapists, visual artists, dancers, musicians, and storytellers. Each brings his or her own orientation, voice and inspiration to the presentation of these structures.

Although many of the activities can be used or adapted for use with a wide variety of individuals and groups, we focus in Chapter Four on structures that are particularly suited for use with beginning clients or groups and/or those new to working with expressive arts. Included are experiences with image, collage, movement and sound. Goals include introducing a vocabulary of visual image and movement, creating a symbolic container for therapeutic work and working with early inhibitions.

In Chapter Five we present activities that encourage a deepening into the process of art making, connecting art making with the exploration of one’s personal experience and history. In addition, we include two experiences designed to address continuing blocks or inhibitions at this stage in the work. Many of the same modalities from the previous chapter reappear, and others such as painting, drawing, photography and written dialogue are added. In keeping with the creative process stages of moving in and insearching (discussed in Chapter Three), there is a greater emphasis on story, theme, and active imagination and an increased use of intermodal transfer within the structure of these experiences.

We focus in Chapters Six and Seven on two broad thematic areas that often emerge during engaged, ongoing work in expressive arts: those of community and spirituality. The activities collected in Chapter Six emphasize the use of expressive arts experiences in community building and community healing. The structures vary in their attention to a specific issue, theme, modality or population, but all carry a common element of recognizing and affirming the power of art making in and as community. In Chapter Seven we turn to structures that connect art making with an exploration of personal spiritual experience and/or those in which the expressive arts experience presented emerges from or is situated within a particular spiritual orientation or tradition.

Finally, in Chapter Eight we examine some of the unique considerations in the use of expressive arts therapy experiences with children and adolescents. Structures for using journaling, beadmaking, dramatic arts, photography, and ensemble music-making are presented. These activities highlight the advantages and special opportunities of providing invitations to creative process as a vehicle for personal expression in working with young people.

The experiences in this book are examples of each practitioner’s own creative process. Each contributor to some extent follows guidelines and carries underlying philosophies of his or her own, many of which differ, particularly with regard to thematic and therapeutic goals. In essence, what we have assembled here is a community of practitioners, each bringing a different gift, offering his or her own unique way of working with the expressive arts.

Many helping professionals already use the arts in intuitive and creative ways, usually from personal knowledge of the power of artistic experience in healing. The goal of this book is not just to offer ideas and activities, but to encourage the reader to become a creator of expressive arts activities, developing his or her own approach to the work. We offer this collection as a source of inspiration for creating possibilities of innovative ways to use the power of the arts. Guidelines and principles are offered, not in the sense of a “how to” cookbook approach, but as suggestions to help stimulate new ideas and guide the shaping of innovative experiential structures. We hope that what is generated by this calling together of a community of practice inspires and encourages others to continue to experiment and create new ways of spreading this work into the world.

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Expressive Arts: Background

Part I Chapter 1 Expressive Arts Therapy: Background Expressive arts therapy is an interdisciplinary, integrative, arts-based approach to counseling and psychotherapy. Also referred to as expressive therapies, intermodal expressive therapy, and creative arts therapy, expressive arts therapy involves the use of artistic experience in the service of health, healing, and human growth and development. In expressive arts therapy a combination of imagery, symbol, storytelling, ritual, music, dance, drama, poetry, movement, dreamwork or visual arts are used together to give shape and form to human experience, to hold and express emotional and reflective experience, and to expand and deepen personal understanding and meaning.

While expressive arts therapy is a relatively new and emerging field within modern therapeutic practice, it represents a reclaiming of ancient traditions of healing and celebration. In ancient societies (as well as in many contemporary earth based cultures and indigenous societies) the arts were used together, in an integrated way, to celebrate and to mourn the passages of human life and to honor the daily and monthly cycles of nature, the seasons of the year, and the movement of celestial bodies across the sky. Ancient peoples sang and danced and drummed, made paintings in sand, and created objects of beauty for use in daily life. They crafted artifacts of their spiritual beliefs in order to remember and honor their relationship with each other and with the nonhuman world. In such cultures scientific, philosophical and spiritual aspects of human experience were not separated from each other, and all aspects of experience were integral to healing practices.

In the practice of expressive arts therapy, we are remembering this old knowledge and reclaiming our innate capacity for the creative expression of our individual and collective human experience in artistic form. We are experiencing the capacity of art making as a way of knowing who we are as human beings in the world and for the healing of both individuals and communities.

Today we live in a time and in a culture in which the arts have been separated from each other, separated from “crafts,� and often separated from the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. In this cultural context, musicians, dancers, writers and artists of all kinds often are seen as an elite few who have received highly specialized training or those who are successful economically in the sale of their artistic productions. Yet the creative spirit, imagination, and the capacity to express oneself in artistic form are the birthright of all human beings.

Poet and potter, M. C. Richards (1973), who taught at the legendary Black Mountain College in the mountains of North Carolina, emphasized the centrality of the artistic experience for human beings. She urged that when this capacity is sleeping, it should be awakened, and she said that in this awakening of the artistic spirit the person will be strengthened and helped in his or her personal growth. Existential psychotherapist, Rollo May (1975), said that imagination and the

arts are the fundamentals of human experience. Work in expressive arts therapy is about the reawakening and strengthening of the artistic spirit and the human imagination.

The arts therapies, too, have developed separately from each other. Each modality based arts therapy has developed its own rigorous formal clinical training, usually at the graduate level, and a tradition of individual apprenticeship training and credentialing. Fields such as art therapy, music therapy, dance/movement therapy, poetry therapy and psychodrama have existed for some time.

Most have their own professional journals and organizations, such as the American Art Therapy Association, the American Association of Music Therapists, the American Dance Therapy Association, the National Association for Drama Therapy and the National Association of Poetry Therapists. Each has ethical guidelines, standards of practice, and professional registration or certification procedures.

Expressive arts therapy, while rooted in ancient healing practices, is the newcomer to this modern professional scene of arts-based therapies. In this time of separation, expressive arts therapy calls for the re-integration of all the arts into therapeutic practice and into daily life. As a therapeutic practice, the field was begun during the mid 1970s through the interdisciplinary collaboration of Paolo Knill, Shaun McNiff, Norma Canner, Elizabeth McKim and others at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their pioneering efforts to use the arts together in an integrated way in therapy formed the foundation of what would become a new field of therapy. The establishment in the mid 1990s of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association with rigorous professional standards for registration as a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT) has been a major step in defining the field.

The recent creation of the Association for Creativity in Counseling, a new division within the American Counseling Association, brings the creative and expressive arts to the attention of the general body of counselors and other human service professionals. The work of Sam Gladding (2005) also has been significant in bringing the creative arts to the attention of the counseling profession. In writing about the counseling process as an art in itself, Gladding points out that the arts are helpful in counseling because by their very nature they offer new perspectives and possibilities and differing ways of experiencing the world.

Some of the specific arts therapies have operated within the traditional medical model of illness and cure and within psychodynamic models of psychotherapy. By contrast, expressive arts therapy is grounded more in theories of existential phenomenology, depth psychology, humanistic psychotherapy, and systems theories. Expressive arts therapy is a resource based approach to helping.

Expressive arts therapy also looks to the arts themselves for grounding, toward an “aesthetic theory of practice� (Knill, Levine, & Levine, 2005).

A number of theoretical viewpoints are shaping the emerging field. Karen Estrella (2005) summarizes three theoretical perspectives that provide prominent orientations to expressive arts therapy

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work today. These three include those of Paolo Knill and his associates of The European Graduate School in Switzerland and Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Shaun McNiff of Lesley University, and Natalie Rogers of the Person Centered Expressive Therapy Institute in California.

Knill’s intermodal theory emphasizes the inherent interdisciplinarity of the arts. He points out that all of the arts have a sensory basis and a tradition of intermodality. The arts exist within each other. Each arts discipline involves multiple aspects of sensory experience, such as hearing, sight, touch, movement, feeling and sound. Furthermore, imagination is in itself multi-sensory and intermodal. Creating arts-based experiences that are low-skill/high sensitivity and using intermodal transfer from one art form to another, the therapist is able to integrate the properties of the various art forms to serve the goals of the therapeutic work. Using arts experiences to “decenter” from a presenting problem, the client is then able to refocus his or her attention, to recognize internal and external resources, to imagine new possibilities and to bring new learning to bear on the life situation at hand. Knill places strong emphasis on the arts based nature of the work, grounded in aesthetics and philosophical phenomenology. He believes that art should not be subservient to psychological theory. Knill says that art is a human existential, that humans cannot live without it, and that it provides soul nourishment for the human experience (Knill, Levine, & Levine, 2005).

McNiff ’s theory of art as medicine proposes a therapy of the imagination. McNiff emphasizes that all the elements of creative experience are aspects of the human imagination and thus cannot be separated from one another. He urges “trusting the process” of creating and reflecting in art making, and he sees the artistic process both as a way of knowing and as a way of soul healing. He suggests creating artistic experiences in which images can become messengers of healing. Artistic images may reveal their messages though a process of dialogic participation with them. McNiff acknowledges the connection between expressive arts therapy and ancient shamanic healing practices which utilized the arts together in a ritual container for healing (McNiff, 1992, 2005).

Natalie Rogers’s theory of creative connection emphasizes the inherent interconnectedness that exists among all of the arts. Her approach is related to the Person-centered Therapy developed by her father, Carl Rogers. This approach places major emphasis on the therapist creating a supportive environment for healing and personal growth by means of congruence, empathy, and unconditional positive regard for the client. Within this context of a supportive therapeutic relationship, Rogers suggests moving from one art form to another in a journey inward to the self.

Her method is a process oriented approach, with an emphasis on the premise that understanding and meaning making are left to the client (Rogers, 1993).

Sourcebook in Expressive Arts Therapy

Expressive Arts Therapy: The Appalachian Approach The Appalachian approach to expressive arts therapy, from which this book arises, is a more recent addition to the emerging ideas about and practice of expressive arts therapy. Since the 1980's, faculty from counseling, psychology, interdisciplinary studies, art, music, and music therapy at Appalachian State University have been involved in a collaborative process of teaching, writing, and curriculum development in expressive arts therapy. Their work has given rise to a number of articles and professional presentations and to their collectively written text, Expressive Arts Therapy, Creative Process in Art and Life (Atkins, S.; Adams, M.; McKinney, C; McKinney, H., Rose, E.; Wentworth, J. & Woodworth, J., 2003).

From this ongoing interdisciplinary collaboration several distinguishing features of expressive arts therapy at Appalachian have emerged. These include an emphasis on each student and practitioner developing her or his own personal theoretical and practical approach to the work, grounded in relevant psychological and philosophical theory, as well as in personal experience. A further feature of this approach is an emphasis upon the importance of the natural world as the model for creativity, with particular emphasis upon the cyclical nature of the creative process as it occurs in nature and in human life. The significance of dreamwork and imagination in expressive arts is also an emphasis at Appalachian, with particular respect for the resonance between the outer landscape of the world and the inner landscape of the psyche. Finally, the Appalachian program emphasizes the importance of community building in the arts and the potential role of the arts in society. While these emphases are not exclusive to the Appalachian approach, the combination of these features provides a unique perspective on the emerging work of expressive arts.

Developing a Personal Theory A central idea within the Appalachian approach is that each practitioner develops his or her own theoretical foundation for the work, integrating relevant theoretical and philosophical ideas from a broad array of studies. Each is encouraged to become a theory maker as well as a toolmaker. We believe that the complex challenges of the world today require the ability to view problems from multiple perspectives. Thus, each practitioner is encouraged to become a theoretical integrationist and transdisciplinarian, cultivating the capacity to hold more than one disciplinary perspective simultaneously.

Each practitioner is urged to find her or his own way to be in the work. She or he is encouraged to ground her or his work not only in philosophical and psychological theory but also in personal experience with the arts, in personal ideas about art, healing, learning and change, and in his or her own personal philosophy of life. We live in a time when experts and self-help books tell us how to be a good counselor, therapist, parent, lover, cook, and so forth. Their well-intentioned advice can breed an artificial way of being, an acting as if we are the way we think we are supposed to be. At Appalachian we believe it is important that work in the expressive arts comes from the personal life experience, identity and integrity of the person.

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Nature as the Model for Creative Process A second distinguishing feature of the philosophy of the Appalachian approach is that the living world is seen as the model for creative process. The landscape is an important source for our ideas and practice in the work. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Southern Appalachian range, ours is a landscape of ancient mountains and remnants of the earth’s oldest forests. The land where we live gives birth to four rivers, including what is believed to be the oldest river on the North American continent. This is a landscape sacred to the native people—the Cherokee—and to us. In the presence of such a landscape and among the heritage of native peoples, the creative processes of nature are immediately present to us. The cycles of birth, flowering, decline, death, and rebirth are enacted in an infinite variety of life forms. The turning of the seasons, of day and night, and the cycles of the sun and moon are noticed and honored. Our human inspiration and instinct for creating lies in our biological connection with the cycles of nature. We are participatory in a creative and changing universe. We create as we are created, in a matrix of interconnectedness with all of life.

Even in our too busy lives filled with distractions, over-stimulation, over-consumption and uncertainties, nature teaches us important lessons that are mirrored in working with the expressive arts. The beautiful and fragile life of a flower teaches us about impermanence, to be present in the moment. Trees teach us the importance of deep rootedness and branching, and to honor the place where root and stem intersect. Animals teach us about the interweaving of life and death, how life feeds on life, and that death is only one stage of a larger continuum of cyclical change.

Seeds and buds teach us about potential, and the necessities of earth, air, and water. Fire teaches us about transformation. The creative process of the natural world thus becomes our model for understanding of creative process in human beings. Creativity is seen as natural and cyclical, the birthright of all human beings.

Dreams and Imagination A third distinguishing feature of the Appalachian approach is an emphasis on the importance of working with dreams and imagination. In some sense, human problems can be viewed as failures of the imagination, an inability to see inner or outer resources, alternative solutions or new ways of being. Working with dreams can enhance the imaginative capacity to see resources and envision new possibilities.

Working with dreams is closely related to working with imagination, and the practice of each can enhance the other and enrich and deepen work with arts modalities. Both dream work and work with the imagination provide access to information that exists beyond the personality defenses of the conscious mind. Dreams provide access to the inner world of the psyche as well as to the archetypal world of myth and symbol. Like the arts, dreams and imagination provide a bridge between inner and outer worlds. Dreams, imagination and the arts speak a language of their own.

Sourcebook in Expressive Arts Therapy

This language is primarily non-linear, one of image and metaphor, multilayered with meaning and possibilities.

Throughout history and across cultures humans have been intrigued with the mystery of dreams.

There are many different ideas about what dreams are, where they come from, and what, if any, function they may serve in life. There are differing theoretical perspectives on the nature and meaning of dreams and many valuable approaches to working with dreams and imagination.

At Appalachian we encourage approaching dreams in a personal and intuitive way, integrating differing perspectives into the work. We emphasize working with dreams in the same ways that we work with artistic images. We choose to forego analysis and interpretation for a process of honoring and listening to the images, letting their associations and meanings emerge. In our experience, dream work offers valuable information that can enrich, expand, and deepen our human experience.

Expressive Arts in Community

The fourth distinguishing feature of the Appalachian approach is an emphasis on the importance of community. The performing arts naturally lend themselves to community building. Even the more individually focused arts such as painting or writing can be enhanced by the experience of sharing deep engagement in the creative process in the company of others.

In a group setting, expressive arts therapy offers the possibility for the experience of what the anthropologist Victor Turner (1995) calls communitas. In his analysis of the ritual process in human societies, he describes two aspects of the human societal bond. One aspect is that of society as structured, ordered, and hierarchical. The other is that of a community of equals, sharing a common human bond. This is what he calls communitas, a place in which individuals meet one another in the manner of Martin Buber’s (1970) I-Thou relationship, a relationship of mutual respect and presence in which each person is enlarged and enhanced. This experience of communitas is often associated with spiritual experiences, rituals, and ceremonies. In our times, and in the absence of the kinds of rituals that hold indigenous, earth based cultures together, the need for communitas is apparent. The expressive arts offer rich possibilities for the experience of communitas.

An emphasis on community does not imply that art making always occurs in groups. Many writers and artists of all kinds must work alone. Yet in expressive arts there is, at some point, a coming together, to name, to share and to witness. And in that coming together, there is a sharing of the differing gifts that make for a whole that is much larger than its separate parts. Our visual artists show us how to see with more awareness and discernment. Our musicians teach us how to experience the natural vibration of everything that is alive and how to express in song the experience of being alive. Our dancers show us how to live with awareness in our bodies, awakening our sensory experience of the world. Our poets teach us how words shape our thinking and

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conjure meaning. Our sacred clowns teach us how to hold the sacred in a container of play. No one is an expert at all forms. Everyone is a beginner at something. Thus, within community, the potential for learning is rich.

Premises of Expressive Arts Therapy: The Appalachian Approach The Appalachian approach to expressive arts therapy is further grounded in the following premises, developed by the Appalachian Expressive Arts Collective (2003).

Expressive arts therapy, as we practice it, is a collaborative process. It is a collaboration between therapist and client, scientist and artist, teacher and student. It acknowledges that all participants bring an equal voice to the conversation and make a valued contribution to the work.

Expressive arts therapy is holistic. Its goals are optimum health and well-being, rather than the diagnosis and treatment of disease and dysfunction. Even when expressive arts are used within the settings of traditional medical and psychological treatment, they are used in the service of learning, healing and growth.

Art making and creative expression are healing, growth producing processes in and of themselves, not adjunctive to traditional therapy. While reflection on process and product may be part of the work, the emphasis remains on the capacity for therapeutic transformation inherent in giving form to creative expression.

The capacity for creative expression is a fundamental aspect of health. Thus healing and personal growth are possible through involvement in the creative process.

In expressive arts therapy, body knowledge, intuitive wisdom, subjective experience and emotions are expressed and honored as valid ways of knowing, in and of themselves. Rational analysis is not required to validate these ways of knowing.

Expressive arts therapy is depth-oriented. Work in the arts provides access to emotions, experiences and insights often not reached through traditional psychological practice. Such work provides powerful access to unconscious material.

Expressive arts therapy often involves the layering of modalities. Like all interdisciplinary work, it enlarges the capacity of both the client and the therapist to hold different perspectives, to speak many “languages� simultaneously.

The integrity of an expressive arts therapist is reflected in ongoing personal use of creative expression for personal healing and growth. While the therapist may have expertise in one artistic modality, she seeks personal experiences in other modalities as well.

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Expressive arts therapy, because of its emphasis on community and ritual, suggests the reclaiming of an ancient vision of art and therapy in society, one that integrates art and healing in the context of community. This vision suggests that art and therapy and life are not separate, and that all are practiced in community, for the healing of both the individual and the community as a whole.

In its broadest and deepest sense, expressive arts therapy is a spiritual practice. It offers the possibility for meditative practice and for entry into what may be described as an experience of universal consciousness.

(Appalachian Expressive Arts Collective, 2003)

Expressive Arts in a Therapeutic Context

Chapter 2 Expressive Arts in a Therapeutic Context Therapy, says M.C. Richards (1973), is the art of holding one another. The quality of caring is healing in its deepest sense. The practice of therapy is the practice of caring for and supporting each other in our growth as persons. Expressive arts therapy offers a powerful process of discovery and learning in our personal growth as human beings. This learning process occurs within two healing dynamics. The first dynamic is that of the therapeutic relationship. The second dynamic is that of the art making itself. In addressing the therapeutic relationship, we first consider aspects related to the person of the therapist, including the importance of a daily practice. Next we address philosophical questions to be explored within the context of therapeutic practice in the arts. We further explore the nature of the therapeutic relationship as a container for personal growth. Finally, we consider the place of expressive arts in creating community. In Chapter Three we consider concepts related to the second dynamic, that of the art making process. We offer a number of ideas to be considered in crafting therapeutic experiences in expressive arts.

The Person of the Therapist Competent practice of expressive arts therapy involves knowledge of personality organization, human development, and group process dynamics; skills in facilitating growth and learning; and personal experience with a variety of arts modalities. In any therapeutic encounter, it is not just the knowledge, skills and techniques of the therapist that are important. The therapist’s genuineness, integrity and capacity for respect are essential elements in every therapeutic process. The authentic presence of the therapist is the most important gift offered to the client. To cultivate a therapeutic presence the therapist must be engaged in an ongoing process of personal growth, continually learning about self and others. The goal of developing integrity and genuine presence motivates the expressive arts therapist to pursue a daily practice. Knowing how to structure, hold, and witness arts experiences for others comes from our own self-exploration, a way of knowing from the inside out.

The heart of therapy is the therapist’s capacity to stay present and open in the constantly changing moment of encounter. Therapeutic work, especially work with the arts or with dreams, requires that the therapist develop a “daily practice” that affords a regular discipline of cultivating awareness, centering and grounding. The daily practice affords an essential opportunity for reflection and time to be open to the thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations that may arise. It is a practice of receptivity, awareness and soul nourishment. It is not always daily, but certainly it happens more days than not.

The daily practice may take many forms. It may range from keeping a personal journal to a body awareness practice, to daily music making, to various forms of artistic practice. The simple daily ritual of a cup of tea, brewed and drunk with gratitude and mindfulness, could be a daily practice.

Meditation, yoga, drumming, writing, reading poetry, and painting may become daily practices.

Whatever form it takes, the daily practice involves cultivating an attitude of receptivity to allow whatever wants to come to consciousness to come. It affords an opportunity for self therapy as well as a time for recharging personal energy. For many expressive arts therapists it carries a meditative or spiritual quality.

Being a therapist is challenging work and also a great privilege. The therapist is trusted to bear witness to pain, struggles, and growth, to the stories of fellow human beings told in words, in the body and in all forms of art making. One should not undertake this work without personal experience as a client so that she or he knows in a deeply personal way the challenges a client faces in revealing vulnerability to the therapist as well as the courage it takes to do so.

All therapists should also have ongoing supervision. Supervision, the “over looking” of the therapeutic process, helps the therapist to be clear and mindful of her or his own personal dynamics that may enter into the encounter. We must continually be involved in our own personal development as artists, therapists, and human beings.

Philosophical Considerations of Expressive Arts Therapy The defining feature of expressive arts therapy is not the use of arts materials, but how the therapist thinks about therapeutic work, about clients, about self and about life. Expressive arts therapy is a way of being in the world that honors and responds to the beauty of life and views the creating and telling of the human story as an act of artistic making.

Becoming a change agent of any kind – therapist, teacher, organizational leader – involves a personal examination of important questions such as the following:

What is the nature of human experience?

What causes human problems in living and human pain and suffering?

How does change happen?

How does the change agent participate in facilitating positive change?

What is the relationship of mind, body, and spirit?

What is mental health and wellness?

For those of us who work with the arts, we must also add the following:

What do the arts have to offer?

What are the advantages and limitations in using the arts in therapy?

What are the roles of imagination and beauty in the human experience?

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We seek answers to such questions from many external sources such as theoretical ideas from the human sciences, philosophical writings, and teachings from the great spiritual traditions. These are big questions. They involve not only an external seeking, but also inner reflection, looking within to one’s own deepest inner wisdom and understanding to find a resonance between external ideas and inner knowing. In approaching such questions it is perhaps appropriate to take the advice Rilke (1954) offered in his Letters to a Young Poet to try “to live the questions.” We cannot in good conscience undertake becoming a helping professional without an honest and ongoing living of such questions.

Each practitioner, counselor, or therapist operates from a personal “theory of practice” growing out of her or his seeking answers to some of the questions above. We all have ideas about why people have problems in living, what helps, and how change occurs. Many useful perspectives come from theories of psychotherapy, theories of aesthetics and art making, philosophical thinking, and spiritual teachings. Our theories of practice also arise from our lived experience in the world, from personally confronting the challenges of daily life.

In all therapeutic practice, whatever theories or methodologies are employed, both client and counselor confront the existential questions of life, such as:

What is the meaning and purpose of my life?

How am I to live. . .

in relationship with other human beings?

in relationship with the non-human world?

in relationship with whatever forces I believe are larger than myself?

The therapist’s role is not to attempt to provide answers to such questions, but to help the clients to expand and deepen the questions they are asking about their lives.

The Ground of the Relationship The interpersonal relationship between therapist and client is the ground of any therapeutic encounter. This is the I-Thou relationship of Martin Buber (1970). The relationships among members and leaders of a group provide the container within which personal work can be done in that context. Carl Rogers (1951) and many others have written extensively about the importance of creating a facilitative relationship in therapy. Rogers felt that the therapist’s ability to facilitate the relationship with the client through empathy, respect, and unconditional positive regard was the most important factor in therapeutic success. The ability to create and maintain such relationships takes intention, personal qualities, skills and practice.

What is done in therapy, that is, the specific techniques and methods used, is less important than the attitude that stands behind the work. Herbert Eberhart (2002) speaks of approaching the client with appreciative curiosity, while at the same time, holding an attitude of irreverence towards

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his or her suppositions and beliefs. A good therapist approaches the client with an attitude of compassion and with a methodology of deep listening. We aspire to stay present and open to what emerges, to experience our human connection, listening deeply to what is spoken and unspoken.

We offer careful attention to the language of the body, both the client’s and our own. As we experience our shared humanity and vulnerability, intimacy and trust develop, and together we make a space where truth telling, healing, and growth can occur, a place where the client’s own inner wisdom can be tapped.

In expressive arts therapy the therapeutic relationship includes the client, the therapist and the work of art as well. Both process and product in art making are important. The artistic product in expressive arts therapy is present as a resource, yielding new insights and awareness, a third presence in the therapeutic relationship.

Expressive Arts and Community The word “community” carries multiple meanings. It has been used to describe groups as varied as those based on religious or political ideologies, those formed around charismatic leaders, those characterized by physical proximity, and even those formed on a temporary basis in classes and workshops. Today we also speak of the global community of the world. The word community also carries a connotation of a certain way of being together, one that is prized, often romanticized, and often held as an ideal in society.

In Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore (1998) argues that one of the strongest needs of the soul is to be in community. He feels that a genuine sense of community is lacking in our society today.

What the soul needs, Moore says, is not a collection of uniformity, but to be in connection with multiplicity and difference. In expressive arts work the richness of individual difference and diversity is immediately present and prized as a resource for the work.

The philosopher, Parker Palmer (1998) says that community is a capacity for relatedness that exists in human beings, relatedness not only to people, but to historical events, to the world of ideas, to nature, and to things of the soul. This capacity is rooted, not in therapeutic, civic or market models of community, but in the very relational nature of reality. This idea is closely related to our idea that we are living beings imbedded in the creative process ongoing in the universe.

The arts can enhance our experience of this capacity for relatedness. The arts can serve as a communication bridge across differences of disciplines, personalities, and cultures. They can serve community building by helping people to discover shared values and purpose and feelings of belonging beneath individual differences of ideas and beliefs. Suzy Gablik (1991) speaks of this ability of the arts to foster mutual appreciation beyond ideology as effective because that appreciation is grounded in the embodied experience that is art making.

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The expressive arts are particularly well suited for work in community building. Each person brings a differing gift, experience, and voice to the work, and each brings unique fears and vulnerabilities. The arts offer a process and a language that bridge differences of personality, history and culture.

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Crafting Therapeutic Experiences in Expressive Arts

Chapter 3 Crafting Therapeutic Experiences in Expressive Arts

There are many ways to tap the power of the arts to enhance personal learning and healing. Art making gives form to the experiences of life. This provides an opportunity for self-expression and connection with others, for shaping and refining the art, for distancing and witnessing by oneself and others, and for responding to art that touches and moves us. Art is a bridge between inner and outer worlds.

Crafting art making experiences for therapeutic goals is in itself an art, one that requires practice, experience, sensitivity, and ongoing personal learning. There are a number of important concepts to keep in mind. It is important to remember the cyclical nature of the creative process, to work with the stages of beginning, moving into deeper experience, bringing forth the art work for witnessing and responding, and closure.

Crafting therapeutic expressive arts experiences calls for the consideration of a number of principles of practice, shaping both the preparation and the carrying out of expressive arts experiences.

These include setting the purpose and intention for the experience, preparing materials and physical space, crafting of time and psychological space, planning low skill/high sensitivity activities, intermodal layering of artistic modalities, giving attention to both process and product, cultivating awareness of symbol and metaphor, and responding to art. Working with the arts also calls for some special cautions and considerations.

Cycles of Creative Process The creative process, as it occurs in nature, is a cyclical process. There are periods of great visible generativity, like spring, and periods of slow growth or decline. There are also wintering times when the creative process is dormant or activity is present but not visible. In artistic expression, too, the process is a cyclical one. Many writers have elaborated the “stages� of creativity and innovation. One useful structure for considering the cyclical nature of artistic creating comes from the work of the Appalachian Expressive Arts Collective (2003). In Expressive Arts Therapy: Creative Process in Art and Life, the authors propose a five-stage model of creative process. These stages include beginning, moving in, insearch, finding voice and taking art into the world.

Beginning grows from the daily practice. It is the preparation necessary to be present and open in the planning and in the experience of expressive arts. Beginning includes the practical aspects of setting goals, preparing materials, structuring space and time and understanding fundamental concepts and ways of working. It includes envisioning the artistic experience, the space, the activities and the people involved. Beginning also involves opening the session, creating a container of trust and getting the work underway.

Moving in involves deepening of trust among all participants and trust in the creative process itself. This is often a time of confronting fear and hesitations. The inner critic often arises with thoughts of not knowing how to proceed or not being good enough, or fear of the judgment of self or others. Anxiety about the artistic product can interfere with letting go and trusting the process of art making. Here the therapist’s skills of facilitating ongoing process, of holding the container of trust, of modeling authentic presence and genuine curiosity and of deep listening with care and respect are essential.

Insearch is a time of deep inner work. This is the time when participants often enter a time of “getting lost” in the process of artistic shaping. It is a state of relaxation and at the same time a state of focused concentration. There is the sense that time expands or stands still. This is a slightly altered state of consciousness that facilitates deep learning and growth. Often in this stage there is also an experience of surprise. Something unexpected emerges on the paper or in the movement or music that may inform, delight, intrigue or disturb.

Finding voice is a stage of bringing forth. Both literally and metaphorically we seek to create a form – a story, a song, a movement, an artistic creation to hold and express our personal experience, emotional expression and deepest learning. This is the time of shaping of the poem into “just right” words, the shaping of the movement or song into what feels congruent with personal experience. It is a time of courage and honesty, owning the truth of one’s own experience and taking responsibility for that truth.

Taking art into the world involves action. It may mean displaying a piece of visual art, publishing a poem, leading a group, performing in a group, or simply having one’s artistic creation witnessed by another person. Whatever the form, taking art into life involves a belief that art making has a role to play in society. Taking art into the world involves witnessing and responding, being seen and heard by others. In the container of expressive arts therapy, those who witness artistic products also have the responsibility to respond to the art and the person with the same sensitivity, respect and courage demonstrated by the artist.

These stages of creative process emphasize art as a bridge between inner and outer experience and art making as both a personal imperative and a social responsibility. We have found it useful to consider these stages in crafting expressive arts experiences of all types, whether it is within a single session, a series of ongoing therapeutic sessions, a three hour group experience, a week long training institute or a semester long class.

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Principles of Practice There are many factors to be considered in the preparation for experiences in expressive arts therapy. Some of these include setting intention, preparing materials, and the crafting of time and space. Underlying and supporting the practical aspects of planning and preparing activities is the ongoing preparation of the artist/therapist by means of her or his daily practice, as we have discussed in a previous section. Because the therapeutic relationship is the container for artistic work in expressive arts, the person of the therapist, her or his capacity to be fully present, holding an atmosphere of respect and care for the participants and their work, is crucial. What we do is less important than the attitude and care with which we do it.

Further, the carrying out of expressive arts experiences is guided by important principles that both inform and shape the practice. Understanding and employing the concepts of low skill/high sensitivity work and intermodal layering of modalities are integral to the work. Consideration of both the creative process and the artistic product of that process are important. Recognizing the power of image and metaphor is fundamental to artistic work. Finally, witnessing and responding with care and respect to expressive arts work is an important responsibility of the therapist and other witnesses.

Purpose and Intention The first question to be considered in preparation of expressive arts experiences has to do with purpose. What do we intend? What do we hope will happen as a result of participation in the expressive arts therapy session? Intentions may include such things as increased self-awareness, self understanding and expression; increased physical, mental and emotional flexibility; exercise of imagination; exploration of relationships; improved social skills and group building. Although goal setting is usually considered ahead of time, it is also often finalized in conjunction with the clients themselves.

The purpose of the session is one of many important differences that separate expressive arts therapy from arts and crafts class. For example, one might study the craft of bookmaking in order to make artistically well-crafted and pleasing products. In expressive arts therapy, bookmaking might be used to explore ways of making a container special in order to hold personal art and writing or to explore inner and outer aspects of the self. In a dance class one could use haiku poems to generate movement phrases in order ultimately to craft a dance. In expressive arts therapy, such an exercise might be used to enhance body awareness and acceptance, to explore the experience of moving and witnessing movement, or to explore the interplay between words and movement, and the effects of intermodal layering of experience. In arts or crafts class the goal is often to create the best possible product. In expressive arts therapy the goal is to create the most honest product, the artistic creation that would offer both creator and observers the opportunity of learning about self, other and the creative process itself.

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Preparation of Materials and Physical Space Preparation of materials and the creation of the physical studio space are important aspects of artistic work. Having a variety of materials and possibilities for creative expression is helpful.

The materials themselves have lessons to teach us. What can be shaped one way in a verbal story emerges differently in music or movement, still differently in painting or in dramatic enactment.

Ideally the expressive arts studio should be quiet and beautiful. Ideally the expressive arts therapy studio should have a variety of visual art supplies, props for drama, drums and other percussion instruments, and open space for movement. This, of course, is not always possible. In a hospital setting, for instance, our studio becomes a rolling cart filled with art supplies and a CD player.

At the homeless shelter our studio is the kitchen table. Both the space and the materials should be treated with care and respect. Setting up the space and cleaning up are part of the process of the work.

Crafting of Time and Space Crafting of time and space are important challenges in expressive arts work. Inviting participants to explore personal issues in the arts involves an opening to and awareness of both sensory experience and what arrives in the psyche. Opening such a space is often done with a simple ritual, such as breathing together, lighting a candle, or a brief verbal or movement go around. This marks the beginning of a time and space that is special, set apart from the routine tasks and concerns of day to day life.

Expressive arts therapy requires the creation of a space that offers safety and support, both physically and psychologically. Physically the space must be made as comfortable as possible for participants. Creating psychological safety and support requires setting basic ground rules of confidentiality and creating a way of being among facilitators and participants that supports and encourages personal sharing and welcomes emotional experience.

It is the therapist’s responsibility to keep the time and to hold the psychological space. It is important for the therapist to plan and keep the time with great sensitivity to individual and group needs as well as to the changing needs in the moment. The therapist must also take responsibility for timing of the experience so that there is time for each participant to engage deeply in the creative process, to share her or his personal work, and to be witnessed by others. The therapist must also allow time for each stage of the creative process to occur, with particular attention to allowing time for moving into and coming out of deep work and for closure of experiences. Closure is very important, especially when the experience has included work in a somewhat altered state of consciousness as is typical for much work in the arts. Participants must be prepared to shift out of that relaxed and focused state to re-enter ordinary life. Questions, reflection, summarizing of experiences, and making application to outside experience are useful here. Setting aside time for cleaning up the studio can also provide a helpful closure experience.

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Low Skill/High Sensitivity Experiences An important concept in expressive arts therapy is the principle of low skill/high sensitivity work.

Paolo Knill (2005) gives a thorough overview of this concept, noting that art that touches and moves us is not always the product of excellent skill. Often what is most outstanding is a keen sensitivity to the material, time, and space of the art modality. He offers the example of a Zen garden with lines and shapes raked in sand around stones. Other examples are art brut, folk art, and some native drumming and dancing patterns.

Each practitioner in this book has created art making experiences in a way that invites anyone, beginner or trained artist, to enter a field of play with the materials. The activities do not require a high level of technical skill and ability, but at the same time, they offer the freedom of expression that allows for individual experience and reflection to emerge.

In our experience most people who are drawn into the arena of expressive arts therapy have some personal knowledge and experience of the power of the arts to help with life struggles. Many of us also come with some sense of woundedness related to artistic experience. Perhaps we were told by some person in authority that we sing off-key or have no rhythm or that a drawing was not good enough. In the context of a society that judges art by its economic or professional value, it is easy for one’s own inner critic to develop harsh judgments that cause the creative spirit to shut down.

In expressive arts therapy it is an advantage that no one is equally comfortable or accomplished at everything. Thus everyone can benefit from the experience of being a beginner or being awkward and uncomfortable at something, while understanding and respecting the courage that is required to continue.

This is not to say that there is no place for mastery of technique in expressive arts. While mastery of technique is not the primary purpose of the expressive arts, developing skill in poem crafting, music making, dance, or painting certainly can serve artistic expression. Greater exploration and mastery of any modality can greatly enrich the therapist’s understanding of the creative process, give the therapist more ease and confidence in using the modality, and enlarge the therapist’s capacity to help others to express and shape experience in artistic form. Most forms of artistic expression require years of training and experience in order to achieve technical competence.

There are also many modalities and materials which can be valuable containers for expression and shaping, even without technical expertise. Working with clay for example is, for most people, a very grounding and satisfying experience. It is not necessary to know how to throw a pot on a potter’s wheel in order to experience the power of clay as an artistic material.

Intermodal Layering of Modalities.

In intermodal work some or all of the arts are intentionally layered upon each other to expand and deepen the work and to further elaborate the themes in order to offer more opportunities for

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surprise to come in. Actually, all work in the arts is to some extent intermodal. Movement often involves music. Listening and making music often involve image or words. Dramatic enactment involves many modalities, such as movement, sound, poetic dialogue, storytelling, and image.

Furthermore, all the arts are multi-sensory in nature. All involve the senses—touch, sound, vision, even smell and taste.

Knowing when and how to shift from one arts modality to another is the equivalent of responding and questioning in talk therapy. It serves to keep the therapeutic process going. For example, creating a large painting beginning with body movement may open the possibility for a fuller expression of emotion. Responding to that painting within a tightly held frame of words, such as a haiku or cinquain poetic form may serve to synthesize and clarify personal understanding and meaning. Choosing artistic modalities for a group or individuals requires sensitivity to what is needed on the part of clients to keep the therapeutic process going.

Furthering the therapeutic experience may involve fuller expression, holding of experience, social interaction, witnessing artistic process and product, distancing from the art work, group building, inner exploration, relaxation, or grounding of experience. Choosing modalities and the timing of intermodal exchange require personal experience, familiarity, and comfort with various arts materials, and with the transitioning from one art form to another.

Process and Product In our work in expressive arts therapy, both process and product are important. “Getting lost” in the art making, losing a sense of time and space, can be a powerfully healing experience in and of itself. This enjoyable experience of the combination of relaxation with intense focus is what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1995) calls “flow” and Diane Ackerman (1999) calls “deep play.”

Shaping the artistic work within the therapeutic container can further encourage the process of exploration to expand and deepen, opening to new questions and awareness.

The products of artistic creation can also yield rich treasures of awareness, especially if they are treated with respect and care and not subjected to preconceived ideas of quality, analysis, or interpretation. Dialoging with an image or work, letting the image “speak,” is a practice originated by Carl Jung (1964) in working with dreams. It has been further elaborated by Shaun McNiff (2005) in working with visual images. Often such dialogue will bring an unexpected surprise, a gift of understanding. Expressive arts therapy is more than expression. It is a journey of learning and discovery in an interplay of intention and surprise.

Image, Symbol, Metaphor Metaphor is anything that can represent something else. Symbols and images are smaller units of metaphor. Visual images, words, and objects are all potential metaphors. Metaphor always

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communicates more than a single meaning. Like the symbols in dreams, metaphors usually are multileveled and multilayered with meaning. For example, the image of a tree might represent a literal particular tree of personal significance as well as a symbol of personal growth of the psyche, or a universal spiritual symbol. This multiplicity of dimensions is what adds richness of meaning to experience and communication, especially in the arts. Often a surprise will emerge in metaphoric form.

All of the expressive arts, as well as dreams and ritual, are rich with metaphor. For example, making individual quilt squares, then assembling them into a quilt is a powerful metaphor for creative work being both individual and at the same time, part of a larger whole. Such an exercise can be used to foster individual creativity while, at the same time, building a sense of group identity.

For a Southern Appalachian person it may also celebrate a family heritage of quilt making and conjure memories of childhood.

Responding to Art The experience of having one’s story (dance, music, writing, drama, dream) witnessed by others within a therapeutic container can be powerfully healing. In whatever way a response is offered to the client, the therapist and other witnesses carry an aesthetic responsibility to respond with care, respect and authenticity, as Paolo Knill (2005) has emphasized. Responding can be spontaneous or structured and can take verbal or nonverbal forms.

In expressive arts responding can take an artistic form, using sound, movement, poetry, drama, or visual art. Often responding is an aesthetic sharing of personal experience of how the witness is touched or moved by the art. A descriptive response by the witness, with a literal description of what is observed through the senses, is often helpful to the artist to clarify what is expressed.

Sometimes fully present silent witnessing is the most powerful form of response.

In expressive arts witnessing, judgment and critical analysis are avoided. The expressive arts response should allow the client to feel heard and seen without judgment. The witness owns the response as his or her own personal experience rather than an interpretation of the client’s experience.

Special Cautions and Considerations in Expressive Arts Therapy

Working with expressive arts often involves a shift from a state of ordinary, everyday waking consciousness to a more meditative state, both relaxed and focused. It is characterized by absorption with the process of creating and a more inward focus than ordinary daily life. This slightly altered state of consciousness seems to facilitate the possibility for deeper awareness, personal learning, and change to occur. Because working with the expressive arts can bypass the normal defense mechanisms of the conscious mind, the work can move to deeper places in the psyche more

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quickly than traditional talk therapies. Thus it is very important that these methods be used with great care and sensitivity. Attention must be given to the personality organization, developmental stage, and interpersonal dynamics of the clients. For some clients, for example, those with a tenuous connection to ordinary “reality,� deep work in the arts may be contraindicated.

In working with groups, the facilitator should have knowledge of and experience with group dynamics and processes as well as knowledge and experience working with arts modalities. The facilitator must hold a container of care and safety and must move into experiences slowly, maintaining awareness of both group and individual process. Because of the challenge of maintaining this dual awareness, it is very helpful to have co-facilitators when working with groups.

The crafting of expressive arts experiences for therapeutic purposes requires courage to be creative and innovative. It requires sensitivity to the materials and to the individual participants. Personal experience in working with art is important in learning to tend the process of art making for others.

New Growth: Beginning Work in Expressive Arts

Part II Chapter 4 New Growth: Beginning Work in Expressive Arts Beginning expressive arts therapy groups or new client/expressive arts therapist relationships share many characteristics with other beginning therapy relationships – the need to establish rapport, build trust, negotiate communication styles, and define goals or intentions for the work. For the expressive arts therapist, this early foundation-building also requires a mindfulness of some factors more unique to the expressive arts work. Depending on the background and comfort level of the client or group member, this seed-planting may include an introduction to the use of image as a means of communicating ideas or emotions, the ritual creation of a symbolic container for the therapeutic work, and an invitation to explore – and perhaps exceed – the social and cultural inhibitions to movement, sound, creativity and play.

The activities in this section all offer gentle imaginative introductions to therapeutic work with visual arts, sound and/or movement. Other People’s Art provides a way to deftly bypass the issue of art making intimidation while building the idea of communication through image – the ability of a work of art to express the subtlety and complexity of an emotion or experience with an immediacy that is often impossible with words alone. In A Place to Grow, the simple project of creating a collage on the “canvas” of a flower pot produces a concrete symbol of the therapeutic container, filled with soil as the ground for new growth.

Triangles and My Muscles Are Not Afraid address some of the special challenges of beginning movement work. Triangles offers a simple non-threatening movement warm-up, while My Muscles Are Not Afraid gives participants the opportunity to use feelings of discomfort and stuck-ness as “grist for the mill,” actually providing an entry into expressive movement. Coming Out of the Jar continues to work with barriers to movement, focusing on the effects of cultural inhibitions and encouraging participants to open up to creative play.

Other People’s Art: Using Picture Postcards in a Therapeutic Milieu Doreen Maller inspired by the teaching of Fran Goldberg, MA, MFCC Purpose and Goals of Activity: Perhaps the greatest challenge in therapy is understanding the meaning of the client’s words.

Words, after all, are only letters strung together, forming sentences. But do they paint a picture?

Do you really understand? The introduction of visual art into therapy offers another window into the soul and an opportunity to achieve greater depth and understanding. Suddenly it is not just a tree; it is that specific tree, gnarled and worn, or green and bearing fruit. However, not every client will be ready to pick up the pencil and draw. In Group Therapy class at the California Institute of Integral Studies, Professor Fran Goldberg introduced an activity that eliminates the anxiety of making art, and yet still offers clients a visual vocabulary with which to share their stories. I have used this technique repeatedly with adults, resistant teens and children. I have found my clients enthusiastic to participate, and I have come to appreciate the power that the cards hold in supporting and strengthening the sharing of information.

Materials Needed: An assembled collection of about fifty picture postcards.

Just like a sand tray collection, these cards are used to articulate the inner psyche of the participant, so care should be taken to cover some archetypal imagery in your collection. I have many representations of couples, families, nature, abstracts, black and white images, cards that might signal depression and loss, joy and laughter. Also included are religious icons and cultural scenes.

Perhaps the beauty of the collection is that, just like sand tray items, it carries stories for the therapist. I know which card came from which friend, on which occasion, which ones I collected with specific intention, which ones are popular with clients, which are passed over, which ones surprised me when clients saw in them something I had never noticed.

Time and Space Requirements: I carry my cards in a black shoe box. I have seen others’ in beautiful baskets. You need enough space to lay them out and spread them around. This can be as small a space as a chair and as large as the center of a group circle. This activity can take no time at all (“Perhaps you can pick a card to show me how you are feeling.”) or a much longer time frame (“Today we will be using these images to share the story of our life’s journey.”).

Appropriate Clientele: I have used this activity with all age groups, although I think it works best with pre-teens and older.

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Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Leader lays out collection face up in a roughly a circular shape.

Leader invites client or group to select images that best represent their story. There are as many ways to uses these cards as there are lines of inquiry. Cards can be used to tell stories, share feelings, and compare and contrast experiences (how you feel/ how others feel). The following are some examples I have used.

Invitation can begin with Please select a card that best represents‌ Warm Up/Introduction:

Who you are

Your expectations from this group

How you feel about this group (or being in this group)

Your hopes and dreams Information Gathering:

Past/present/future

Life in your family of origin

Your life’s journey Feelings:

How you feel right at this moment

How you felt then

How you would like to feel in the future Empathy:

How they (others) might have felt

How they (others) feel now Predisposition:

Pick a card and tell its story.

Pick a card and tell how the people/things/animals in this card feel.

Leader invites clients or group to process the experience, perhaps by asking how it felt to use the images in addition to words. How did it feel to share your story? How did it feel to hear the story of others? How do you feel now?

Processing Suggestions:

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The use of imagery can be quite provocative. The therapist must leave time and space around the activity to process the sharing that the cards evoke, even to the point of returning back to the experience in subsequent sessions to check in, and see if there is anything that might need to be explored further, even weeks after the experience occurred.

Personal Commentary: As a new practitioner I have come to love using the cards in sessions with my clients and groups.

I have found even the most reluctant talker will be drawn to an image that can help me better understand the personal story and therefore better enable me to join in the work. Perhaps my favorite activity is past/present/future. It is so easy in an intake to gather information, but somehow miss the story. We used this exercise in a group for parents of teens, and we were amazed at the depth of the life journey for so many of our parents. Some were immigrants and we were able to see in their cards the stories of hardship and sacrifice, of their journey and choices, their relationships in their new country, the ties to their old.

I have seen teenagers, unwilling to articulate their powerlessness, select cards of dragon slayers or baby birds. In one exercise with middle school boys I used abstract imagery to discuss feelings, and I found that the use of abstraction gave them a safe place to articulate their ideas and emotions without feeling judged by their friends. These cards can be a great warm-up or ice breaker, and I have used them many times in this way to begin classes and meetings.

Co-Therapist Quote: “Using postcards in our ‘Parents of Teens’ psycho-educational group was a non-threatening way to help group members access some of their deeper feelings. When each person chose several cards, these choices initially provided a framework for the person to tell his or her story. The choices also gave the therapists insight into hidden areas of their group members, and we were then able to gently ask important questions from the clues we had been given. As therapists, we had greater empathy for our clients because they had revealed more than would have come from group process.”

Pam Levy, MA, MFTI

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A Place to Grow April Easter Purpose and Goals of Activity: Clients should begin this activity early in their treatment, at the first session if appropriate.

Through their art-making, clients create a visual representation of their problems and progress.

The visual metaphor of the container aids clients in creating a positive inner space, while the ongoing, cumulative nature of the project provides space for expression of personal growth.

Finally, the artwork created may provide a continued reminder of the process or resolution after the completion of treatment.

Materials needed: • Containers made from terracotta, glass, clay, or stone • Decoupage glue • Brushes or sponges for application • Paper images (magazines, newspapers, printed photos, etc.)

• Paint • Planting dirt • Seeds Other materials can be used, such as fabric, stones, feathers or shells, but hot glue will be necessary to keep these attached.

Time Requirements: The first time this is introduced, allow 5-10 minutes to explain and then 30-40 minutes to work on the initial collage. The client should come to a stopping place before the end of the session in order to allow time to process the emotions raised while completing the piece and evaluating the problem. I like to continue this activity as a type of long term visual “journal.” Between sessions, the clients can make changes and additions to the piece to reflect the continued evolution of their presenting problem. The last session, or the session of resolution for this problem, should be devoted to processing the completed work and planting the seeds, allowing about 20-30 minutes for an individual and about 10-15 minutes for each member of a group.

Appropriate Clientele: This activity is appropriate for any client who is able to be safe with the tools provided. I have used this activity successfully with clients who abuse substances and with survivors of several types of abuse. This can also be used with family and couples work with some adaptation.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Invite the client to paint and/or collage this flower pot “to represent yourself at this point in your life/treatment.” Allowing generous time for the art making process will enable the problems clients bring to treatment to emerge in the work.

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Process the result with the client. What do you like about your container? Dislike? Do the colors you used appear in your daily life? How do you feel looking at what you just made?

Ask the client to place the container in his or her daily living space, somewhere it will be necessary to see it every day for a period of time. The client should journal on this at least once.

After an appropriate period of time (based on the length of treatment), ask the client to return to this piece by bring it back to session or by working at home to alter the container to represent any changes since its initial creation. The piece evolves through a process of layering on top of the previous images.

Again process the evolution and relate it back to progress made in therapy.

Repeat this as often as desired.

When preparing to leave treatment, have the client complete the activity by planting seeds in the container and taking home the healthy soil.

Personal Commentary This project works wonderfully with substance abusing or court ordered clients as you can both judge their level of commitment and gauge progress. Collage works best because the layering of images creates a bumpy rocky texture and based on what clients used in the previous stages, they may have to find unique ways to change what has come before. I had a client who would bring her pot back session after session and she could never find a way to change it to make it what she wanted, so she took a hammer and broke it. She then used some pieces to begin a new container and the leftover pieces she beat into dust. She could not bear to build on what came before.

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Triangles Marianne Adams Purpose and Goals of Activity: This activity may be used for getting to know one another, for a warm up or for group building via movement improvisation. This exercise also aids in developing focus and a sense of presence.

Goals include: To explore leading and following, in a safe structure.

To provide improvisational movement practice in a non-threatening way.

Materials Needed: Sensitivity and trust Time and Space Requirements: 15-20 minutes, if used as a warm up 45-60 minutes, to deepen the experience and process Open space to move, wood or carpeted floors are OK, a quiet room with a closed door is ideal.

Appropriate Clientele: Works well with children or adults.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Divide the group into smaller groups of three and have them choose someone in their group to be the first movement leader. It works nicely to place trios together who do not know one another.

What is important? The beauty is in its simplicity. The first leader in each trio should start with simple, clear movements that can be followed easily by persons who are behind them. The leader should move continuously, slowly and distinctly, so that his or her movement may be followed easily by the others in their group.

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Visually, the triangles work like this:

A is the leader, because all members can see her. Whenever she wants, she can turn her body facing to a new direction, and she will no longer be the leader.

A

B B

C

A

In this illustration, B is the next new leader, because she is the one that all group members

can see. Then when B tires of leading, she turns her body facing towards C.

B

C

A

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In this illustration, C is the new leader.

When C tires of leading, she can turn back towards A or B. Then leadership could travel in unpredictable ways, such as C-B-C-A.

B

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It is good to encourage paying attention to breath rhythms, particularly as the lead changes.

Eventually, groups could be encouraged to begin to travel, moving together through the space; however, most groups will find this development quite challenging.

Processing Suggestions: It is powerful for the groups to have a few minutes to observe each other, as the personality differences that emerge between groups is often quite stark. The experience invariably brings up many questions for reflection. Preferences for leading versus following (or vice versa), trust issues, the capacity to be in-sync, and feelings of creative ease or dis-ease are common themes that arise from this experience.

Personal Commentary: I have yet to try this with a group that it didn’t work. We learn mimetic skills at a very early developmental stage, so I find this to be an extremely accessible and non-threatening movement experience.

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My Muscles Are Not Afraid Marianne Adams Purpose and Goals of Activity: This exercise focuses on getting “unstuck” using movement.

Goals are: To explore the contrasting feelings of “stuckness” and motion.

To “play” with fear, using it as a starting point for movement.

Materials Needed: Courage and willingness Time and Space Requirements: 15- 0 minutes, if used as a warm up 45-60 minutes needed, if processed by showings Open space to move, clear wall space, wood or carpeted floors are OK Optional: a few chairs, low light Appropriate Clientele: Anyone, but especially appropriate for adults who are fearful of moving Step-by-Step Description of Activity: “Fear stops me. I am scared.” Over and over, these words come up when working through movement. “I am afraid that I’ll look stupid.” There are many derivatives and cousins to this feeling and all add to the body sensation of being stuck. So, let’s start there. The lead can invite participants into movement by saying the following: Literally, stick yourself in some position, to the floor, to a wall, or a chair, etc. and stay there. What does that feel like? Give yourself time to listen to your breath. See if you can stay focused on just the sensation of your breathing, for at least 10 breaths. Now try to shift your sensations to a place in your body that is really holding your position. What does it feel like? Can you feel the tightness and the tension it takes to stay stuck? Exaggerate that feeling until you contract yourself to feel even more stuck. Stay there until you feel someplace in your body that is “safe” to move.

You’ll know when it is safe to move, because you’ll want to. Your muscles might become fatigued and start to tremor, and an easy way to move from there is to jiggle, or shake, or wiggle a tired body part.

Whenever you need (or want to). You can always re-stick yourself somewhere, somehow, in the room.

It is your safe zone, a time out, a holding place, a neutral zone that you can revert to whenever you feel unsafe. When you are moving, try to focus only on the sensation of that particular movement, and 38

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nothing else. If you lose focus and/or become afraid, re-stick. Then, listen to your breath, and when it feels safe to move again, start gingerly, slowly, or with great bursts of speed. Start with your little finger, your whole body rocking or maybe just patting your right elbow. See if you can sense how your body wants to go. What feels good?

Processing Suggestions: If you are using this exercise as a warm-up, allow 15-20 minutes for these mini dances to develop and then ask the participants to keep moving as they begin to state one realization from their journey. The title of this exercise originated from a participant in this exercise. When the participant realized that he was holding fear deep in the back of his neck, he said, “My muscles are not afraid.”

Another participant might add, “I like being stuck… it feels safe.” Gradually, participants can begin to go back to their original stuck place and spend a few minutes breathing and processing on their own.

For Further Development: Processing movement by showing it to others takes the movement experience to a whole new level.

If there is time, have each person show his or her stuck dance, with the words that came, with a partner. I like the practice of using one mover and one witness. For this exercise, I think an effective way to give feedback would be to simply repeat after the mover speaks, exactly what the mover says, while the mover is still moving. After both partners have had a chance to move, have them speak to each other about what they sensed as they watched. The dances could then be shown to the larger group. Movers may show their dances simultaneously in small groups as duets, trios, or quartets, reducing the “spotlight” of moving alone.

Personal Commentary: I find it helps to explore the “movement moments” between the stuck places with the restriction of trying to use just one body part at a time. Gradually encourage the movement moments to stretch into phrases and the stuck moments to be just fleeting staccato or pausing moments. A second level parameter for this exercise is to generate the movement moments from multiple limbs, organs, bones, or muscles. This is works better with more sophisticated or comfortable movers.

How will you know if you are doing it right? You’ll know when you realize that you are tired, or that you have lost track of time. You’ll know when you move in such a way that it surprises and delights you.

You’ll know when fear is momentarily forgotten and you find previously unknown pleasure from the creative force that bubbled from deep inside you.

Related Reading: Adler, J. (1995). Arching backwards: the mystical initiation of a contemporary woman.

Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions International.

Bloom, K. & Shreeves, R. (1998). Moves: a sourcebook of ideas for body awareness

and creative movement. The Netherlands: Harwood Academic Publishers.

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Coming Out of the Jar Martha Rossi Purpose and Goals of Activity: This is a playful warm up activity designed to increase participants’ comfort with moving, making sound, and interacting.

Goals: 1. To understand our hesitation to move and make sound as learned inhibition.

2. To play with taking risks in movement and sound.

Materials Needed: None Time and Space Requirements: 45 minutes - 1 hour Space for movement for participants Appropriate Clientele: Beginning or intermediate expressive arts therapy group Step by Step Description of Activity: The facilitator talks about the freedom of young children to make sound and movement and demonstrates some movements and sounds of babies, toddlers, or young children.

Participants are asked to stand in a circle, and make a sound or movement they liked to do when they were young.

The facilitator then tells the story of the kindergarten teacher who describes kindergarten as “putting butterflies into jars”. The facilitator describes the process of school socialization and uses phrases commonly used in schools, such as, “Get in line,” “go to the back of the line,” “raise your hand before you speak,” “shhhhhh,” “quiet down,” “no talking,” “sit still,” “keep your hands to yourself,” etc.

The facilitator describes the exercise as playing with coming out of the jar. The facilitator tells participants that they will be given instructions that they will NOT obey. When told to “sit down,” they will not. When told to “be quiet”, they will NOT obey.

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The facilitator gives instructions for about 10 minutes, and the “class” does not obey. They are loud instead of quiet, out of line instead of in, talking, touching, etc.

The group processes what that was like for them.

Several participants get the chance to lead the group in this exercise.

Processing Suggestions: Participants are asked what the activity was like for them, and each is given a chance to share. The facilitator talks about how when we were “put into jars,” we lost important parts of ourselves, and that expressive arts is about reclaiming the cut-off parts of self. Without those parts, we are living in a jar, cut off from much of our own experience.

Personal Commentary: I think this exercise is a great warm-up with an important message, that of freeing ourselves by letting ourselves go into the unstructured, the “chaos.” Some participants find it difficult to go into the unknown, and they choose to stay in the jar. Even then, they may become conscious of their old limiting messages. Other participants “fly” out of the jar and release sounds and movements with an abandon they haven’t felt in a long time.

They are often exhilarated. Others find it sad to be stuck, or to have lost these parts of self.

With the repetition in the activity, participants are able to sense their edge. They were able to push themselves if they chose to move “further out of the jar” - or decide not to, based upon taking care of themselves. Always the permission is given for them to listen to their authentic response and respond from their authenticity, working with their edge non-judgmentally.

Related Reading: Wise, N. (2002). A big new free happy unusual life. Broadway Books.

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Taproot: Deepening the Work

Chapter 5 Taproot: Deepening the Work With the opportunity to engage in expressive arts work in the context of an ongoing group or therapeutic relationship comes the ability to begin accessing the richness and complexity of each participant’s vast storehouse of story and imagery. Images that come to mind for this stage of the work include digging deeper, diving in, or a tree sending down its taproot to reach its water source.

The participant-as-artist and the therapist as the artist of the therapy session enter into a special collaboration, exploring, creating, asking and receiving, staying mindful of the balance between intention and openness to discovery.

The activities in this section offer participants many different paths for going deeper into the work: beginning to connect movement and art making to one’s story; using the ability of intermodal process to uncover layers of meaning; moving past the “thinking mind” in the art making process; and accessing the treasure trove of imagery in our dreams. Pivotal Moment, and Permanent Collage both concentrate mainly on a single arts modality, movement and visual art respectively, offering structures that create a big openness for exploration of and connection to one’s stories and emotions.

The structures of Timeline, Instant Photo Art, and Body Wisdom provide examples of different degrees of intermodal transfer in accessing, “translating,” and integrating meaning.

Ten Second Drawings addresses the blocks that may occur in arts based therapy work when an individual remains firmly attached to initial expectations, intentions, thoughts or plans about what the product should be. Self-Portrait Dialogue also addresses blocks, supporting participants in accessing their own inner wisdom as an ally in moving forward. Finally, Dream Gift weaves guided visualization, active imagination, and art making in a powerful introduction to the value of including dreamwork in any engaged and ongoing expressive arts work.

Pivotal Moments Marianne Adams Purpose and Goals of Activity: To feel the sense of empowerment that comes from making a dance, a dance that only

you can make.

To claim one of the pivotal life moments that has shaped you.

To experience choreography as a healing act.

Materials Needed: Memory, honesty, and willingness to edit For phase two, simple musical instruments are a plus, although they are not necessary.

Time and Space Requirements: 60-90 minutes needed, depending on the size of the group Open space to move, wood or carpeted floors are OK. For the initial phase, a quiet room with a closed door is ideal.

Appropriate Clientele: Adults Step-by-Step Description of Activity: With any amount of life experience, pivotal moments are bound to arise. They are moments when our lives are irrevocably changed. They are defining moments, marks on a timeline, moments of great joy, sorrow, fear, or ecstasy. With each of these moments, we could say, “This came before, that came after.”

Part 1. Generating Movement. What is the one movement (or static pose) that comes to you when you think of a pivotal moment in your life? It is best to do a movement quickly, and try not to censor yourself if it doesn’t seem to make sense. It doesn’t need to. To be able to create movement, one premise is that we must trust that the movement that comes won’t always make head sense. Just try to honor whatever comes, and allow it to simply be your starting point. Spend some time with that moment or pose. Repeat it, enlarge it, try it with different body parts, diminish it, embellish it, or try to find a new way of doing that movement.

What you have begun to create is a simple movement phrase. It is an abstraction exploring the essence of your own completely idiosyncratic tale, about one moment of your life. See if you can capture that quality of time stretching out, using the vivid moment that is etched in your memory as a seed for selfdiscovery. Try to recall every detail—the color you were wearing, the smell of the room, the time of day.

How do these elements guide your movement? At this point, you should have just few movements that you can remember and repeat.

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Part 2. Traveling. Most likely, as you have begun to create your movement phrase you have been stationary, not moving or traveling through the space that surrounds you. Now, as you begin to immerse yourself in the emotions surrounding that pivotal moment, let your original emotion and/or movement lead you into generating a movement phrase that travels through space. Where do your movements want to go; across the room, down to the floor, into the wall, up into the air? Remember that this is just a glimpse of your personal story, so try to create for your own pleasure, claiming some small but important piece of your experience. Try to navigate your way by staying in motion, rather than stopping to think about it too much. Keep trying to stay with what feels true to you, whether or not it makes conscious sense.

Part 3. Shaping/Editing. To shape your phrase, go back to your original pivotal movement or pose.

Try it at the beginning, the middle, or the end of your traveling phrase. Where does it need to be? Does it need to be repeated? Does it need to be repeated in different ways? How does it best fit? When do you need to pause or be still? As you enter the final creation phase, you must be willing to cut out any parts that are not necessary. You will know if you need to edit if you have places that you consistently forget what comes next, or they feel contrived, or awkward each time you repeat your phrase. Don’t be afraid to just leave that part out.

Gradually, see if you can pay attention to your breathing as you move through your phrase. This will lead you to clues about the timing that is right for you. Keep practicing your phrase so that you understand the effort that is right for your dance. This comes from embodying the movement that you have chosen. To do this, you can’t let it stay in your head; you must feel it in your body. You will know that you have embodied your movement when each movement feels connected, easy to remember and true to your senses. Surprises may come in at this point—all of a sudden—a terrific stomp, a deep sigh or whole body shudder may just happen; let what feels true stay.

Now try to rehearse your dance being very specific about the timing and qualities of each gesture and movement. Don’t be afraid to keep practicing, editing and rearranging your dance until it feels exactly right to you/. This will take many tries, and your tiredness will help you be true to yourself. That is when our powerful kinesthetic or muscle memory comes into play and if we can let go and trust it, it becomes a compass guiding the authenticity of our dances.

Processing Suggestions: There are many ways to begin processing this experience. Sometimes, I start with half the group showing and the other half witnessing. If the group is very large, it might be good to have dancers pair off and show to each other. Showing them to one other person is the least intimidating, so I often start there. However, it is important that these dances be shown, in some configuration, to bring them to full fruition. The courage and adrenaline that it takes to show a dance helps to solidify the experience.

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After initial showings, it can often bring a new level of understanding to the choreographer to have others in the group accompany their dances, using vocals, body percussion, or simple instruments.

Sometimes a reflective assignment such as journaling about the experience with a non-dominant hand is helpful. Thirty-second drawings can be useful as means to begin the processing, either done by the choreographer and/or any witnesses. Naming can also be a concise part of the processing.

Personal Commentary: I think that acute sensitivity to the mood of the group is the most helpful in determining how to begin the processing part. Also, I like to plant the seed that body experiences are stored for a long time, and they often resonate in many, mysterious ways. With this concept comes the understanding that we might learn from this experience in oblique ways, e.g., as we fall asleep later that night, or in the shower the next morning, or while we are cutting the grass next week.

We often don’t “get� the real meaning of our dances until years later.

Related Reading: Doolittle, L. and Flynn, A. (2000). Dancing bodies, living histories: New writings about

dance and culture. Alberta, Canada: The Banff Centre Press.

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Permanent Collage on Masonite Boards: Collage Activity for Group Sessions Doreen Maller Purpose and Goals of Activity: Joining together in a visual art exercise can be a bonding group experience. By creating art to themes, group participants can use the arts to express deep and complex emotions in a way that can be richer and more meaningful than words. Collage, in its cutting and tearing and reassembling, provides an opportunity for reconstruction and reformation of old stories and ideas. Often the work of finding the right image, or placing the art on a board, and then the final fabrication can be a freeing experience. Sharing images, and the convergence of images into a final work of art, gives group members a chance to process their experience and appreciate the work of others.

Materials Needed: Collage Materials: old magazines, post cards, books, calendars, paper, photographs etc.

Also string, ribbon, buttons, seeds, or any attachments that suit your fancy.

Masonite Boards: These can be purchased and cut into small squares and rectangles. Cardboard boards can be used as well, but I have found the Masonite to be sturdy and easy to manipulate.

Collage Glue: Mod Podge or Gel Medium (available at craft stores) Acrylic Paint Paint Brushes (I use sponge brushes, easy to clean and manipulate) Scissors Freezer paper (can be found in the supermarket) Sandpaper Circular Saw (if lumber yard will not cut boards for you) Time and Space Requirements: Preparation Time: Preparation of the masonite boards can take about 20 minutes per board. When working with a very old or young community I do all the following prep myself. If there is time in your activity, a more able crowd can prep and collage within the same activity time.

Collage Making Time: Collage Making can take as long as a few days and as short as an hour depending on the group.

In general, if boards are prepped before a workshop, I like to allow an hour and a half minimum for opening discussion, collage works, sharing and clean up.

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Drying Time: An additional hour or so of drying time (which can be done at home) should be allowed.

Space: Space enough to lay out work on covered work surfaces (I cover with freezer paper) should be allowed. I prefer to work at a table, but this activity can also work on a floor.

Appropriate Clientele: I have used this activity with all age groups from children to the elderly.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Preparation of the boards: Before activity cut boards into desired size. This can be done at home with a circular saw, or you can request the lumber yard to cut squares and rectangles for you.

Part of activity, or before depending on time and capability: Sand edges of boards.

Prime boards to prevent warping. Priming consists of painting a layer of collage glue on the back side of the board and allowing it to dry thoroughly. In some cases I will apply two coats. Without priming the boards, the masonite will warp. This is true of cardboard as well.

Apply color to front of board (optional). I have found that a colored background makes this work easier to begin, although with more sophisticated participants you may want to give them the option of adding color later in the process. With less art-savvy clients the engagement process often begins by selecting a board whose color and shape appeals. I brush on acrylic paint to cover the masonite. This may take one or two coats depending on the color. Allow paint to dry before the collage process begins.

Activity Set Up: Cover work surfaces with freezer paper to protect surfaces from paint and glue.

Have bowls of paint, brushes, scissors, and collage materials available to participants (I spread them down the center of the table with other options available in baskets nearby).

Have water and wet paper towels available for participants to clean their hands if they get too covered with glue.

Activity: Introduce the activity and the art of collage and its possibilities. I use some of my own collages and/or art books to introduce collage as an art form and to show options and opportunities to participants.

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Demonstrate the process of collaging on boards. In this process:

Collage glue is applied to board

Selected image is paced on glued area

Bubbles are smoothed out (or not)

Collage glue is applied over image to seal and glaze

Finished collage is glazed with a final coat of glue Introduce theme. I recommend a broad theme that each participant can claim as their own.

Some examples may be:

Hopes and Dreams

My Body Image

Friends

My Life

This is Me Allow enough time for participants to find images and begin the collaging process. I have found that everyone does this at a different rate, some people may jump right into gluing, others spend much time on image selection. It is good to keep a time reminder (every half hour) on how much time is left. It is good to remind them of the theme and to check in if people need help. I will help cut or paste if asked by a participant and even offer image suggestions by asking questions that support the theme.

(Optional) Invite clients to paint into their collages with acrylic paint, this process can enhance the depth and intricacy of a collage, however for some communities it may be too cumbersome to add this extra step into the activity.

Towards the end of collage process, remind group that there will be a time at the end to share their images.

Encourage each member to share their image and anything they might want to share about the process of making the image.

(Optional) Ask group to arrange boards in a way that they display a ‘whole’ work of art.

(Optional) Permanently assemble boards together for art display (this is especially good for old age homes or schools)

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Clean Up: Separate wet boards with freezer paper for transport but dry images uncovered in open air until glue is set. A final coat of collage glue might be added after a piece is dried to glaze and seal the total picture.

Allow ample time for clean up.

Processing Suggestions: I am always amazed by the power of collage. There is something about the selection and reconstruction of images that is freeing to participants. And by using imagery other then their own, some of the anxiety of art making is diminished. Allow ample time for sharing of both the project and the process; often one speaks louder to the individual than another. One may say this is a picture of [something] and use the activity to tell a story, and another may say, “I found it so freeing to cut and glue”...where the joy of the project may come from the activity itself. Be mindful of the aesthetic differences in the work produced. In group work there will be a broad range. As the leader, it is good to find time to engage every participant in some way, perhaps by asking a question about color, or image, or perhaps by commenting on layout or use of background.

Personal Commentary: When working with an elderly group recently, I was moved by their willingness to embrace this project. Many shared that they had not made art before, others needed help cutting or remembering the theme, but all participated in some way and in the end each produced a collage to support their thoughts and feelings. I personally love collage in that it is a way to integrate many images to tell a final story, and at the same time, it takes the pressure off the artist to draw or paint the images themselves. The beauty of the art is in the collecting and assembling. In the process of using found objects and media to create a new whole, bits and pieces of ourselves begin to emerge.

Participant Quote: “A refugee life was a chopped up life. When I spread the glue all over my picture, it somehow felt as if it was coming together.”

Eva Maiden, MA, MFT, Activity Participant and Group Leader

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Timeline Martha Rossi Purpose and Goals of Activity: The purpose of this exercise is to give people in transitions a chance to understand the past, be present in the now, and create a future they want. It develops awareness of the lessons and gifts of the times that are passed, the place we have arrived in now, and the opportunity to create a conscious future.

Goals: To provide a way for participants to become more conscious of their own life story.

To give participants an opportunity to recognize areas of the past that are unhealed.

To give participants a chance to look at the present as a culmination of the past--both good and bad.

To allow for the creation of a future that is enriched from the past and includes the hopes and dreams of the present.

Materials Needed: 1 roll of adding paper per participant Some rulers Markers, paints, cray-pas, collage materials such as glitter, feathers, foam, construction paper, tissue paper, ribbons, etc.

Time and Space Requirements: Approximately 8 hours, broken into 8 one-hour sessions or 4 two-hour sessions. With an ongoing group or individual client, some or all of the art-making could be done as homework, then shared and processed in group or in session.

A room large enough to stretch out the timelines, or an unused hall to stretch out the timelines.

Appropriate Clientele: Teenagers or Adults Step by step description of the activity: Each person is given a roll of adding machine paper. They are instructed to mark off one foot for each year they “expect� to live.

The paper is spread out on the floor or on a wall if the space is big enough. Each year is marked off with a number.

Participants mark the milestones of their life by drawing or writing on the paper in the appropriate year. Suggested milestones are births, deaths, marriages, divorces, graduations, losses,

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gains, friendships, jobs, emotional lessons learned, moves, illnesses, addictions, relationships, schools, vacations, discovering their purpose, etc. They are given at least 30 minutes for each 10 years of life.

It is suggested that they use colors and symbols to acknowledge the emotional impact of the milestone.

In the present year, they are asked to write or draw about themselves in the present, including struggles, challenges, joys, relationships, wants, needs, and questions.

In the future years, they are asked to express what they still want to accomplish, enjoy, create, do, learn, have, etc.

The timelines are spread out on the floor of the space so that there is movement space around each.

At the end of each 45-minute art time, the group shows their work, and processes their experience.

One way participants may respond to the work is by “dancing” the timeline year by year. This is done in an authentic movement way, instructing the participants to allow their bodies to respond in any way to the images, words, situations, and memories on the timeline. Depending on the comfort level of the group, this may be done individually, simultaneously, or in mover/witness pairs.

Processing Suggestions Questions can serve to bring greater understanding of the map or of the emotional experience of the participant. What lessons or gifts did you receive from these experiences? How did that experience impact you later in life? Do you see any patterns in your life?

After the timeline dance, each participant can respond to his/her own timeline by saying whatever he or she would like in order to feel a sense of completion. Final questions might include: What will you take from this exercise into your life? What have you learned about yourself? How does this exercise affect how you see your future?

Personal Commentary: This exercise gives people a chance to become more conscious of their life stories. Participants can see and feel areas of the past that may be unresolved. They have a chance in the present to learn from the past and see the lessons and gifts of their past experience. They may become clearer about how the past affects the present and may see life patterns develop. Participants can see the present as a result of the past and of current choices. They are also given the responsibility of creating their own future. I think this is a good exercise at New Year’s and at transitions of any kind that require new choices to be made. It is also good for clients that are “stuck” and feel they cannot make any changes or do not see the opportunities in their future. It can engender hope for clients mired in the now.

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Instant Photo Art LeeAndra Miller Purpose and Goals of Activity: To provide an intermodal activity to assist in exploring expression of a theme/issue in each group member’s life. This exercise flows through movement, photography, drawing and poetry as a way to deepen/enrich understanding of the issue each is exploring.

To assist the group members in finding an artistic way of giving feedback to each other that then can be utilized and internalized by the clients to create further art and further understanding.

Materials needed: Instant photo development camera ( i.e. I-Zone sticker picture camera, or any other Polaroid camera) Film for camera Large paper (12X18 cartridge white paper) Glue stick Tape Pastels Pens Writing paper “Stick it” or “post-it” notes Time and Space Requirements: Approximately 2 hours with break Large enough room for group members to be able to work on a piece of individual art and hang it on the walls.

Appropriate Clientele: Children age 8 to adults in a group setting Step by Step Description of Activity: In preparation for the activity, facilitators can pick a theme from which to work or have the group members choose a theme/issue to explore in this process. Themes could be as specific or general as you choose. The example I will use throughout the description of this activity is a group that is working on issues related to self-esteem. The group exercise in this case will focus on how the participants feel about themselves.

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Begin with a warm-up exercise, asking the group to walk freely around the room thinking about the theme, or in this case, how they feel about themselves. Ask the group members to “freeze” in place periodically as they move through the room. Have them resume walking in-between these “frozen body sculptures.” After they do this a few times, let them know that the next time they freeze, you would like them to sculpt their body in a position that reflects how they feel about themselves in that moment. Ask them to resume walking and have them freeze in a new sculpture form reflecting the theme a few more times.

Have the group members stop and find a place in the room that gives them enough space and ask them to refine a frozen body sculpture that they feel captures their theme the closest. When each group member feels that they have captured the pose that best reflects how they feel about themselves, ask them to hold that body position. Then, with the Polaroid camera, take an instant picture of each participant in the pose. Give group members the pictures as you take them and ask them to wait the few minutes until the pictures develop, moving on until all group members have a developed picture of their body sculptures.

When all the group members have a picture, give them each a large sheet a paper and ask them to glue/tape their picture anywhere on the piece of paper. With pastels, have them draw an “environment” for their picture on the surrounding blank paper. Ask them to fill in the space with drawings that further reflect their theme. Perhaps the drawings could reflect what they believe influences how they feel about themselves, or the drawings could be an extension of the photos themselves. Encourage participants to ask the picture what it needs to be surrounded by and to work from there.

After group members have completed their artwork, ask them to find a spot on the wall somewhere in the room to hang it up with tape.

Give the group members a short break.

After the break, give each group member a pen and a pile of small Post-it notes. As in an art gallery, invite the group members to wander around the room at their own pace and look at the other group members’ works of art. Ask each participant to write a comment/response for each work of art on a Post-it and stick it beside the art on the wall. Help them focus their comments by asking them not to comment on how good they think the art is, but rather to write down a word or phrase that comes to mind when they look at the art. (i.e., if the group member thinks of fire when they look at someone’s art, she might write the words “burning flames” or “phoenix rising from the ashes” or “burn”).

After every member has written something for each piece of art, have the group members retrieve their art and all the stick-it notes that have been left by others. Again ask them to find a place in the room where they can work individually to read the responses. Give them another piece of

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paper and a pen so that they can then begin to arrange the responses to form a poem. Let the group members know that they can use all the responses or only the ones that speak to them. To write the poem they can also use as many other words as they want to fill in the poem.

Once everyone has completed the poems, the group comes together to share their poems. Have each group member read their poem and show their work of art as they read.

Allow a few minutes for the group to respond to the experience. A great question to ask is “Were there any surprises?”

Processing Suggestions: This exercise requires little verbal processing, deepening instead due to the intermodal transfers from one art modality to another. Using different art forms helps a client to express their feelings on the theme using many senses. I often will ask the clients to bring back the poems and works of art the next week to see if they have gained more insight into the themes that they worked on.

Sometimes I assign homework of writing in a journal before the next session.

Personal Commentary: This group exercise is highly effective for working with clients who are anxious about doing art.

Because one of the first steps is based on a photo, it gives clients the opportunity to build on something that is tangible. Many clients comment on being relieved at not having to come up with an initial idea for their visual art piece. All the art flows from the photo and often clients are very surprised that they produced both a work of art and a poem by the end of the session. Although very little talk happens during this exercise, group members also comment on how “seen” and “heard” they feel by the other group members due to the responses to the art.

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Body Wisdom Jessica Chilton Note: this activity was adapted from a workshop led by Judith Greer Essex called “Rising and Falling” at the International Expressive Arts Harvest Symposium in 2002 in Santa Barbara, California.

Purpose and Goals of Activity: This activity is written for use within a one-on-one client/therapist or mover/witness relationship; however, it can be adapted for group work where partners take turns playing the role of witness and primary mover. This activity offers the client an opportunity to approach a challenging life issue in a new way. It encourages the client to “decenter” (Knill, 2005), to move away from her challenge by allowing her own body to lead her in movement and creative play. The therapist/witness joins in the play, mirroring and enhancing the movement and sounds of the client, offering support and enabling the client to see her inner experience externalized. After sharing this journey of imagination and body wisdom, therapist and client together can learn from the movement experience and explore how these new discoveries connect to the client’s original issue.

Materials Needed: Paper and writing utensil Time and Space Requirements: 50 minutes - 2 hrs for a one-on-one session 90 minutes - 3 hrs for a group session where participants are working in pairs Enough room to encourage free movement Appropriate Clientele: This activity was created for adults who are comfortable moving their bodies, have some degree of body awareness and expressive arts familiarity, and are mentally able to follow oral instructions.

It is appropriate for therapist/client or witness/mover relationships that already have developed a feeling of trust and safety. This activity can also be adapted for any age level above 5 years and for most special populations.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: 1. Verbal Check-In/Understanding the Issue Invite the client to discuss or journal about a current mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual challenge. Ask: What is the challenge? How are you stuck? How are you restricted? Bring the conversation or journaling to a close and ask the client to temporarily let the problem go and begin an expressive arts experience together. Explain that often when we dive into our imagination and

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creative process, decentering away from our daily life challenges, we return to our daily life with new resources, perspectives, and insights.

2. Mindfulness Ask the client to lie on the floor (if comfortable) and connect with her breath. Lead her through a body scan, tensing one body part at a time and then releasing it fully into the floor. Offer prompts for meditation: focus on the air passing through your nostrils as you inhale and exhale; focus on the expansion or fullness and the deflation or letting go of your lungs with each breath; allow any thought that arises to pass by as if it were a cloud floating through the sky. Offer prompts to bring in the sense of earth below the body and sky above the body: feel the sensation of your entire body relaxed fully, surrendered on the earth’s floor; feel the sensation of the sun shining from above, clouds drifting, sky expanding endlessly as far and as high as you can imagine.

3. Movement Invite the client into movement, saying: Now let your body move, rising up from the earth towards the sky in slow motion until you are standing and reaching as high as you possible can. When you have stretched and reached the highest skies, pause and breathe, and begin to fall in slow motion from the sky back to the earth until once again your are lying on the floor. Pause and breathe and begin the cycle again. Let your attention focus completely on your body and movement. Let go of any thoughts that might wonder: Am I doing this right? Am I supposed to be doing something else? Your only focus is your own moving body. Continue this cycle of slow motion rising and falling. With each repetition, move even slower. Pay attention to each tiny movement your body makes as it falls and rises in this movement meditation. Some clients may feel more comfortable moving if you are also rising and falling in your own movement meditation.

4. Leading with the Body Facilitate the client’s intention to listen to her body, saying: As you continue rising and falling, pay attention to which part of the movement calls to your body. Notice a part of the movement that either attracts or repulses you. Maybe a certain part of the movement feels really good; perhaps a part of the movement seems difficult or strange. Let your body choose to focus on one part of the movement. Stay with this particular movement, repeating, exploring, expanding, and playing. Embody this movement fully.

5. Letting the Movement Speak Invite the client to allow the movement to make its own sounds, saying: Allow the movement to have a voice. Let the movement talk, sing, or make sounds. As you continue to move and sound, use your paper and pen to let your movement write from the “I” perspective. Let your movement and imagination lead the pen across the paper, allow your meaning-making mind to continue resting. After your movement has finished writing, re-read it, underlying any words or phrases that stand out to you in some way. Invite client to share writing and significant phrases aloud.

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6. Therapist and Client Enter Creative Play Together Join the client in sensitively embodying her movements, sounds, and phrases that she has explored in the session. Begin by mirroring the client and encourage the client to shift her attention back and forth between noticing her inner experience and seeing the movements by observing you. If you are comfortable with dramatic improvisation, take this experience further. Dialogue together using your own adaptations of phrases from the client’s writing. Play with exaggerations and evolutions of the movements and sounds the client has created. Fully explore the character that springs from the client’s movements, sounds, and phrases.

Processing Suggestions: Bring the creative play to a close and let the client take her time to return to the room with all of her senses, transitioning back to daily reality. Discuss some the following questions together: What qualities of the movement did you notice? What was the process of choosing this movement? What happened emotionally as you shaped this movement and let it speak through sound and words? What kinds of thoughts or images does the movement (and emerging character) evoke? What does the movement (or character) say to you? What do you say to it? What surprised you?

Lastly, remind the client of her initial issue and discuss what new insight this creative experience might have offered. Ask: What did this movement, creative play and imaginative process show and tell you that relates in some way to your initial challenge?

Personal Commentary: Every time I personally have used this model of decentering from a challenging issue through an expressive arts experience, I am delighted by the new insight I gain. The imagination and the wisdom of the body, faithfully create new openings and freedom within the challenges that previously felt tight and restrictive.

When I have used this model with other clients and movers, I loved witnessing the authenticity of movement and voice that clients ere able to express. I enjoyed seeing the client continue her movement while writing, demonstrating real engagement in the idea of letting the movement speak for itself. One client remarked that she was so surprised that her movement had so much to say. She could not remember a time when she had stopped to listen to her body. She was excited by the fact that she could choose at any moment to tune in to her own body wisdom as a resource for her life.

Related Reading: Knill, P. J., Levine, E. G., & Levine, S. K. (2005). Principles and practice of expressive

arts therapy: Toward a therapeutic aesthetics. London: Jessica Kingsley.

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Ten-Second Drawings Patience Perry Purpose and Goals of Activity: To rehearse uninhibited painting.

To push through “stuck” places in therapy through art making.

Materials Needed: India ink (or similar black paint) Bristle paint brush (approximately ½ inch diameter) 40 sheets of medium to large size watercolor (or similar heavy-grade) paper Timer or stopwatch Plastic, styrofoam or glass bowl Tarp or shower curtain for the floor Time and Space Requirements: Allow 25 minutes for this activity.

Ample floor space is required so that drawings may be laid out in sequential order and paint is able to dry.

Appropriate Clientele: This activity is appropriate for medium to high functioning adults during individual therapy.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: An Invitation (2 minutes) Invite the client to work through a place of frustration through art. Describe the activity and what to expect. This activity utilizes rapid succession paintings while sitting or kneeling on the floor. Clients should paint whatever and however they feel compelled. There is a strict time component which will be maintained by the counselor. Drawings will occur in ten second increments with ten second breaks. Have 20 loose sheets of paper available in a pile on the center of the tarp.

Pour ink in the bowl and place with the brush beside the paper on the tarp to begin. Have the client take a few deep breaths before picking up the brush.

Twenty Series (4 minutes) When the client dips the brush into the ink, begin timing. At the conclusion of the ten seconds, calmly state, “Please put your brush down.” Invite the client to take a deep breath and gaze at the painting. Have the client move the drawing to one end of the room and return to sitting at the workstation on the floor. At the conclusion of ten seconds, ask the client to “Begin.” Repeat this process for a series of twenty drawings, placing each drawing in a row.

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Initial Processing (6 minutes) Sit with the client and ask him or her to describe his/her experience in the activity. Inquire about the content and intent during the painting process.

Twenty Series (4 minutes) Repeat the same procedure as before with a fresh pile of 20 sheets of paper. Place the second series of drawings near the first, but with a walkway between the two rows. Place them so that drawing 21 lines up across from drawing 20, 22 across from 19, etc., so that the last drawing faces the first drawing at the other end.

Final Processing (10 minutes or longer as needed) Sit together and invite the client to talk about this second series of drawings. Inquire not just about the content and intent, but also about their feelings, frustrations, shifts or changes, and insight. Take a “tour” of the drawings together and continue discussing the paintings and experience.

Processing Suggestions: You may want to explore the difference between inhibitions that serve us and those that hinder us.

Investigate any implications of the discoveries in this exercise that relate to the current predicament or situation in therapy. Ask the client if there are any changes in the goals for therapy in light of the recent expressive arts activity.

Personal Commentary: This visual art activity is fascinating to observe. The potential for transformation in clients is significant. Ending drawings will often show a stark contrast from the initial ones. Often in the beginning, the client holds a preconceived idea of what the drawings “should” look like. The initial 6 or more drawings are often unfinished and can create immense client frustration. I’ve observed client anger as well. Eventually, clients stop caring what the paintings look like. Some may even paint with resentment or spite for a time. Eventually, clients start to relax and play. An element of mystery seems to appear.

A few memorable examples include a client who kept trying to create Chinese writing, another who turned to drips, splashes, and globs of paint in her expression, and a third whose hand seemed to dance. She became transfixed in one drawing as a dark swirling circle seemingly commandeered her brush.

Fewer than forty drawings could be utilized if the client rapidly works through any inhibitions.

However, I think there needs to be enough rehearsal for clients to feel successful and empowered upon completion. I’ve found that the more drawings, the more freedom and personal discovery.

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This activity was inspired by the ancient text, the Tao Te Ching. A metaphor for this process appears in chapter forty-three: The softest thing in the universe Overcomes the hardest thing in the universe.

That without substance can enter where there is no room.

Hence I know the value of non-action.

Also in chapter eight: The highest good is like water.

Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.

It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao. Relinquishing our will and preconceived notions may actually result in opportunity.

Related Reading: Lao-tzu. (1989). Tao Te Ching. Feng, G. & English, J. (Trans.). New York: Vintage.

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Self-Portrait Dialogue Ann Waters Purpose and Goals of Activity: The activity was designed to build the strength of the voice of compassion and reason that resides in our psyche, the voice that cares for us and gives us encouragement in a realistic manner when we struggle or face challenges. This is the wise voice. Through the process of exposing and confronting the inner critic with the forces of creativity, the participant is given the opportunity to increase positive self-talk. The activity is reminiscent of transactional analysis in that it works to change the life script of the three states of ego that are referred to in this theory as the Parent, the Child, and the Adult.

Materials Needed: Basically, any piece of paper and any drawing utensil. I am partial to colored pencils because of the quality of color and the ease of use. The utensil can vary to fit the client. For example, use big crayons to elicit the child-like feelings of vulnerability and clumsiness or pastels for more abstract work with someone who may be reluctant to draw.

Time and Space Requirements: An office with a work space that accommodates the paper and drawing utensils The activity can be integrated into a typical fifty minute session. Allow at least ten minutes for the drawing and up to twenty more for the writing and processing.

Appropriate Clientele: Adults and some teenagers could benefit from this activity.

Not recommended for children because their psyches are still developing.

The ideal person who could learn and grow from this exercise is someone who has self-defeating thoughts.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Give client supplies and guide her in several deep breaths.

Invite the client to draw a picture of herself with the non-dominant hand, explaining that it can be as abstract or as concrete as she chooses, while gently reminding her that artistic ability is irrelevant. Allow the client to complete the drawing to its own natural stopping point. (During this time, the therapist may choose to also draw with the non-dominant hand to take the pressure off the client working. However, I do not suggest going any further with your personal activity during the session because it would distract the focus from the client.)

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When the client has finished, ask her to write with the dominant hand any criticisms she has of the work and of herself creating the work. Meanwhile, just listen as she does so.

Then, direct her to use her non-dominant hand to make a written rebuttal to the criticisms, to defend herself. Again, the therapist is listening and observing.

Give the client time and focus to look at the piece, allowing the work to be absorbed.

Finally, instruct the client to think of a message gained from this experience and to write that down with the dominant hand.

Processing Suggestions: Starting with broad, useful questions such as “What was this experience like for you?” can be illuminating. Additionally, this is the time for the therapist to share observations such as, “I noticed that in your criticism, you compared your work to mine. . . .” Asking questions that transfer the learning from this experience into other life circumstances can be extremely beneficial. For example, “Where else can this message help you?” or referring back to a specific situation the client has described and asking, “How can you apply this message to...?” Finally, solicit closing thoughts on the experience.

Personal Commentary: I am consistently impressed with the power of the arts to communicate the inner wisdom’s reply to our own struggles. This activity provides the opening for the client to confront the inner critic and win, in a manner that is uniquely their own. I am compelled to find ways to encourage clients to have ownership of their resolutions and this exercise allows for that empowerment. The illustration is my own work using this activity in reference to the struggles that I am facing as I begin my experiences as an expressive arts therapist.

Related Reading: Capacchione, L. (1991). Recovery of your inner child: The highly acclaimed method for

liberating your inner self. New York: Simon & Schuster.

The International Transactional Analysis Association (n.d.). Key ideas in transactional

analysis. Retrieved March 24, 2005, from http://www.itaa-net.org/index.htm

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Dream Gift Joan B. Woodworth, Ph.D. Purpose and Goals of Activity: This exercise is an adaptation of J. Johnston’s (1975) method of teaching dreamwork. It is intended to provide an opportunity for individual participants to do expressive work with a dream in a group setting. The goal is to allow a participant to learn more about a dream and dream symbols and to produce a visual product that expresses the dreamwork. The activity stimulates active imagination and creativity in working with a dream. Further, in pairs or in a group, participants can share the experience of the activity and/or the representation created in the artwork.

Materials Needed: Black and white paper - good quality cotton paper such as charcoal drawing paper

12” x 18” works well Drawing materials – oil pastels work very well; other drawing materials such as

pens, crayons, chalk, or colored pencils could be added Time and Space Requirements: The reflective part of the exercise takes about 20-25 minutes. The drawing also takes about 20 minutes. To be certain that everyone has plenty of time, 45 minutes to one hour is appropriate.

If discussion follows, total time would vary according to how many participants share the experience.

Ideally, participants should have a comfortable place to relax and reenter a dream, sitting or lying down. Space (tables or floor) are also necessary for drawing.

Appropriate Clientele: First, participants should be able to remember a dream, even if it is a fragment or a feeling from a dream, ideally, a recent dream that has been meaningful to them. This can be a beginning exercise so it is not necessary that participants have worked previously with dreams. A capacity for visual imagination is important in a person’s ability to reenter a dream.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: In general, the method directs each person to (1) recall a dream; (2) reenter the dream in a waking, relaxed state; (3) engage and interact with an image or figure in the dream; (4) bring a symbol or meaningful “gift” from the exchange; and, (5) draw the symbol (or use other ways of expressing it).

The leader asks the participants to find a comfortable position and then to close their eyes and imagine reentering a dream. Taking a few deep breaths may be helpful. Explain that the dream

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could be a dream fragment or even a feeling, and that it doesn’t matter if the dream memory differs from the dream itself. Allow several minutes (up to 5) for participants to choose and reenter a dream. Speak clearly but softly. The leader’s guidance should produce a kind of meditative state for the participant.

The leader asks, “What is happening right now?” Further, “What do you see, smell, hear, taste, touch, and/or feel?” Give the dreamer time. You may encourage him/her by saying, “Take all the time you need.” It is important that the participant actively re-experiences the dream.

The leader encourages the participant to identify a “main figure” in the dream. Tell the dreamer that this figure could be a person, object, creature, or vague entity such as smoke, blackness, or fog. If the figure is vague or unclear, ask the dreamer to move closer or further away until he/she feels comfortable. If the main figure is hostile or reluctant, direct the dreamer to call upon allies (a friend, pet, fantasy figure, even a glass wall for safety) to allow safe access to the figure. If, for example, the figure is masked, the dreamer can ask the figure to remove the mask.

The leader directs the dreamer to ask the figure, “How can I help you?” and to then wait for a response from the figure. In most cases the figure will respond in some way. Wait several minutes for the participant to complete this request.

Now the leader directs the dreamer to ask the figure for a gift. The gift should symbolize the essence of the figure’s power that could serve as an alliance between the dreamer and the figure.

The dreamer should ask for something “tangible” (such as a poem, symbol, object, song) that can be represented in waking life.

After several minutes, the leader directs the participants to gently return to waking consciousness and to translate their inner experience into the outside world. In silence, the dreamers use the art materials to represent the symbol visually. (It might also be possible for a participant to produce notation that would later be presented as a movement, poem, song, clay sculpture, model or other art form. In a beginning group, drawing is often the easiest.) The leader may request that the participants keep the drawing in a prominent place for a while to remind them of the dream and the process.

The leader may ask participants if they wish to discuss the process and/or the artifact with a partner or in a larger group. The depth of the sharing should be up to each person.

Processing Suggestions: As mentioned above, the leader may ask participants to share (a) the process of the exercise and/or (b) the meaning of the gift to them. While this is not required, many participants do wish to say something about what happened. Discussion can follow about how it felt to confront a figure, ask

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for a gift, and then represent it. Even if a participant did not follow through the exercise, it can be helpful to hear what others experienced.

Personal Commentary: I have found this to be a powerful exercise even at the beginning level. The combination of the meditative state of active imagination and reentering a dream can, in and of itself, be meaningful.

The responses range from very significant images and “gifts� to reflection on the process itself.

One of the most important roles for the leader is to go slowly and not rush through the steps.

Related Reading: Garfield, P. (1974). Creative dreaming. New York: Ballantine Books.

Johnston, J. (1975). Elements of Senoi dreamwork applied in a western culture.

Handout at a Senoi dream workshop. Chapel Hill, NC.

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Caring for the Forest: Community Healing Work

Chapter 6 Caring for the Forest: Community Healing Work We live in our imaginations and we also live in the world. As therapists and as artists, we cannot repeat the error of locating problems and pathology solely within the person of the individual while ignoring the collective – the social and cultural context of our art, our health, our stories and our lives. The Red Road to Wellbriety (2002), a twelve-step guide written from a Native American cultural perspective, uses the metaphor of sick trees in a sick forest. We may remove an individual tree and heal it in a nursery, but if returned to share its environment and root system with the sick forest, how can it remain well? How can we, as expressive arts therapists, turn our attention – and our clients’ and group members’ attention – to the forest?

The activities in this section all revolve in different ways around the theme of community healing – either focusing on healing an imbalance in the community and/or on healing through community in the form of collective art making. Mothers and Daughters Dream Esteem and Food Mandalas both address cultural imbalances by bringing group attention to an issue and inviting participants’ creative reflection and response. Integrating Opposites uses a group arts experience to examine a central cultural theme of black/white, dark/light, good/bad dualism.

How Do I Love Myself…? provides a structure for group members who have experienced domestic violence to share words and images, while Grief in Motion uses movement as the expressive vehicle for the feelings accompanying loss. In both of these activities, a key element is helping to shatter the isolation that often accompanies such experiences by creating a community of co-witnesses to each other’s stories.

Stories themselves as powerful agents of community strengthening and restoration are the focus of Storytelling: Personal and Community Healing, providing a general structure and overview of ways to incorporate this important creative art into a therapeutic group experience. Community Museum fosters a sense of shared story and shared community within an organization through the creation of ensemble intermodal arts. Mosaic with Colored Paper achieves similar goals through creation of a simple group art-making experience within the context of an assisted care community.

Mothers and Daughters Dream Esteem Martha Rossi Purpose and Goals of Activity: The purpose of this activity is to give mothers and daughters a chance to communicate about their experience of being female in our culture. The communication is through art, movement, writing, and sharing of experience. The activities are designed to elicit the limiting messages that impact girls and women’s self-esteem, and to provide an avenue of support for the individual dreams of participants.

Goals include: To give mothers and daughters a chance to learn about the loss of girl’s self esteem To increase the connection and communication between girls and their mothers To increase awareness of the negative cultural and media messages that have an impact on girls and women To support the dreams of the girls and women who participate Materials Needed: Magazines, glue sticks, scissors, markers, pads/pens, music for movement Time and Space Requirements: 2 hours for 16 participants Space for movement, and for separating into two different groups, or two rooms for the separate mother/daughter activities.

Appropriate Clientele: Girls between ages 10-14 and their mothers. This exercise could also be used with adult women and their mothers.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: The facilitator defines self-esteem and briefly discusses some of the research showing the significant drops in self-esteem for girls between ages 11-17. (5 min.)

The daughters form a group and make collages of images of being a girl/woman from magazines.

At the same time, the mothers write lists of the messages they received about being a girl/woman as they grew including messages from families, religious organizations, schools, friends, and the media. (15-20 min.)

The groups join, and the mothers read the lists of messages they received. The daughters show their collages, and together they look for images that give messages about being a girl. The mothers’ messages and the girls’ collages are compared and similarities and differences are discussed.

(20 min.)

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The facilitator suggests that limiting messages keep girls and women from achieving their dreams. Mothers tell their dream story starting with “When I was a little girl, I dreamed of becoming a ________.” They are asked to share what happened to that dream. If they gave their dream up, they are asked if it was from a personal choice or from discouragement or lack of support. (15 min.)

Girls are asked to share their dreams. (10 min.)

Girls and women are asked to think of encouraging words to support the dreams and each other.

Music for movement is played. All are asked to move through the space, and speak this encouragement to each other girl and woman. (10 min.)

The women and girls sit in a circle, and each says her encouragement into the circle. They process what they are taking away from the activity. Each girl and woman is encouraged not to lose her dreams and to encourage themselves and other girls and women. (25 min.)

Processing Suggestions: The facilitator notices and responds to the cognitive and emotional reactions of the group.

In the closing circle, the facilitator may ask the questions: What have you learned about yourself tonight? What have you learned about your daughter? What have you learned about your mother?

What do you think girls and women need to achieve their dreams? What do you need from your mother? What do you want from your daughter?

Personal Commentary: I am awed by the communication and connection that this exercise encourages between mothers and daughters. The loss of self-esteem is seen from a cultural framework, rather than a personal one. Supporting dreams becomes important to mothers and daughters. Communication is both verbal and non-verbal through the movement and story. There is a depth of communication and connection that is a felt experience in the group. This is a very moving exercise to facilitate.

This exercise always reinforces how the expressive arts has the capacity to bring deep connection between people. All of the participants in this exercise seem to become more open, more understanding of each other. The daughters see their moms in a new light, as girls with reasons for being the way they are. The mothers experience their losses, and experience themselves through a broader perspective. The mothers learn ways to support their daughters, and the daughters get a chance to affirm their moms. The mothers become more real to the daughters.

Related Reading: Pipher, M. (1999). Reviving Ophelia: Saving the selves of adolescent girls. Ballantine

Books.

Jordan, J. et al. (1991). Women’s growth in connection. Guilford Publications.

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Food Mandalas Marianne Stevens Suggs Purpose and Goals of Activity: Besides keeping us alive, eating food has usually been a source of pleasure and satisfaction to human beings. Every group of people has been concerned with ensuring their food supply. Food may often, especially in today’s world, also have negative connotations. In the Western/first world, eating disorders are problematic, while in many third world countries there simply isn’t enough food to alleviate hunger. Participation in this activity allows participants to explore their relationships with food on a variety of levels: the personal, the political, the social, the cultural, the spiritual, the physical.

Materials Needed: Writing utensils and paper or journals Participants will select the foods and the display for personal reasons.

Time and Space Requirements: Participants need a one hour session for the discussion of food and its meaning in our lives and perhaps 30 minutes to one hour to write in journals about their emotional and physical connections with food and 30 minutes to share food memories.

Participants will need approximately 30 minutes to collect the food items and then approximately 1-2 hours to arrange their food mandala. (This often works best as a homework assignment between two classes or sessions.)

Enough time for all participants to share artwork and discuss the experience.

Appropriate Clientele: Adolescents through adulthood.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: a) Discussion of food and its meaning (1 hour) What are your favorite foods? What are your least favorite? What associations do you have with favorite foods or what foods do you dislike due to certain associations? What foods do you associate with various parts of your life? How have your food tastes changed over your life? Perhaps read poems from Rosen book (see below).

Discuss the mandala as a contemplative art form. Mandala is the Sanskrit word for circle. The mandala gestalt is one to which both children and adults react favorably, probably due to the over-all balance. In Eastern religions, the mandala is regarded as a symbol of the cosmos, while in Jungian psychology, the mandala is representative of the unity of the psyche with the collective unconscious.

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b) Writing “food memories” (30 min.)

Invite participants to write an “ode” to a favorite food or least favorite food and/or reflect on food and its personal meanings. c) Share “food memories” (30 min.) d) Creation of food mandalas (30 minutes to collect food items needed, 1-2 hours to create).

Depending on the needs and logistics of your group and accessibility of food items for the artwork, this part of the activity may be done in or out of session. e) Mandala construction (1-2 hours) Construct a “personal pan pizza” or mandala telling symbolically the story of your life through food with color and shape and texture and smell? What colors can represent your response to what has happened in your life? What kinds of foods are necessary for you to show contentment or frustration? You might start at the center, represent your birth, and move out in concentric rings, like the growth rings in a tree, representing your life. You might consider years (20 years equals 20 “rings”), you might consider phases of your life (birth, early childhood, adolescence, young adult equals 4 “rings”, etc.), or you might consider big changes, or any other way of dividing up the time you have lived on Earth. You might alter one food (e.g. breads are served in many different ways) and play with texture, or you might use several foods. Parts of your mandala may be edible, parts may be inedible (i.e. you may want to use a food raw, for its texture, and it may not be too palatable). Also, what do you need to place your food mandala on? For instance, if you are remembering and exploring a specific time in which food was important, you may want to think of the setting or location and incorporate that in some way.

Processing Suggestions: Provide time for participants to share their stories and the food (the edible parts). How can you share the role food has played in your life? How often has it been associated with loved ones? What was it like for you to work with food in this way?

Personal Commentary: The exercise is a powerful one that usually results in an honoring of food and its many impacts on our lives, but it can also open up avenues to painful experiences. One participant actually bought a TV dinner and then manipulated the food in a mandala form and shared the fact that all she remembers eating in the evenings were TV dinners while her mother was working.

Related Reading: Holmes, M. (2001). Please eat the art, in Smithsonian, XXXI(11), 116-118.

Fincher, S. (1991). Creating mandalas: For insight, healing, and self-expression.

Boston, MA: Shambhala.

Rosen, M. (1996) Food fight: Poets join the fight against hunger with poems to favorite

foods. New York: Harcourt Brace.

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Integrating Opposites Elaine Hathor Purpose and Goals: To gain self-awareness and personal insight through a symbolic process of working with opposites to create an integrated whole; translating this experience through simple artistic word forms; and sharing individual experience with others.

Materials Needed: For the facilitator: Music and player; chalk board with chalk or easel with a large pad of paper (board or easel should be set up so participants can see it while seated together in a circle).

For participants (laid out on tables or floor workspace in advance): Black and white paper, black and white Cray-pas, scissors, glue sticks, pens or pencils.

Time and Space Requirements: 45-50 minutes Enough space for participants to work at tables or on the floor with art materials and to sit together in a circle to share and process their experiences.

Appropriate Clientele: Any who are physically able to work with the materials and able to process with a group.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Opening Activity (2-3 minutes) Play recorded music chosen for relaxation and focus, and move into a short facilitator-led guided relaxation through conscious focus on the breath.

Art Making (12-15 minutes) When participants seem relaxed, invite them to begin when ready to use their materials to make an image that includes both black and white. Tell them how much time is allowed. Continue the music through this activity.

As participants begin to complete their work, ask them to give it a title. Ask them to write the title on the back of their image along with a sentence or phrase that describes what it means to them.

Move into a circle if not already in one. Invite participants to share their images and words one at a time in a go-around. The facilitator writes key words and phrases on the board or easel.

Invite participants to individually compose a brief poem or story using the collective words of the group. Suggest that a poem can be in any form and that it does not have to rhyme.

Share the writings one at a time in a go-around.

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Final Processing (30 minutes) Open a sharing dialogue of the participants’ experiences through the whole activity. Invite them to share insights, feelings, new understandings, or whatever they wish to share with the group.

Closing (1 minute) Invite the participants to take three slow, conscious breaths together.

Personal Commentary: All human beings share an experience of living with the seemingly opposite energies of polarity in our lives, whether dark/light, female/male, good/bad, peace/war, or chaos/calm. As such, this exercise is universal in its theme.

Weaving a New Whole Decisions… Is it black or white?

Pressed between two layers, I am forced to the next level.

Moved to change By language of light, I weave a new path.

I Am… one as dark and light.

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How Do I Love Myself…?

Anna C. Monlezun-Thibodeaux Purpose and Goals of Activity: To develop a sense of self-awareness.

To cultivate self-acceptance and improve self-image by emphasizing positive aspects of the self.

To utilize the arts for deepening understanding and personal process.

To learn to externalize internal processes so that healing may take place.

Materials Needed: Paper, at least 8½ by 11(2 sheets per person) Writing utensils (1 per person) Pencil colors, oil pastels, crayons, paints, markers, watercolors Time and Space Requirements: 1 ½ hours - 2 hours Can work on tables with chairs or on floor, indoors or outdoors Appropriate Clientele: Ages 8-9 (can write) through adult Step-by-Step Description of Activity: First go-round Ask participants: What does love mean to you? Everyone will have a different association with the word “love.” What is the first thing that comes to you when you think of the word love?

Brainstorm on paper Name 3 things/people in your life that you love.

Next to each item from above, write how you do that. How do you show your love for that thing/person?

How does it/he/she know that you love it/him/her? Is it what you say, what you do, how you look at them? Where did you learn that?

Name 3 things that you love about yourself.

(If group is gets stuck here, present examples: things I can do well, ways that I’m strong, ways that I’m growing, things that other people appreciate about me that I agree with, etc.)

How do you show yourself that you love yourself?

(Examples may need to be used here: go for a walk, take a long bath, massage your own feet, cook a good meal from scratch, smile at your image in the mirror, sit and read in the sunshine, etc.)

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What might you be willing to try to show yourself that you love yourself?

What have you not tried before, that you think would be enjoyable?

Creative writing On the back of your paper, use the words or phrases from your brainstorming to write a poem, story, mantra, or prayer about love, specifically loving yourself. Try to use a creative format, instead of just writing a paragraph. You can be an artist here.

For children and young adolescents, this step can be made more age appropriate by having them write themselves a “valentine.”

Create an image Take a new sheet of paper and place it next to the one with your creative writing piece on it. Create an image inspired by your own writing. Use crayons, pastels, pencil colors, etc. It can be simple lines and colors or abstract images, symbols, or real life depictions. Just let your words from before inspire your hand to move across the paper. Do whatever comes to you.

Process circle Share your creations or not - or what you experienced during the activity. No one will have to share anything they do not wish to (e.g. writing, image).

Final go-round What is something that you might take from here and use in your life?

Processing Suggestions: Throughout the process, encourage participants not to try to force words or images, not to try too hard to find exact words, but instead to allow them to come. Be sure to leave ample time for the concluding process circle, and make sure everyone leaves in a safe mental space.

Personal Commentary: This activity was used for a group of women who were victims of domestic violence. I was mostly struck by the diverse perceptions of “love” that filled our space: some painful, some happy, some sad, some indifferent, some passionate, some angry. By using multiple art modalities, this activity invited many levels of personal expression. Even though some of the women were reluctant to participate in the creative writing or the drawing, each person was ultimately pleased and surprised at what she had created! In the end, the women expressed that they appreciated that we focused our time on the “self ” and not concentrating so much on the “abusers” as in most group experiences. I believe each participant left the session with a more positive attitude, as well as with a new perspective on how to incorporate “love” into life again.

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Grief in Motion Delores Gulledge Purpose and Goals of Activity: To increase awareness of grief emotions To encourage openness To give permission for emotional expression To spark creativity Materials Needed: Paper Pencil/Crayons Flip Chart or White Board CD Player & Music (optional) Time and Space Requirements: Allow one and one half hour for a single session, which may be extended to one hour per week for six weeks for deeper exploration.

Space required is dependent upon number of participants: a studio space is best to allow freedom of movement.

Appropriate Clientele: Individuals who have experienced significant loss, i.e. loss of child, loss of mate, loss of family member, loss of pet, loss of relationship, loss of health, loss of job, loss of a dream‌it goes on and on. The focus may be loss in general or the activity may be used for a specific loss group, i.e. all members bereaved over child loss, all loss of pet, etc.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Introduction Acknowledge loss as a life-changing event. Acknowledge grief as a life journey that is not likely to be linear - instead it may be circuitous or spiraling. Grief is not static; it is fluid, ever moving and ever changing. Grief is unique to each individual. There may be commonalities of feelings and sensations, but each individual may express the feeling or sensation differently. The complexity of the individual and the complexity of grief combine to create unique individual expression.

Invite participants to pair up with one other.

To each other: identify themselves by first name and to name their loss, tell relationship to loss, length of time out from loss, and briefly tell just a few sentences about the loss.

Partners introduce each other using information gleaned from listening to each other.

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Brainstorm with group participation characteristics of grief emotions. These may include feelings, physical sensations, or major overall characteristics. Randomly jot emotions on chart or board as they are suggested. Since grief is not likely to be linear, select a non-linear method of recording.

Some participants may prefer to make individual lists: please allow for this. Decide if all suggestions will remain randomly together or if you wish to separate them into groups that might be called: characteristics, feelings, and physical sensations.

Movement All participants may not be comfortable with movement, so go slowly and gently.

Ask them to begin by allowing one feeling to speak to them. Consider that feeling for a moment, then, while still in seated position, allow the feeling to move them in some way.

Ask them to listen for another feeling and move in response to it, then combine the two. Now, invite them to stand as they listen for yet another feeling. Standing in their small space, ask them to combine the three feelings - first one, followed by the second and the third.

Invite them to intermingle those feelings with freedom to move in the larger space.

Invite them to join two or three others, moving simultaneously but each in his or her designated pattern.

Invite participants to continue movement patterns gradually decreasing the scale as they return to their original individual space.

Processing Suggestions: Ask: What was this like for you?

What was it like for your feelings to move you?

How was it to move in your space?

How was it to move into larger space?

What was it like to join your grief with another?

How was it to return your grief to an individual space after giving it freedom in larger space?

Personal Commentary: The initial introductory dyads provide a sense of being heard and having loss validated. Beginning with movements in individual small space gives time to experiment slowly, while adding additional movement invites more expression, and moving into larger space gives one self-permission to openly express painful emotions. The range of responses includes beating the air with a clenched fist along the continuum to a sense of filling with calm peacefulness. Combining with another or others contributes to understanding that mourning or grief expression is not an entirely private

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process. There is often a need to give public expression to private emotion. Returning to the individual space gives time to calm and settle feelings, sensations and/or emotions.

If there are clients who are unable and/or unwilling to participate in the movement work, I offer material and invite the bereaved to write or draw the feelings. From experience, I have learned to go slowly, build trust, and begin with small non-threatening movements to establish a safe environment. Interacting with movement-oriented individuals, i.e. dancers, is different from working with individuals unaccustomed to free movement.

A Word to the Practitioner: Please be sensitive to the nature of the activity. Some participants may be on the surface of grief while others may be plunged into the depths. I suggest that participants have 8-12 months from the time of their loss before engaging in this activity. This is not a morbid activity; it likely will be laced with humor. Interject lightness where appropriate. This activity has potential for becoming very complex with the addition of more and more feelings or sensations or characteristics of grief, or it may be kept very simple.

Related Reading: Gulledge, D. D. (2003). Grief in motion. The Forum, 29 (2), 10.

Halprin, A. (2000). Dance as a healing art: Returning to health through movement & imagery.

Mendicino, CA: Liferhythm.

Whitehouse, M. S., Adler, J., Chodorow, J., & Pallaro, P. (1999). Authentic movement.

London: Jessica Kingsley.

Worden, J. W. (2002). Grief counseling and grief therapy: A handbook for the

mental health practitioner (3rd. Ed.). New York: Springer.

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Storytelling: Personal and Community Healing Diana Quealy-Berge Purpose and Goals of Activity: To provide a container for individuals to explore process and acknowledge the role of personal difficulties, trauma and heroism, as well as institutional and societal racism, sexism, ageism, and other forms of oppression through the context of the story (Nelson, 1994).

To foster personal and cultural awareness and sensitivity through the integrated cultural context and worldview in the stories.

To open a path for discovering, respecting, and working with the norms, beliefs, and preferences of ethnic, racial, cultural, gender, religious groups, defined by representatives of these groups within their communities (CSAP).

Materials Needed: Stories that address the therapeutic goals and needs of the client(s) Blank paper Markers, colored pencils, crayons Other art materials may be incorporated if desired: clay, collage materials, etc.

Time and Space Requirements: The time to tell and learn a story depends upon the length of the story and developmental level of the receiver. Storytelling and story learning requires multiple exposures and opportunities to listen and work with the story. Generally, small groups require between 90 minutes to 2 hours to work with a story initially, with one hour follow up sessions to integrate and process the story.

Stories selected for use with individual clients must be brief enough to allow adequate time for the processing of the story.

Quiet space is needed, with tables and chairs that allow both for listening and for writing.

Appropriate Clientele: Oral tradition and story telling are appropriate for all clients. The selection of the story must be pertinent to the client, developmentally appropriate and therapeutically appropriate.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Preparatory work for the facilitator: Story selection and process What is the therapeutic program or goal you work with or are you interested in? What are the ethnic affiliations of your participants? What are the ages of the participants?

What type of stories might you use? (Examples: personal, hero or heroine, creation stories or trickster stories) Who could you recruit as a storyteller? (Examples: elders, grandparents, teachers, ministers or neighbors) How could you learn more about your own culture? How could you learn one or two stories from your own cultural traditions? Consider using different methods of incorporating storytelling, including recruiting elders, educators, or parents to tell stories.

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Preparing for storytelling Teach group members the importance of stories. Some important points include: • Stories demonstrate the interconnections of all life and can increase respect for all of life, self, family, community, tribe and the planet (Campbell, 1949; Nelson, 1994).

• Stories provide protective factors of coherence and future orientation by connecting one's life from the past to the hope in one's life for the future.

• Stories increase our awareness that adversity will come in life while teaching the value of building a life in harmony and balance with nature (Campbell, 1949; Nelson, 1994).

• Stories provide the protective factor of humor by increasing our ability to laugh at pitfalls (for example, the American Indian Coyote stories).

• Stories solidify our values and beliefs, identification with a group or tribe, character traits such as courage, ability and bravery, our ability to withstand negative forces, overcome adversity, and acceptance of one's role or destiny in life.

Have people read chosen stories to small groups.

Use “go-arounds” in the group to foster listening.

Learning stories Depending on the source of the story to be learned, guide the participants through the process of learning their story following the suggested steps below.

(The following suggestions for learning a story come from Annabelle Nelson’s The Learning Wheel: Holistic and Multicultural Lesson Planning and Storytelling for Empowerment Training Manual from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.)

Learning a story from a storyteller or audio tape: • Listen to the story several times in a comfortable location.

• Visualize the story as you listen - you may want to close your eyes.

• Retell the story aloud to yourself.

• Tell the story again to yourself several times.

• Rehearse the story to someone else.

Learning a written story: • Read the story visualizing what is happening.

• Retell the story aloud to yourself without looking at the story.

• Read the story again.

• Practice retelling the story out loud to your self several times.

• Practice telling the story again to someone else.

Telling a story from memory: • Think about a story you want to tell that you were told or a story from your own life experience.

• Visualize elements of the story, colors, sounds, smells, feelings.

• Put swatches of color or fabric on paper that recreate in you the feeling of the story to open up your memories.

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• Tell the story aloud to yourself.

• Tell the story again to someone else.

Remember you need to tell a story many times before it is stored in your memory, possibly up to 10 times. You may want to tape your story if you won’t be telling it for awhile, so you can refresh your memory.

Processing Suggestions: It is important for facilitators to constantly keep in mind the cultural context in which the information is being presented, and to recognize that traditional theories and skills may need to be modified to apply to different cultures. As a part of the preparation process, facilitators need to think through the cultural variables that influence the concepts they are presenting.

Don’t feel that you have to explain the meaning of stories. I recommend providing the participants with paper, crayons, and/or clay to work with during the learning and telling of the story. I have also used collage for processing the learning from the story.

Personal Commentary: I have used oral tradition and storytelling in several therapeutic settings. In an adolescent day treatment program we used learning how to be a storyteller as the vehicle to enhance resiliency and prevent alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse. The 12 -18 year old clients of ADT learned stories and then went to the public school to tell the stories to younger children and process the stories with them. This activity was very successful for both the tellers and receivers. Additionally, I have used storytelling with in-patient psychiatric patients to open up discussion on difficult issues in therapeutic groups, individual sessions and family groups. Lastly, I have used storytelling through hip hop/rap music as a vehicle for my clients to teach me about their lives and struggles.

Related Reading: CASP. Storytelling for empowerment training manual. Center for Substance Abuse

Prevention.

Campbell, J. (1949). The hero with a thousand faces. Princeton, NJ: Princeton.

Nelson, A. (1994). The learning wheel: Holistic and multicultural lesson planning.

Zephyr Press.

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Community Museum Nancy Terry, M.A., LPC, CAGS Purpose and Goals of Activity: To create a sense of community within an organization through a shared expressive arts experience.

Materials Needed: Timeline from organization listing the years that staff members arrived in the organization Foam board (the kind used in matting pictures) cut into 20 in. x 16 in. pieces Participants bring one item that they touch in their work each day Time and Space Requirements: This activity can be done in 30 minutes or longer It was originally designed for 40 participants and required a large open classroom (without furniture in the way), but could be adjusted to a smaller space with fewer participants.

Appropriate Clientele: This activity was designed for Montessori teachers and support staff. It could be used in most work environments.

Step-By-Step Description of Activity: Ahead of time, use the timeline provided to determine small groups based on staff members’ arrival dates into the organization. There will be clusters of dates when individuals were hired.

Limit the number to a maximum of 10 per small group. Place signs depicting the hire dates (in 1 yr., 2yr., 5 yr. or 10 yr. increments) around the room.

Frame the introduction using the metaphor of the Tate Modern Gallery, the modern art museum in London where the known (e.g. Monet, Dali) and the relatively unknown artists’ works are exhibited side by side. Works that are recognizable as art and works that leave the viewer questioning “What is art?” are on display.

Invite the participants to go to the part of the room with the sign that matches their hire date.

Once they arrive in the designated space, have participants create a non-permanent sculpture on top of the foam board using the items they brought. Assure them that that their items will be able to leave with them at the end of the session.

Ask each group to develop a poem, sentence, or story for the sculpture.

Ask each group to name the sculpture.

Have each group create a song, a series of sounds or a rhythmic expression of words.

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(If there is more than 30 minutes for the entire session, ask them to create a movement as well.)

Once all the small groups have completed the above tasks, explain to all the groups at one time that a tour of the gallery will begin. Decide to move either from the present into the past or the past into the present based on the date of hire signs.

Travel through the gallery, stopping at each area to view the sculpture. Let each small group share the name of their piece along with their poems, sentences, stories, song, sounds (and if there is time, movement).

Once each part of the gallery has been visited gather the entire group in a circle but make sure they are standing next to their small group members. Have each group sing their song or make sounds and let it travel around the circle (e.g. group one sings and finishes, then the group next to that one does the same, etc.) The group leader may need to stand up on a chair in order to view the whole group. It also helps to give some kind of signal for the groups to know when to come in.

After this, have each group begin to sing again, and when the first group finishes the second group starts their song while the first group continues to repeat theirs. Continue to let each group do the same until all the groups are singing their own sound at the same time. The experience is like singing in rounds. The group leader will determine when to stop.

Once the sounds and singing have stopped, the group can give a collective close out. This can be a sound or a movement.

Processing Suggestions: Time and number of participants are the real issues here. If there is time, participants could return to their small groups to process what the experience was like for them. Alternatively, depending again on the number of people, a quick check-out could occur using one “-ing� word, a sound or a movement. If the group is small, a drawing or writing option could be made available.

Personal Commentary: This activity brought individuals together in small groups who would have never had an opportunity to interact. Administrative staff was mixed in with childcare staff. Elementary teachers were working with infant/toddler staff. In large organizations, departments may not interact with each other. This opened the door for experiencing coworkers at play. It created a sense of community.

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Mosaic With Colored Paper Sarva Posey Purpose and Goals of Activity: Making a mosaic together in a group stimulates older people. It encourages social interaction and creative involvement, entertains, exercises eye/hand coordination, and explores memory and storytelling. It can calm people with Alzheimer’s disease and encourage relationships between residents and staff. The materials chosen are appropriate for pe ople with both limited and normal vision and motor functions.

Materials Needed: Colored paper Glue sticks Lightweight poster board Scissors Time and Space Requirements: The time requirements are flexible, from two hours to several weeks, depending on the size of the mosaic and how fast people are working.

The clients can sit around a table to do the mosaic.

Appropriate Clientele: Residents of retirement and nursing homes or other long-term facilities.

Step-by-Step Description of the Activity: Planning and preparation Begin with talking about the picture motif and encourage ideas for picture design. Clients ca n contribute ideas about colors, elements and the theme of the picture. The design is also a process and can be adjusted throughout the creation of the mosaic.

Sketch a drawing on the background paper. Themes I have used include an autumn landscape with barn, a butterfly, a tree, and a seasonal landscape. The motif should be meaningful, with a personal connection to the clients. A local landscape may provide a good starting theme, as the clients can identify with at least some aspects of it.

Cut pieces of colored paper in different shapes. If they are cut in asymmetrical shapes, it gives an irregular negative space between the mosaic pieces, which makes the picture livelier. Using different shades of the same color and mixing them so that, for example, the sky has different shades

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of blue also enhances the mosaic. I like to use as many different colors as I can find available.

Different additional elements like photocopies of animals add depth and interest to the picture.

Some of the mosaic element, like fruit on trees or people, can be cut out of one piece of paper.

The paper can be cut by anybody who wants to and is able to.

Making the Mosaic The group decides what color the design elements should have and then the pieces of paper are glued down on the poster board. The best way is with a glue stick. It is easy to handle and each piece of paper can be glued down separately. Alternately, a small area can be prepared with glue and then only the paper has to be put down on the board. The visual effect of the picture also depends how densely the pieces of paper are placed on the board.

Exhibition After every session the picture is exhibited, pinned to a wall, so it can be seen by the participants.

Everybody who contributes also signs the mosaic.

Processing Suggestions: Processing and reflecting during the art making happens in a conversational way. I encourage people to share their stories and thoughts while making the mosaic. One client remembered a song and sang it while shaping a stream. Other people remember the song.

At the end of each session we exhibit the mosaic, so everybody can see the progress from a distance. That is when the element of surprise comes in. It is difficult to see the whole picture while working on a small part. The participants can now share their experience of making the mosaic and at the same time appreciate their effort.

Personal Commentary: Making a mosaic is entertaining and enjoyable when there is no time limit. I am always touched how well people work together. It helps people develop a team spirit by encouraging each other to do the best according to their abilities. From design to cutting the paper and gluing the pieces down, everybody can contribute to the picture.

It encourages interaction as the clients have to negotiate who is doing what. The products are beautiful pieces of representational art. The clients like to exhibit the mosaics at their retirement homes. It is easy for me to join into making part of the picture and the conversations.

Related Reading: Eberhart, H. (2003). Surprise: An aspect of art-analogy in therapy, supervision and

coaching. Poiesis: A Journal of the Arts and Communication, V, 60-68.

Jang, Y., Mortimer, J. A., Haley, W.E., & Borenestein Graves, A. (2004). The

role of social engagement in life satisfaction: Its significance among older

individuals with disease and disability. The Journal of Applied Gerontology,

XXIII(3), 222-278.

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Water and Light: Expressive Arts and Spirituality

Chapter 7 Water and Light: Expressive Arts and Spirituality For many if not most expressive arts therapists, art-making, healing and spirituality are inextricably linked. Many of the foundational ideas of expressive arts therapy spring from philosophical positions that could just as easily be termed spiritual beliefs. From the belief in the innate capacity of all people to move toward wholeness and growth to the belief that the creative capacity connects us to a source of knowing greater than ourselves, these ideas ground and infuse all aspects of the personal and therapeutic practice.

Many expressive arts therapists work in a way that recognizes and acknowledges the deep spiritual roots of personal and societal dis-order and dis-ease. Many draw from any number of spiritual practices and traditions in their personal and therapeutic work, including indigenous traditions and other earth-based spiritual practices, the Judeo/Christian tradition, Sufism and other Muslim traditions, Hinduism and Buddhism, among others – or simply from their own deep personal experience of spirituality. Other therapists ground their practice within a single spiritual tradition. In engaging clients in exploring spirituality in whatever context, we have a responsibility as therapists: To have spiritual beliefs that are lived and embodied but never imposed.

To create a space that welcomes discovery and open exploration of each client’s spiritual path.

To model respect for spiritual or religious beliefs that differ from one’s own.

The exercises in this section cover a wide range of the approaches described above. The first, Embodying the Spiritual Self , provides a structure for groups or individuals to use multiple arts modalities to explore their own sense of spirituality and spiritual connection, representing the act of searching or asking through art-making. The next two, Looking Within Through Your Eyes and Mirror Self-study, while less explicitly spiritually focused, have as their premise a decidedly spiritual theme: that there is a source of worthiness, beauty, compassion and acceptance in each of us that may be accessed and recognized in ourselves and through others.

Cherokee River Rock, drawing from Cherokee tradition, creates a simple ritual, intimately connected to its place and the natural world, to invite a shift in awareness. Finally, Loving Kindness Circle provides an example of using creativity and an expressive arts structure within the context of a specific traditional spiritual practice.

Embodying the Spiritual Self Maria Gonzalez-Blue Purpose and Goals of Activity: I am a great believer in assisting clients or students in becoming stronger and more self-reliant.

Tapping our sense of spirituality helps us open to a more whole self. Through movement, writing and clay work, this activity offers the individual an opportunity to explore kinesthetically and to experience aspects of the spiritual self. The goal of this activity is to open to the transpersonal self, that part of us that aligns with universal experience, to connect more deeply with one’s spirituality and to embrace and embody the spiritual self. This exploration can help the individual understand her profound relationship to archetypal or universal forces, to acquire a broader perspective on her or his place in the grand scheme of things. Performing all aspects of the activity helps the individual move toward taking responsibility for the spiritual self, developing a greater awareness of the self in relationship to everyday life. It can help to ground individuals more fully in the mundane world. I like to see it as the small self meeting the big Self.

Materials Needed: Writing materials Clay (precut into approximately a 3-inch square) and clay tools Time and Space Requirements: When done with an individual client, the activity can be done in one hour, or parts of it can be done in less. If done in a group, it will take more time for people to process their pieces. In that case, allow 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

The space should provide enough room for movement.

Appropriate Clientele: This activity can be used with therapy clients or adult groups at any level of expertise with movement, art or spiritual experience. This is particularly helpful for individuals who are feeling blocked with a personal issue.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Describe to individuals that they will be exploring their sense of spirituality through movement, writing and clay. It is not necessary to have a clear sense of one’s spirituality. In fact, this is particularly helpful for those who don’t follow a specific path.

10 minutes - Either in silence or with a piece of gentle music, invite individuals to explore their feelings about spirituality. They can start by following the breath inward and slowly rocking back and forth, feeling shifts in balance. Suggest that they begin to ask questions. Who is the spiritual self? What are its attributes? What are its obstacles? What are its needs and hopes? How do I

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feel when I am connected to my spiritual self? Allow free, spontaneous movement to come from within, relaxing the thinking, judgmental mind. Allow movement to come from inner impulse, opening to one’s unique spiritual self. Give mover a 2-minute warning to bring movement to a close and ask that they then sit in stillness, feeling the body’s energy, allowing the movement to settle and integrate what has come up for them.

15 minutes - Allow a free, spontaneous writing about the experience and anything else that surfaces about one’s spiritual experience, keeping in mind that this is a spiritual exploration. An individual can write with non-dominant hand if she feels blocked in any way. Explore the questions: Who is the spiritual self? What are its attributes? Blocks? Needs and hopes? Writing can also be free-flowing.

Stop the writing. Individuals should go back and re-read their writing and circle any words or phrases that hold energy or stand out in any way.

10 minutes - Allow a second writing using these words. Not all have to be used and others can be added. This second writing may become a poem or prose, which now carries a stronger message for the individual. It will offer the individual a sense of what is spiritual for her.

Process: It might be helpful to read the second piece to the therapist or to another person, if this is facilitated in a group.

20 minutes - Creating an intention piece Take these feelings into working with clay. This can become an intention or commitment piece representing one’s spiritual self, the embodiment of this self through clay. The clay piece does not need to look like a figure; it can be an abstract shape. What is important is that the individual stay connected to the feeling of one’s spirituality as she works the clay. The clay then becomes like a fetish or talisman that represents one’s spiritual self.

5 minutes - To process this piece, the individual can ask the clay piece to state its message, give it a name, or complete sentences which start with “I am” or “I will.” Anything which seems important from the previous pieces of the activity can be shared.

Processing Suggestions Doing this activity with a client obviously has to be limited by time. Doing this in a group workshop where more time is available can offer additional options. This process can be taken into psychodrama. Individuals can create rites of passage where they make the statements that have come through the art. They can also explore what needs to be released in order to make room for the new, fuller self. This can be done through another writing exercise. It can also be an additional movement piece which allows the mover to release old obstacles and move as if embodying the new spiritual self.

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Personal Commentary: I like to touch on the spiritual aspects of the person as I help them explore issues. Most human beings sooner or later ask the big questions like: “What does it all mean?” “Is there a God?” or other similar searching questions. Often people say, “I am spiritual but not religious.” This often undefined spirituality can be used as a force and energy that can give us solace and strength in the everyday mundane world. It is important to acknowledge this aspect of the individual and use it to help build strength and self-confidence. Individuals move toward taking pride in their personal, unique essence of spirituality and feel greater strength in dealing with the world.

I have used parts of this in brief with clients. What I find is that individuals feel calmer about issues they are struggling with. They get a sense of a greater flow that they are a part of. Though issues are still there, there seems to be less worry about them, more trust that things will move beyond the issue. Rather than focusing on the issue, clients work on building the inner self, thus making them more able to deal with the issues.

When I’ve done this in groups, I have felt a sacred space is created. To have the opportunity to honor and embrace ones own spirituality without forcing a definition or a dogma helps to empower the individual. It helps the individual feel more comfortable with one’s personal spirituality and to see that it is valid even without having to name it or define it or force it into a “practice.”

Because it moves the individual into a broader dimension of self, into the transpersonal, there is an expansion that occurs. In my work, I have found that many people feel a loss of connection or feel they do not fit in. This experience holds the possibility for that connection. Even in a room full of strangers, a shift occurs, and suddenly individuals feel a connection to each other because they are grounded in their own fullness. They realize, with great gratitude, that they hold a valuable place in the scheme of things. From this place of inner strength, deep personal work can then be done.

Related Reading: McNiff, S. (1992). Art as medicine. Boston: Shambhala.

Mindell, A. (1993). Shaman’s body. San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco.

Rogers, N. (1993). The creative connection: Expressive arts as healing. Palo Alto, CA: Science & Behavior Books.

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Looking Within Through Your Eyes Diana Quealy-Berge Purpose and Goals of Activity: The purpose of this activity is to open a space for the participants to honor and own their inherent worthiness, creativity and beauty as living beings through the reflection of self seen in another.

The eyes become the mirror of our intrinsic worth and beauty.

Materials Needed: Tables and chairs Pens/pencils Paper cut into 3 inch by 5 inch rectangles or 3 x 5 note cards Time and Space Requirements: This activity requires approximately one hour with a group of 20. Larger groups may require more time.

The activity requires a room large enough to position participants on opposite sides of the tables in small groups of 4 with additional space to gather the participants in a circle for a final process discussion.

Note: This activity requires an even number of participants Appropriate Clientele: This activity requires clients of normal to above normal intellectual capacity with a minimum reading and writing level of sixth grade, who are able to participate in insight based therapy and have the capacity for empathy. Clients in mid to late stages of therapeutic work who are able to work with both affective and cognitive domains benefit the most from this activity.

This activity is not appropriate for clients with traumatic brain injury, developmental delays, conduct disorders, antisocial personality disorders or clients in the early stages of recovery from trauma or substance abuse.

Step-by-Step Description of the Activity: Describe the activity and purpose to the clients and provide an option to not participate without penalty. Sample description: You might have noticed how easy it is to see the strength, beauty, and gifts of others in our group. Today we are going to practice describing those gifts and sharing our insights with each other. I am going to ask you to do the following preparatory steps: First, find a spot at a table sitting directly across from someone in the group. Clear the table of everything except the paper and writing instrument.

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We will then begin by participating in resonant breathing. As you breath in your tummy rises and as you breath out your tummy falls. This will help you relax and open a clear space for the work we are going to do. I will guide you through the resonant breathing and coach you on how to create a space to define and honor the gifts we all bring to our lives.

I am going to ask you to continue focusing on your breath as you look into each other’s eyes for several minutes.

After a few minutes I am going to ask you to write what you see in the eyes of your partner. You will find note paper on the tables. Please write one statement per card. We will share our insights later in the exercise. Are there any questions?

Ask the participants to find their seats and clear the tables.

Begin guided resonant breathing. Monitor the participants’ anxiety and readiness to begin through visible nonverbal communicators. Note: People sometimes are uncomfortable with silence and eye contact. It is necessary to coach and support the participants as they find the necessary personal space to engage in the exercise.

Once the group is calm and participating comfortably in resonant breathing, ask them to look into each other’s eyes with soft eyes. Continue to guide the process using a soft, calm and firm voice supporting the participants as a whole, not individually. This portion of the process from the beginning of the resonant breathing into the soft eyes generally takes about 15 minutes.

Ask the participants to begin writing what they see the eyes of their partner on the slips of paper before them. Remind them to write one statement per paper. Allow the participants adequate time to write 5 to 6 statements. Remind them to continue breathing and focusing on their partner’s eyes.

After they have completed writing, ask them to exchange papers. At this point ask the participants to write their partner’s name on each slip of paper they have just received.

Ask the participants to read the names and the accompanying statements to their partners. (Note to facilitators: at this point, group members are hearing their own words read back, addressed to them.) When both members of the pair have finished, have them return the slips of paper to their original authors.

Provide each pair a few minutes to process the experience with each other before reassembling the group into one large circle.

Processing Suggestions: Clients often have difficulty seeing in themselves the gifts, strengths and attributes others see, and yet have no trouble honoring and acknowledging the gifts, strengths and attributes of others.

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Therefore, it is common for cognitive dissonance to increase as they realize they are hearing their own words read back. To help lessen the resistance during the sharing time between pairs it is helpful to continue coaching them to breathe, encouraging them to let the words sink in to their hearts. Allow about 5-7 minutes for each person to share his or her response with the partner (a total of 15 minutes between the two) before gathering the group back as a whole.

Once the group is assembled, resume coaching the participants to breathe to calm the energy of the group and to help the participants to center their energy. Invite the participants to stand and read one of the statements in their pile out loud to the group. Allow adequate time for each participant to read a statement and room for the participant to remain silent if they wish.

Approximately 15-20 minutes are necessary for this portion.

After all those who are willing to stand and read a statement have done so, open the floor for processing of the experience as a whole. Allow approximately 15-20 minutes for the final process.

Conclude the activity with an acknowledgment of the work the participants have engaged in and adjourn.

Personal Commentary: This activity has been used in mixed groups in a psychiatric hospital, large groups as part of a psycho-educational experience, and in a graduate level therapeutic writing course. Across all the populations and settings, participant cognitive dissonance has had to be addressed in order for the participants to receive affirming data about themselves.

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Mirror Self-Study Patience Perry Purpose and Goals of Activity: This activity allows participants to rehearse looking at themselves without self-judgments and to reflect on emotional qualities they display or withhold.

Goals include: To ascertain internal strengths To develop an affirmation Materials Needed: Free standing or wall-mounted mirror (10” x 10” minimum) Watch or clock Paper Markers or Cray-Pas Time and Space Requirements: A mirror session could take 55 minutes or longer depending on how much time is devoted to processing.

A space with room on the floor for drawing is appropriate.

Appropriate Clientele: This activity is appropriate for medium to high functioning adults or adolescents during individual therapy.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Opening (3 minutes) Welcome the client to come get comfortable on the floor. Sit and discuss previously defined concerns about physical self-acceptance. Share today’s plan to be in our bodies, look in a mirror, reflect on our internal qualities, and draw ourselves.

Movement (10 minutes) Stand and face your client. Guide as follows: Take a few deep breaths and slowly lean forward allowing the spine to stretch and bend one vertebra at a time. Descend, by a count of 8, until your hands are touching the floor or you feel a comfortable (not painful) stretch in your hamstrings. Slowly rise one vertebra at a time, by a count of 8, until upright again. Notice places where you feel tension, soreness, or stiffness. Perform a short self-massage by starting with your scalp, your forehead, cheeks, and face. You may choose to have your eyes closed or opened.

Continue massaging places which need attention as you move lower, and lower until eventually, you are

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bent forward touching the floor again. Rise to a count of 8 one vertebra at a time. Shake and wiggle all your body parts loosely and take one last exhilarating breath.

Mirror Self-Study: (12 minutes) Note that simple stretching and massage is such a pleasure for the body. Ask the client to stand or sit facing the mirror. Ask the client how and when they use a mirror in their daily routine, then offer the following description: It is natural to glance at our profile or full length in the mirror, but today the mirror is a tool to help us observe our internal dialogue. Using a mirror, we will explore the “windows to the soul,” our eyes. Our mirror self-study consists of two, five-minute segments. Begin the first segment with a deep breath and focus on your eyes.

Offer a few simple prompts as they begin: Be open. Instead of judging, simply question. Look through your eyes as if through a window. What’s inside? Allow 5 minutes for personal discovery.

Invite the client to close his or her eyes and take a few deep breaths and then to open the eyes when ready again.

Suggest: This time, pay attention to what you feel. Instead of focusing on physical details, on colors, shape, sensation or blinking, focus on the emotions. Let your guard down. Invite insight. Welcome awareness.

Drawing (15 minutes) After this second gaze into the mirror is complete, motion for the client to paint or draw the experience. Offer little direction or few, if any, prompts such as: Try to represent your experience in a visual way.

It may contain emotional, spiritual, physical, or mental material.

What part of the activity speaks to you? You may choose to represent that somehow.

Processing Suggestions: Have the client verbally share the experience. She or he may start with the drawing and describe the experience through reflecting on the artwork. The client may also want to face herself in the mirror and describe some of what is felt. Ask the client to share areas of strength, personal conviction, power, and acceptance. Encourage these through praise, encouragement, and summary.

Focus on client strengths and discovery. Ask the client to formulate an affirmation using these strengths to conclude the session.

Personal Commentary: This activity is structured for strength-based processing. Reframing, joining, encouraging, and other reflective techniques greatly assist the client in accepting and celebrating the strengths which are revealed. Revisiting these personal discoveries through subsequent self-esteem activities is very effective. Likewise, reviewing how the client previously used a mirror and discussing a plan for future usage is helpful. Instead of solely physical evaluation, reframing so that a mirror is a tool

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to celebrate internal qualities, to self-speak an affirmation, or to rehearse positive self-regard may be useful.

Note: This activity has not been used with eating-disordered clients and I am hesitant to do so.

The mirror is an object with massive negative associations for clients such as these. The intention of the activity is to focus not on the physical, but the internal. Practitioners should use their own best judgment if the potential eating disordered client is functioning on a level where this activity might be beneficial.

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Cherokee River Rock Keith Davis Purpose and Goals of Activity: The purpose and goal of this activity is for participants to discover how their burdens, concerns, and life challenges are “weighing” them down and/or constantly aggravating them.

Materials Needed: A river, stream, or creek which contains rocks, stones, and pebbles Time and Space Requirements: One morning/afternoon located near a river, stream, or creek.

Appropriate Clientele: Appropriate for all ages from children on up. Best used in groups.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: The participants and facilitator gather near a river, stream, or creek. The facilitator asks participants to think about current burdens, concerns, and challenges in their lives.

Participants are then asked to spend time near or in a river, stream, or creek collecting rocks, stones, and/or pebbles. They are asked to collect these elements in proportion to the size of the burdens, concerns, and challenges they are experiencing in their life.

After collecting, participants are asked to carry these elements with them at all times (e.g., backpack, book bag, pockets, hands, etc.) until they are ready to let these burdens, concerns, and/or challenges go. This is done by placing the rocks, stones, and/or pebbles back into the water.

Processing Suggestions: Processing is first centered on the collection process of rocks, stones, and pebbles. Specific questions may be: How did you decide which size rock, stone, or pebble to choose? How did you decide how many rocks, stones, and pebbles to choose? What is your feeling now after you have collected these elements? What is your feeling about how many (or lack of ) elements you have collected? What does this tell you about the current burdens, concerns, or challenges you are facing/carrying in your life?

Processing may continue after participants have carried their “burdens, concerns, or challenges” around for a period of time. Some specific questions may be: What effect are these burdens, concerns, or challenges (i.e., rocks, stones, pebbles) having upon you? How long do you think you can carry these burdens, concerns, or challenges with you? How do you think these burdens, concerns, or challenges

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are affecting others around you? Which of these burdens, concerns, or challenges do you feel you can ‘let go’? How will letting go of some or all of these burdens, concerns, or challenges affect you and others?

A final processing may be added once some or all participants are “ready” to begin the process of “letting go” of some or all of their burdens, concerns, or challenges (e.g., rocks, stones, or pebbles).

Some specific questions may include: How do you know it’s time to let this/these burden(s), concern(s), or challenge(s) go? How did you decide which of these burdens, concerns, or challenges to let go of first? How do you feel letting go of this burden, concern, or challenge will affect you, your life, and others? What will be the consequences of not letting go of this/these burden(s), concern(s), or challenge(s)? How do you feel now that you have let go of this/these burden(s), concern(s), or challenge(s)? How will your life now be different without this/these burden(s), concern(s), or challenge(s)?

Personal Commentary: This activity has been used with children and adolescents, families, and students. As one example, this exercise was used with a group of ten graduate counseling students as part of a counseling course in ecotherapy. The exercise preceded a lengthy and physically demanding outdoor hike, further emphasizing the “costs” of carrying burdens for those whose rocks and stones were larger and heavier.

Note: This exercise should only be attempted within the limitations of physical ability.

Related Readings: Garrett, J. T., & Garrett, M. T. (2002). The Cherokee full circle: A practical guide to

ceremonies and traditions. Rochester, VT: Bear & Company.

Garrett, J. T., & Garrett, M. T. (1996). Medicine of the Cherokee: The way of right

relationship. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Company.

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Loving-Kindness Circle with Crystal Bowls Ella Hill Purpose and Goals of the Activity: The purpose of this circle is to build a sense of world community spirit.

Goals include: To write original phrases for chanting using traditional loving-kindness phrases as models To cultivate a deep sense of caring for self, others, and all of creation Materials Needed: Straight backed chairs for participants in a round formation equidistant apart An index card with traditional loving-kindness phrases and a pencil placed underneath each chair (Examples of traditional loving-kindness phrases can be found in Teachings on Love (1997) by Thich Nhat Hanh or Loving-Kindness: the Revolutionary Art of Happiness (1995) by Sharon Salzberg.)

Crystal bowl (See Brodie in Suggested Reading) Time and Space Requirements: An acoustically pleasing space with few visual distractions works best. An outside space among the woodlands or next to a lake adds to the sacredness of this ceremony.

If the participants would like to add a silent meditation after the chant, the total time of the activity could be 90 minutes: 30 minutes to talk about traditional loving-kindness phrases, 40 minutes to create original phrases and chant, 20 minutes for silent meditation.

Appropriate Clientele: The loving-kindness circle can be used with individuals, groups and families.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Introduction In Loving-Kindness: the Revolutionary Art of Happiness (p. 32), Salzberg asks the reader to invite a “spirit of kindness” into his or her heart by repeating the following phrases: “May I be free from danger.”

“May I have mental happiness.”

“May I have physical happiness.”

“May I have ease of well-being.”

The facilitator shares how the repetition of these phrases can nurture a sense of caring for oneself that expands to others and all creation over time. The phrases start with the subject I and then change to specific names of someone that is loved, someone that is neutral, someone that is an enemy, and finally to all beings of the earth.

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Writing original phrases Next participants write loving-kindness phrases that are meaningful to them at this time in their lives on the index cards with pencils. To go even deeper, the facilitator emphasizes that participants may choose to bring loving-kindness to the aspects of themselves that they would like to deny.

For example, a phrase might be, “May I be kind to myself when I feel angry and upset.” Another phrase might be “May I learn to love myself when I feel afraid and lonely.” In order to embrace all beings, the phrases could then be changed to, “May all beings be kind to themselves when they feel angry and upset” or “May all beings learn to love themselves when they feel afraid and lonely.”

Have participants write the original loving-kindness phrases on the blank sides of the cards: the traditional loving-kindness phrases are on the other.

In a round participants are asked to share these phrases with the circle and describe how they are pertinent to their lives today.

Chanting From these original phrases, the participants choose two phrases that are meaningful to everyone.

The facilitator suggests that the circle stays with one phrase until it feels natural to move on to the next when the chanting begins. To truly feel the power of the chant, the facilitator recommends ten to twenty minutes of chanting.

Before the crystal bowl is played, the facilitator talks about how this is a full bodied experience.

The facilitator asks the participants to breathe slowly in and out focusing on the breath. “Now, I am breathing in. Now, I am breathing out. In. Out.” Then the facilitator asks participants to be aware of sensations in their bodies before and after the chanting. Are there areas in the body that feel cold, hot, or tense? Notice whether it is difficult or easy to stay focused on the chanting.

After the participants relax more and more with each breath, the facilitator gently strikes the bowl two or three times, leaving a pause between each tone. The facilitator uses the suede-covered or cork-like wand to play the bowl outside around the top. The Great Bowl which is fifteen inches or more creates a calming affect but be careful not to play it too loudly. The bowl can break.

As the warm soothing sound of the bowl fills the space, the facilitator allows humming to arise from within. Allow the notes to just flow like water until some repetitive pattern forms on the lips.

When the melody of the chant is established, the facilitator begins to sing the repetitive pattern using the heart sound “ah” followed by the original loving-kindness phrases. Participants are asked to join in the chanting when they feel comfortable. Some may decide to listen. The facilitator models how to allow the melody of the chant to arise from deep within in a natural way.

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For twenty minutes the circle becomes one voice, one intention, and one breath. Everyone is encouraged to listen to each other and settle into the group rhythm. To end the facilitator comes back to the “ah� heart sound for a few verses then softly hums the melody with everyone. The circle sits in silence. Three gentle strikes on the rim of the bowl signal participants to open their eyes and become fully present ready to listen and talk about the experience.

Related Reading: Brodie, R. (1996). The Healing Tones of Crystal Bowls: Heal Yourself with Sound and

Colour. Vancouver, Canada: Aroma Art Ltd. Hanh, T. N. (1997). Teachings on Love. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press.

Salzberg, S. (1995). Loving-Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness. Boston:

Shambhala.

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Planting New Seeds: Working with Children and Adolescents

Chapter 8 Planting New Seeds: Working with Children and Adolescents Expressive arts activities are a natural fit for children. Images, sound and movement provide a way for children to communicate emotions and experiences that they may not yet have the ability to verbalize. Children respond well to hands-on work, sensory engagement, and intermodal activities. Unlike some adults who may have initial inhibitions to creative work, young children are often brimming over with creative energy that they are too seldom given channels to express.

There are some special considerations in developing expressive arts activities for children and adolescents, foremost of which is an awareness of the developmental level of the participants. This includes areas such as attention span, fine motor skills, verbal skills, and the capacity for abstract reasoning. How simple or complex is your activity? How many steps or transitions are involved?

Does it require detailed activities like cutting or stringing beads? If your plan calls for writing, what level of literacy is required?

The activities in this section highlight ways of working with a variety of ages and modalities.

Plantwatch gives children the opportunity to connect with the natural world through the arts and through their senses. Zulu Beads brings together the engagement of a hands-on crafts activity with the meaning-making capacity to convey visual messages or relationships. Reclaiming girls’ Voices and Black and White Photo Essay Books both support young people in finding ways to express pieces of their own story, while Feelings Ensemble and Symphony provides participants with a nonverbal language for identifying and expressing emotions.

Plantwatch Siri McDonald Purpose and Goals of Activity: Participants will have time to interact with and reflect on the life of a plant and the non-human world. Each person will finish with a journal to take home for further work. The idea of journaling as a method for reflection and processing life challenges is introduced.

Materials Needed: Paper cut to one size and stapled together as a book Pencils and erasers Colored pencils or crayons - colored writing objects suitable for outdoor use Watercolor pencils - enough for everyone in group to have one (optional) Time and Space Requirements: One hour in a space with a diverse variety of plants to observe, preferably outdoors. The space will also need to allow for quiet reflection.

Appropriate Clientele: Youth ages 5 to 10 with any size group manageable Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Gather group together in circle. Have each person introduce themselves with their name and their favorite animal.

Explain activity and answer questions. Explain that this is a quieter activity so if they need to be loud, do it in the circle. Have a group wiggle if it is needed.

Have participants find a plant in garden, woods, or wherever is available. This plant will be theirs to observe for 5 minutes. Explain to them that they can look at it, feel it, touch it, smell it.

Explain that this is a quieter activity because some people might even want to listen to what the plant is saying. Encourage kids to look for elements like: what animals come to it, how it lives, how it reproduces, and what food it might make for humans or animals.

Then activity leader(s) call children back to circle and distribute journal supplies to children. Each child should have a journal and several different colors of writing/drawing utensil.

Tell participants that now they will have time to draw or write what the experience was like for them. Let them pick a spot so they are somewhat alone and free from distraction or discussion with other children. Let them know that this is a quiet activity.

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After 5-10 minutes kids will show you they are done and you can guide them to re-gather and close at a central spot. Invite them to share what they learned, pictures, what was unique about journaling.

Processing Suggestions: This activity can be enhanced in a camp, retreat, school, or residential program by shortening and doing it daily. It is especially effective in midsummer gardens that are producing food and flowers. The activity can also be done indoors or outdoors by starting plants from seed or transplant and letting participants adopt-a-plant for care and observation. Another adaptation would be to take the activity into a botanical garden, greenhouse, or plant nursery nearby. If this is done you would want to ensure participants have quiet space with nooks and crannies for writing.

Personal Commentary: This activity invites an experience of the non-human ecological world that many children/people never stop to think about. When I used this activity at an environmental day camp, many children enjoyed the break from constant interaction with others. They also enjoyed the opportunity to process emotions and observe in a private way. This activity helps get youth comfortable with the experience of journaling and self-expression. Â

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Zulu Beads Elisabeth Bliss-Jaynes Purpose and Goals of the Activity: This activity is so adaptable that it can be used for many purposes. It can be used to discuss relationships and experiences with individual clients or in group settings. In can be as intricate or simple as is indicated by the needs of the client.

Materials Needeed: Oven hardened modeling compound (Sculpey, Fimo, etc.)

Memory wire Waxed hemp or leather string Small plastic, metal, or stone beads Copper or floral wire Heavy-duty aluminum foil or disposable aluminum pans Pencils and drawing or graph paper Large round tooth picks Styrofoam meat trays or cardboard trays for individuals Paper towels or damp wipes for cleanup Tools: Cookie Sheet

Rolling Surface, rolling pin

Wire cutters and pliers

Oven heat source to heat to 265* (can be oven or toaster oven, not microwave)

Must be in a ventilated area

Knife, modeling tools (optional)

Scissors Time and Space Requirements: This activity can be as simple or as intricate as is appropriate. A well-ventilated area with an oven is ideal. Tables with work surfaces are a must. Individual workspace at a table is really all that is required. This works best when participants are seated with their own individual materials (and ideally their own tools). Initial activity using pre-colored modeling clay requires about 1 hour.

Finishing activity to string beads will require an additional 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Processing will vary depending on clientele.

Appropriate Clientele: This activity works well with school age chilredn through adults. It is also meaningful for therapists, workshops, and teachers. The activity should not be used with very young children due to the size of the beads.

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Introduction Information: Beads are found throughout Africa and play an important role in the many aspects of African life.

Depending on the African tribe they can indicate wealth, be spiritual charms, be worn as adornment, serve as money or communicate a message. In the famous Zulu tribe of southern Africa, beads can be considered types of love letters.

For members of the Zulu tribe, beads are like a language that expresses information about the wearer. They tell automatically such information as what region the wearer is from and whether they are married, engaged, or have children. In the language of the Zulu Beads, colors, color combinations, patterns, and shapes all have meaning. A shape such as a triangle stands for the three points of the family.

Colors are the most basic part of the messages. Each color (except white) has both a negative and positive meaning. The receiver of the beads knows which is meant for him. Below are some of the symbolic colors woven into Zulu Beadwork.

Positive Meaning Color Negative Meaning marriage, rebirth black sorrow, despair, death a request blue ill feeling, hostility wealth, a garden, yellow thirst, industry Note: Color associations for other cultures may be used, or clients’ personal associations with the colors may be incorporated.

Step-by step-Description of Activity: Preparation Prepare examples of beads and possibly finished products: bracelets, necklaces, anklets, key chains.

Prepare examples of aluminum baking trays or make baking trays for clients by cutting heavy aluminum foil into 10” x 10” squares and folding and crimping about 1” up on all edges and crimping corners to form shallow trays to fit into baking sheets for baking modeling clay. (This step seems unimportant but will allow each person to keep their beads separate without having to mark each individual bead when they are baked.) Aluminum pie pans will also work but require more room and slow baking.

Prepare a card or handout identifying colors, shapes, and patterns with their meanings that are appropriate to the activity. (This would need to be adapted to the clientele participating and could reflect a chosen theme or culture.)

Cut modeling clay into smaller blocks and rewrap to allow for easy access and distribution and minimize waiting and frustration.

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Optional: Prepare individual workstations with tools and materials to avoid wasted time and confusion for some clients.

Activity (First session) Introduce the concept of Zulu Beads and discuss the intent of the activity. Depending on the setting and needs of the client(s), the purpose could be to send messages, make personal statements, examine beliefs, etc.

Demonstrate the process for making a bead using the modeling clay. Emphasize the need to make a large clear hole in the bead and smooth the bead to eliminate cracks that will break open when baking.

Explain the need to determine in advance what beads will be needed in the finished product.

Show how to use the grid paper to draw the pattern in advance, choosing the shapes and colors that will be necessary.

Demonstrate the construction of the tray that will be used to bake the beads (unless already prepared). Ask each person to emboss their name in their tray before putting the beads in the tray.

When beads are made and in the trays or pans, place them on large cookie sheets and bake in a 265 degree oven or according to label instructions for 30 minutes. This clay makes fumes so ventilation is very important.

Activity (Second session) Distribute client beads to work stations along with stringing materials, which could include hemp, leather or nylon string, floral, copper, or memory wire for bracelets, necklaces or anklets. Clients may also create key rings using a small ring and the string or wire.

String beads onto string or wire centering the beads in the material and fixing them into place with knots, crimps, or braids.

Finished products may then be tied or hooked by bending the ends of the wire.

Processing Suggestions: Allow clients to discuss the various meanings or messages created in their finished products.

This could be done informally around the worktable or in a circle removed from the workspace depending on the clientele. Products intended as messages could be presented or the products could be worn or modeled for the group. This activity has enormous flexibility and allows clients to create a piece of jewelry or an item they can enjoy outside of the session.

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Personal Commentary: Having used this activity in a school setting with adolescents, I have found that it is simple enough not to be intimidating for those who are uncomfortable with making something. It can be very simple or very intricate so it is very adaptable to time constraints and clientele.

In one group, participants created a necklace or bracelet to reflect their families. Discussion included what each bead symbolized: the person, personality and relationship or feelings toward that person. I have also used this activity with a group of girls who were working on self esteem and peer relationships. They used the beads to discuss chosen people in their lives: friends, boyfriends, mentors and past relationships.

Making their own jewelry with this personal meaning is very appealing to adolescents. The adolescents became fiercely protective of their creations so not mixing the beads up during baking was a huge issue. An additional bonus was the community building within the group and discussions that occurred while tools and materials were shared by the group. These adolescents were very pleased to display and discuss their finished products. I continue to see them being worn well into the school year.

Related Reading: Bednarz, Miyares, Schug, and White. (2003). World cultures and geography. Evanston,

IL: Mc Dowell Littell.

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Reclaiming Girls’ Voices Martha Rossi Purpose and Goals of Activity: This exercise is designed to give girls a chance to practice assertive behavior, to experience speaking their own truth, and to use an authentic voice.

Materials Needed: 5” x 8” index cards Flip chart or blackboard with markers or chalk Costumes Art supplies such as paints, cray-pas, paper, collage supplies, pads, and pens Time and Space Requirements: 2 hours Room enough for a stage for 4 - 5 people Appropriate Clientele: This exercise was designed for girls age 8 - 13.

Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Speaking Up The facilitator leads a discussion with the girls, asking “In what situations do you have trouble speaking up for yourself?” The situations are written on 5” x 8” cards.

The group brainstorms responses to each situation, and these are written on a chart or blackboard so that all can see.

The group is broken into two groups, and two lines are formed.

A situation is read from the 5” x 8” cards and the first two girls act it out. If more “actresses” are needed, they come from the next in line. One of the girls is the assertive responder and can choose responses from the chart or board if she gets stuck. Each girl gets a chance to be the assertive responder.

After the exercises, the girls discuss what it was like for them in the various roles they played.

The Soapbox The facilitator explains the idea of a “soapbox” as a way for people to share their own thoughts, ideas and beliefs. She gives the guidelines for the witnesses. They are told to listen with curiosity, with a non-judgmental attitude, to keep what is said confidential, and to listen with their full attention.

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Each girl is asked to write for 10 minutes about something that she would like to say from the soapbox. She is told that when it’s her turn on the soapbox, she may dance, sing, draw, use sound, or read what she has written.

After the writing, the girls can pick from costume pieces to design a costume to speak from the soapbox.

Each girl in turn has an opportunity to speak from the soapbox. Girls can create a movement piece, a poem, a piece of art, or a reading. Each girl gets a chance to present her piece.

The facilitator leads a discussion of what that was like for the girls.

Processing Suggestions: In the first part of the exercise, girls can be asked: Which role was easiest for you? What, if anything, did you learn about yourselves? What was it like to have someone assert themselves with you? Do you think being assertive would work for you? Will you give it a try? When is it better to not say anything?

For the soapbox exercise, participants can be asked: How did you feel knowing that everyone was going to hear what you had to say? Where do you get a chance to be on the “soapbox?” Did you like that experience? What did you learn about yourself and other people? Was it hard for you to witness? Were you able to keep a non-judgmental attitude? Were you hard on yourself?

Personal Commentary: It is wonderful to see girls work together to empower themselves and each other. They support each other to stand up for themselves. I love the soapbox which gives even the shyest girl the message that what she has to say is important and deserves to be heard. I also love the practice of non-judgment for self and others.

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Creating Black and White Photo Essay Books A long-term project for ongoing groups Doreen Maller Purpose and Goals of Activity: This activity was initially created for a class of middle-school students. I was looking for something that was longer term, engaging, and of educational value, without being behaviorally challenging and difficult to focus upon. They loved this project. In the process I was able to reinforce their school based curriculum of theme choice, focus, the element of surprise, editing, framing the work, understanding your role in your process and presenting your art (and yourself ) to the community. At the end of each 45 minute class, each participant was asked to share her or his work of that day. In this way they developed their presentation and public speaking skills. In the end, this was a wonderful exploration of self and community.

Materials Needed: I do this activity using disposable cameras, however it is probably more efficient and cheaper to utilize digital cameras. I think I am romantically tied to old technology. Feel free to alter steps for digital photography if this is your preferred photography mode. I also decided to use black and white photography to acquaint the participants with the rich history of photojournalism.

However, color would be fine as well. In the end it is all about the book!

A camera (preferably one per participant) I use disposable black and white 35mm cameras Developed pictures (or printed images from digital files) Post It notes Glue sticks and tape Blank books You can find these in art stores, on line, or make them yourself. In a group setting, I like each book to have the same format, however it is not necessary.

Time and Space Requirements: This activity was designed to span a semester of one 45 minute class a week (about 10 – 15 classes). It can be compressed (especially using digital photography) into a shorter duration. The steps can be expanded or contracted as time allows.

Appropriate Clientele: I have used this activity with teens although I think anyone who can use a camera can do this activity.

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Step-by-Step Description of Activity: Leader introduces the art of photojournalism by sharing art books and opening a discussion of themes and choices in creating themed books.

Group can either pick a group theme, leader can supply one, or each individual can provide their own theme.

A group contract is drafted with any limitations to the creative process (in middle schools contracts can include: no nudity, no scaring anyone, no profanity, etc). All participants are invited to brainstorm in the contracting process, and once the contract is set, all participants are asked to sign it.

Cameras are distributed with a firm date for when cameras are to come back.

Cameras are collected – this is a good time to talk about the picture-taking process (what was it like? What went well? What were your challenges?)

Develop film.

Distribution of developed photos The emphasis here is on the element of surprise. With film (as opposed to digital prints) there is a wonderful moment where participants “get” the results of what they “took.” This is an opportunity to discuss concepts such as using what you have to get what you need (resource management), changing direction in midstream (dealing with adversity), being literal, or living with abstraction (if all the shots are blurry).

Begin the process of book layout. I have a standard layout that I hold to:

Cover Title Page Body of Work Artist’s statement

Adding words Captions can be added to photos, poems, or writings, or additional other artwork can be added to enhance the book to any extent that the participant chooses. Participants are encouraged to write an introduction to their work and an artist’s statement to share their process.

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Books are assembled.

Photos can be glued to pages using glue sticks or photo corners. Words can be printed, cut and glued to pages, or written long hand directly onto pages. I add an additional photo of the artist to be pasted to the artist’s statement page.

Books are shared.

Books can be shared with just the workshop participants or with a broader community. In schoolbased settings we stage a gallery where books are displayed, perhaps in the school library.

Processing Suggestions: I encourage processing all along the way in this project. After every phase or class I encourage a round robin sharing of, “What changed?” or “What did you learn?” Participants share their books, their themes and their ideas. Often ideas are contagious. It is interesting to see who learns from whom along the way. For middle-school students, the sharing phase of every class offers a safe place for public speaking, for discernment (what I liked and didn’t like), and for confidence building.

Personal Commentary: Although this is a long term (or term long!) commitment, I love this project. It is wonderful to see the participants grow and learn and watch them bond and commit to their images and books.

I have watched public speaking skills improve as well as organization skills, and of course it is always a wonder to see what they choose to photograph and how they deal with the element of surprise. In one school setting I have been told by the principal, “The kids are always referring to this class. They’ll say, ‘We learned editing in art class,’ or ‘We heard about that in our photo project.’” Working on speech, esteem and organization skills within the context of an art project is so much less threatening to these students than assembling a term paper, and they can apply the skills learned through this project to all their other requirements. And make art along the way!

School Administrator Quote: “Freedom to express ideas visually as well as expressing feelings has filtered into other areas of the student’s work. Due to their experience with the photography project, the students are comfortable verbalizing or visually representing their feelings. They no longer ask for tools to enable them to draw, they don’t feel the need to ask ‘How do I do this?’ Instead, they look within and create.”

Rachel Lewin, Middle School Principal

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Feelings Ensemble and Symphony Keith Davis Purpose and Goals of Activity: The purpose/goal of this activity is for participants to identify current feelings about concerns or challenges they are facing and then compose music to reflect these feelings.

Materials Needed: A variety of instruments and/or any type of noisemakers (e.g., pencils, coffee cans with lids, sticks, hand-clapping, etc.)

Paper and pen or pencil Time and Space Requirements: 2 hours Space should take into consideration a location where noise will not bother others.

Appropriate Clientele: Children, adolescents, and adults Step by Step Description of Activity: The facilitator processes with participants current concerns or challenges in their individual lives (e.g., for children – divorce, making friends at a new school; for adolescents – transitioning to high school, graduating and applying to college). Participants are then asked to begin identifying feelings associated with such concerns and/or challenges (angry, happy, scared, anxious, sad, etc.).

The facilitator writes down the identified feelings separately on pieces of paper.

Participants are then introduced to the collection of instruments and/or noisemakers, which are gathered in the center of the room. They are instructed to experiment with as many instruments as possible until they feel comfortable with a particular one.

Participants are then randomly assigned to a group (ensemble), forming several groups if possible, each participant with her/his instrument or noisemaker. Groups should be between 3 and 6 participants each if possible. Each group is then given one of the feelings identified earlier. This is done in such a way that the feeling only known to the members of that particular group. They are instructed to develop a composition that best represents that feeling.

Groups are then instructed to find a place away from other groups to begin their compositions.

There is no emphasis placed on the musical quality of the compositions. Instead, participants are encouraged to develop and make meaning from their own experiences.

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After 30 minutes of “feeling” composition development, all groups are reassembled. Each group is then given an opportunity to play their feeling composition while other groups listen. After each individual group composition is played, other groups try to name the feeling being played.

After all ensembles have played their feeling composition, the facilitator conducts an overall group discussion among the participants regarding the chosen feelings (see sample process questions below). Each of the feelings discussed are related back to specific concerns and challenges, and parallels are made to participants’ current experiences.

After all groups have concluded their individual compositions and subsequent discussion, the facilitator then announces that all groups/ensembles are to perform together a “feelings symphony.” With each group positioned facing the center of the room, they now constitute a full feelings symphony or orchestra, with the facilitator acting as the orchestral “maestro.” As “maestro,” the facilitator cues a particular feeling group to begin playing softly by pointing to them. A raising of the hand can signify to a particular group to increase their volume of playing, while a lowering of the other hand signifies a decrease of volume. A horizontal hand indicates silence for the moment for any given group, and both hands raised indicates all groups play. Eventually, the facilitating maestro can use both hands to explore different combinations of groups playing with varying intensities, working towards the building of all groups playing to a crescendo and then calming all groups for a soft ending. (Note: it is up to the maestro to decide what combinations and intensities to use with the groups.) To add even more fun to this activity, some individual participants from the various groups can take a turn being the “maestro!”

Following the full "feeling" symphony, the facilitator processes a full group discussion regarding the overall process of the activity.

Processing Suggestions: Processing this activity involves four stages. Processing is first centered on the current concerns and challenges of participants. In some settings, the participants may be part of an already identified group (e.g., children of divorce or adolescents negotiating their increasing responsibility).

The facilitator should help participants place a “feeling” name with such current concerns and challenges, as well as having participants provide specific examples of when that feeling is present.

The second part of processing is focused on the process of collecting instruments and/or noisemakers. Specific questions may be: How did you decide which instrument and/or noisemaker to choose? How do you think that instrument best represents you? What does that instrument tell you about the current concerns or challenges you are facing in your life?

The third part of processing this activity takes place after a group/ensemble has played their composition. Some specific questions at first may include the facilitator asking participants in groups other than one that just played: What type of feeling do you all have after having listened to

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this group’s composition? What specifically about their composition gives you that feeling? The facilitator can then turn to the group that just played and ask such questions such as: Can you share how you all came up with this composition? How does the rhythm of your composition represent what you feel about your current concerns or challenges? How does this rhythm affect you and others around you? The facilitator may then continue again to ask questions of other groups, such as You have identified this group’s feeling, so can you all give some examples of when you also feel….(e.g., sad, angry, happy, etc.)? This part of the process continues until all groups have had the chance to play their compositions and process their experience.

The last part of processing involves the feelings symphony after all groups have played together at varying intensities and combinations. Some specific questions here might include: What did you all notice about feelings as everyone was playing? What do all these feelings say about us? What do all these feelings say about how we experience our concerns and challenges? What do all these feelings say about the range, intensity, and combination of feelings we can experience? If some participants have acted as “maestro,” then the facilitator may ask such questions as: How was your experience conducting the feelings symphony? What does being the conductor say about how you might influence your feelings? What does being the conductor say about the range and intensity of our feelings? How did you know which feelings to choose to play?

Personal Commentary: This activity has been used many times in a school setting with children and adolescents. As one example, this activity was used with a group of 15 high school students who were part of a summer Upward Bound Program in the Appalachian Mountains before their senior year in high school.

Upward Bound is a program to support students from low-income families who will be first generation college students. This group of 15 students had completed a week long hike and camping on the Appalachian Trail several days earlier as part of a group support and cohesion exercise. The group had not yet processed their experiences living on the trail with one another. The feelings symphony and ensemble was used as a way to identify their feelings and experiences while on the trail (e.g., scared, excited, happy, angry, endurance), as well as relating how those same feelings might parallel their pending experiences as high school seniors and later first generation college students.

Related Reading: Bowman, R. P. (1987). Approaches for counseling children through music. Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 21, 284-291.

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Sourcebook Authors and Contributors Authors/Editors Sally Atkins, Ed.D., is a registered expressive arts therapist, a licensed psychologist, and Professor of Human Development and Psychological Counseling at Appalachian State University, where she coordinates the Expressive Arts Emphasis and Certificate Programs. She is a poet, ritualist, and storyteller, and her interests include expressive arts therapy, cross-cultural healing practices, dream work, and consciousness studies. She is the author of numerous professional articles, co-author of Expressive Arts Therapy: Creative Process in Art and Life, and two books of poetry, Breath is the First Prayer and Picking Clean the Bones. She is the mother of a grown daughter and son, and she lives with her husband in the Blue Ridge Mountains and walks every day with her dog by the oldest river on the North American continent.

Lesley Duggins Williams, M.A., is a poet, mother of two, and a nationally certified counselor with special interests in therapeutic writing and supporting women during pregnancy and childbirth.

She holds a graduate degree in community counseling and a graduate certificate in expressive arts therapy from Appalachian State University. While at Appalachian, she served as founding editor for Headwaters: Appalachian Journal of Expressive Arts Therapy and as editor for two volumes of poetry, Breath is the First Prayer and Picking Clean the Bones, both by Sally Atkins. Lesley currently lives amidst the dogwoods, daffodils and azaleas in the North Carolina Piedmont with her husband, son and daughter.

Artist Marianne Stevens Suggs, Ph.D., is a mixed media artist who has exhibited nationally and regionally in juried and invitational exhibitions. Her work is often about social issues affecting women.

She is Professor of Art at Appalachian State University.

Activity Contributors Marianne Adams, M.A., M.F.A., holds graduate degrees in dance and in clinical psychology. She is Professor of Theatre and Dance and coordinator of the dance program and the Appalachian Dance Ensemble at Appalachian State University. She has received numerous grants for her work as a dancer and choreographer. She is also a certified Pilates instructor.

Elisabeth L. Bliss-Jaynes, M.A., has been teaching in the public school system for many years. Her current position is teaching middle school students with developmental delays and cognitive disabilities. She holds a graduate degree in school counseling from Appalachian State University.

Jessica Chilton, B.A., earned her undergraduate degree from Duke University and is currently pursuing her M.A. in community counseling with a concentration in expressive arts therapy from Appalachian State University. She has additional training from Tamalpa Institute and the European Graduate School, and she is involved with improvisational acting with the Asheville Playback Theater.

Keith M. Davis, Ph.D., NCC, NCLSC, is a counselor educator in The Department of Human Development & Psychological Counseling at Appalachian State University, Boone, NC. He teaches courses in community counseling, school counseling, expressive and creative arts, and ecotherapy.

April Easter, M.A., LPC, NCC, currently works with substance dependent women. She holds a graduate degree in community counseling with emphases in addictions and expressive arts therapy. She lives in Durham, NC with lots of love and two kitty cats. She believes in living the questions into their answers.

Maria Gonzalez-Blue, M.A., REAT, is a registered expressive arts therapist, hypnotherapist and instructor of Person-Centered Expressive Arts Therapy. Through her private practice, she facilitates personal and spiritual development through the arts. Intrinsic to her work is a commitment to art as spiritual medicine.

Delores D. Gulledge, Ph.D., is a wife and mother intimately acquainted with grief. The death of her 17-year-old daughter shattered her world. Over time she restructured her world and reinvented herself and her relationships and re-birthed a place for her daughter. She is an educator and research practitioner who uses the arts as a method of intervention to express the intense emotions of bereavement.

Elaine Hathor, M.F.A., M.A., is a fiber artist and a member of the faculty of the Department of Art at Appalachian State University. A long interest in connections between the arts and healing led her to complete a graduate certificate in expressive arts therapy and a graduate degree in community counseling, both from Appalachian.

Ella Hill, M.A., holds graduate degrees in both art and education, and a graduate certificate in expressive arts therapy. Ella honors her ancestors by sharing Native American spiritual ceremonies and traditions that promote healing, harmony and balance within oneself and with all our relations and Mother Earth.

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Doreen Maller, M.A., is a therapist, artist, and teacher living and working in Northern California.

She received graduate training at the European Graduate School and is currently a doctoral student in transformational learning at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Siri McDonald, M.A., holds a graduate degree in community counseling with emphases in expressive arts therapy and ecotherapy. She has additional training in horticulture therapy and is committed to working toward personal and global peace.

Lee Andra Miller, M.A., is a graduate of ISIS Canada and the European Graduate School. She has been playing passionately with the arts in therapy for more than fifteen years. She works as an expressive arts therapist in children’s mental health agencies and specializes in the areas of trauma, sexuality and gender identity.

Anna Monlezun-Thibodeaux, M.A., LMBT, is a counselor and massage therapist. She holds a graduate degree in community counseling with emphases in expressive arts therapy, body-centered therapy, and multicultural counseling. She also holds a graduate certificate in expressive arts therapy. She is a bodyworker, musician, and dancer.

Patience Perry, M.A., is an educator, counselor, wilderness therapist, dancer, and expressive artist.

Her interests include gardening, horseback riding, traveling, drumming, and spending time with her family.

Sarva Posey, M.A., holds a graduate degree from the European Graduate School and graduate certificates in expressive arts therapy from both the European Graduate School and Appalachian State University. She is an expressive arts therapist, artist, and architect. She practices expressive arts therapy at a neurological rehabilitation clinic in Germany.

Diana Quealey-Berge, Ph.D., is a counselor, storyteller, ritualist, and student of life. She is the Deputy Director of the Wyoming Youth Challenge Program in Guernsey Wyoming.

Martha Rossi, M.A., is an expressive arts therapist who facilitates trainings, workshops and classes for counselors, agencies, churches, and schools. She teaches expressive arts therapy and counseling at the State University of New York at Oswego.

Nancy S. Terry, M.A., CAGS, LPC, holds a graduate degree in counseling psychology and a graduate certificate in expressive arts therapy from The European Graduate School in Switzerland. She currently works as a counselor with Palmetto Health Pastoral Counseling Center in Easley, SC.

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Ann Waters, M.A., received her graduate degree in community counseling and post masters certificate in expressive arts therapy from Appalachian State University. She holds an undergraduate degree in therapeutic use of wilderness from Prescott College. She has discovered the power of expressive arts therapy in both her personal life and in her counseling work in Athens, Georgia.

Joan Woodworth, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at Appalachian State University where she teaches courses in history and systems of psychology and integrative paradigms in psychology.

Her professional interests include the cross-cultural study of dreams, consciousness studies, and ecopsychology.

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Bosnak, R. (1988). A little course in dreams. Boston: Shambhala.

Brown, R. M. (1988). Starting from scratch. New York: Bantam.

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Cameron, J. (1992). The artist’s way. New York: G. Putman’s Sons.

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Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and

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Eisner, E.W. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind. New Haven: Yale University.

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