Expressive Arts Therapy

  • For who

    Expressive Arts Therapy is for anyone who desires to increase his ability to play, love and feel whole again.

    Anyone who is going to any kind of life challenges, difficult transitions or simply seeking personal growth or that just lacks an adequate range of play* could benefit from an EXA therapy Rite of restoration.

    The person asking for help is any individual from any horizons or socio-cultural background, either they are an artist or not, but also any gender or non-conforming gender people, children, adults, elders or children trapped in an old body! In other terms, anyone who is ‘hitting a wall’ at some point of their life, reaching a limit, feels stuck, anyone who is blocked, lacking resources and is on the edge of disease, feeling a general decrease in energy levels and suffering from self-blame, self-esteem issues, feeling ‘not enough’ and/or dealing with depressive states and any other life challenges.

    We all, at a certain time in our lives could potentially feel one or several of the symptoms I just describes and we all certainly could benefit from such a Ritual for the soul at any time of our lives!

  • In the 20th century in an era where psychiatry and psychotherapy fields, science and arts were merging together, art psychotherapy, inspired by indigenous practices of Shamanism, was birthing in the United States and in Europe. If for some, like Shaun Mc Niff Phd, author and one of the pioneer of Expressive Art therapy, this approach can be viewed as an the heritage of more ancient shamanic tradition where the professional art therapist takes over the role of the traditional healer. However in many ways, we are going to expose how modern art therapy differs from what we know from the shamanic practices.

    Historically, art therapy was born in United States as well as in Europe. Some pioneers in the field of psychiatry and opera singer Prinzhorn but also the choreographer Marion Chace and Laura Sheleen from Washington that first brought up the concept of dance therapy in 1930. Melanie Klein will later in 1940 realize that children could express their emotions so much better through play and Adrian Hill, artist, author and pedagogue referred for the first time to the concept of art therapy in 1942 after using the arts to heal himself when he was sick. working closely with Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott introduced the arts when working with his patients. But let’s not forget also Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung which in ther own ways have been inspired to undertake a creative journey in their career as psychiatrists. Carl Jung explored more profoundly through his personal creative process bringing forth the archetypal dimensions into his work that made significant impact in the world of psychotherapy and later on art therapy. Also artist himself, he kept many journal where he draw and wrote his personal resonances.

    The famous artist and psychoanalyst, Otto Rank, who was known to ‘self-actualized’ through the experience of arts, criticized the work of his colleague Sigmund Freud for trying to conceptualize subjective experience by eliminating spiritual content from the world of psychotherapy. But Otto Rank ended up being banish and excluded from his peers psychology community for expressing his regret. He thought that psychoanalytic terminology of the word ‘unconscious’ had taken over the place of the word ‘Soul’ trying to reduce human soul experience with scientific concepts. Rank believed that lying on a couch using only verbal communication was limitative and that the emotional life of the individual was also rooted in the body and not only in the mind and that when the therapist and the client co-creating together within a therapeutic process involving the arts was a way to reach self-transcendency and express the Soul.

  • ‘Phenomenology is a means of being led by the phenomenon’ Heiddeger.

    With the Expressive Arts therapy movement, founded by Paolo Knill (1932-2020), the swiss scientist, artist, therapist and professor at Lesley University, we are in the fields of anthropology, art history, philosophy & spirituality. Coming from a a phenomenological approach, based on the principle that reality depends on who is looking.

    This philosophy, conceptualized by Edmund Husser in the early years of the 20th century, is basic and essential to the successful practice of intermodal expressive therapy and operates in concert with other theories, underlines Paolo, the founder of the Expressive Arts Therapy in his book, Minstrel of Soul, Intermodal Expressive Therapy co-written with Helen Nienhaus Barba, Margo N. Fuchs. EGS Press, 2004.

    However when we referred to a phenomenological approach in EXA, The first thing to admit all the 6th senses when it comes to relate what is being observed and we also come with the idea of being an intentional observation of the things we are looking at, and actually here, we are intimately related with the arts. So what we are really interested in here is how we observe, reflect and harvest on the things we create during the artistic process so we can be the most aligned with what we see as true for us in a non-interpretative way - meaning we shall let go of any prejudice and go to the objectivity of the external of the created, the surface, the sensory imputs, the textures, the edges, the smells… Paolo Knill would refer to it as the experience of ‘worlding’. But phenomenology is also an attitude of inquiry that opens up to experiencing the world through the senses and not through a judgemental mind or preconceived ideas. It brings the observer to a posture of curiosity and inquiry, and, in a way we could draw a parallel of the artistic observation with how the journalist reports what he witness on the field with integrity and loyalty to what he sees and hear.

    But it is also possible to get a change of perspective when someone else gives a different point of view of the same artwork - expanding one’s awareness on the created and the meaning making of it.

    Considered both, a verbal and a non-verbal therapy extended in association with different artistic disciplines or modalities, EXA also stands for a methodology coming from the its own tradition created to enhance psychosomatic unity with the body, mind and Soul. By diving through the arts into a soulful exploration, it permits healing, the expansion of the range of play of the explorer and meaning making through the arts. And if there are many reasons why Expressive Arts Therapy differs from modern art therapy, one is the multimodal approach where the participant will be able to choose within a wide range of art forms: visual arts, performative arts, sculpture or nature based art.

    Nevertheless, Expressive Arts therapy is also a social service for the private or public sector But we could also say, EXA offers therapeutic actions, interventions and settings that are directed to support humans in their process of change and restoration. By using the complementarity and interaction of the arts between them unify in a way that permits the celebration of humanity.

  • When it comes to psychiatry & psychotherapy world, people have a more scientific lenses and are used to approach it with evidence based facts, studies and rational thinking. But when it comes to art therapy, Even though by now there are significant neuroscience studies that have been showing how arts improve people wellbeing and impact the brain neuroplasticity: Poalo knill used to say with humor yet conviction: art is the evidence. When it comes to the arts and matters of the soul, our feltsense* and meaning making becomes the evidence. We symbolize through our perceptual & sensory lenses and tune into the creative, somatic, instinctual and spiritual part of our brain.

    By now, we have observed that some people whose brain’s left hemisphere is more active are more rational thinkers and right brains are more creative but we also have observed that some people are working with both of their hemispheres and not one against the other. insist that one does not exclude the other. We can still rationalize a symbolic experience and vice versa if we feel the need to do so. We can still try to create fact tracks and brain studies out of it if we want to. What I want to express here is that maybe we could build more bridges between between the worlds of science, art and spirituality instead of building antagonism by proving the other wrong with facts that are not helping anyone to feel better in the end.

  • 3 Golden Rules

    It might be helpful to examine these 3 golden rules below to be able to tune into the heart of what Expressive Arts Therapy is about.

     ‘Soul making’: An EXA session, shall be facilitated in a way that involves more a sensory experience rather than an intellectual and rational one. In a way we can guide the experiencer to clarify its heart desire and to engage with the arts from a soulful presence.

     ‘Low skills, high sensitivity’: This principal lies on the idea that the space holder will always offer to the participant the simplest set of art material with simple guidance, easily understandable, short and accessible to any experiencer that does not need to be an artist nor to have any specific talent to be able to have an Expressive Art session.

     ‘Make art, make sense’: During the creation phase, the facilitator will guide the participant to make sense of the created. For example, by asking questions that will encourage the participant to reflect on his personal life and how they can make sense through fresh new lenses after they held an intimate dialogue with their soulful artwork. This crucial phase can open to new perspective on life and rewire new ways of seeing things and approaching personal challenges in general.

  • A Rite of restoration

    ‘Anthropological studies show us how intimately the arts, play and imagination have been incorporated into human Rituals. Art in ist purest form is primarily a Ritual activity that is practiced in an elaborate manner only by humans and has no evident ‘goal’ other than celebrating creativity and human potential.’ Writes Paolo Knill in Minstrel of Soul, Intermodal Expressive Therapy co-written with Helen Nienhaus Barba, Margo N. Fuchs. EGS Press, 2004, p.23.

    Our modern lifestyles does not include Rituals anymore. However I now know how essential Rituals can be when it comes to soulful matters and spiritual healing but thankfully with Expressive Arts Therapy, we are bringing them back to life with a safe, simple and creative approach adapted to our increasingly secular world. The participant will be guided into the Rite of restoration by a highly trained EXA faciliator into the transformation phase in order to give form to the invisible that inhabit us and ‘increases the range of play within us’ used to say Paolo Knill

    Three essential questions

    Together with the disappearance of Rituals, we also have lost our capacity to ask ourselves these three most essential questions that comes together with our capacity to grow and evolve in a soulful way.

    1. What really matters to me?

    2. Why?

    3. What do I do about it ?

  • The framework is fundamental to be determined before elaborating such a Ritual but not less important than having an intention for your entire experience. Not only this intention is your journey’s objective but it is also what will give you clarity for you and the therapist to navigate through the journey together. So it would be helpful to ask yourself. Why you are doing what you are doing. Are you seeking transformation? Healing? Trauma integration? Grieving? Knowing the nature of your intention allows you to consciously process the ‘whys’ or your initiation. Once your intention is set you can start your creative adventure with more ease and a clear sense of direction.

  • In Principles & Practices, Stephen K. Levine refers to four core principles of a EXA ritual session framework.

    1. Welcoming the participant : The therapist will open the session with a discussion phase where the they will create a safe container by talking encouraging words, explaining the upcoming session steps & unfolding the session to create a safe space for the participant.

    2. Decentering into imaginal reality (or decentering into an alternative experience of worlding*): The experiencer will be guided in practices that engage imagination such as art making, guided imagery, bodywork, sensitization with art making time. The role of the therapist will be to hold aesthetic responsibility*: for the session supporting them with the artistic material or with concrete & simple guidances if needed.

    3. Helping with aesthetic analysis* (c.f. lexicum) A metaphorical dialogue is usually engaged during this creative phase no matter which art modality we are on. This conversation with the arts is free from interpretations of any kind at this stage. But the experiencer will be invited to make sense with their personal life later on.

    4. Harvesting (c.f. lexicum). Finally the session will end with a reflective moment. Looking back at the creative experience, the participant can start seeing their personal challenges with new lenses by making sense through the created and creating bridges with the ‘real’ life. At the stage the participant can already observe some inner changes of perspective and sometimes experience breakthrough after only one session.

  • Not only, you can restore unity between the mind, body and spirit with an art oriented Ritual but you can also:

    o Restore peace into someone’s life

    o Awaken creative and sexual energy flow into the body

    o Bring deep meaning into your human journey

    o Engage into personal growth

    o Awaken the inner child by increasing the range of play

    o Bring a sense of deep fulfillmement

    o Awaken the body into a sensory-aesthetic experience

    o Experience blissful states of grace

    o Bypass the resistance of reasoning

    o Allow beauty when overcoming the barrier of logic

    o Open up to a new belief system about life challenges

    o Grow spiritually and self-develop significantly

    o Engage into the unknown with a new sense of adventure

  • Elogium of renunciation

    It is to be considered that EXA is also a school of renunciation:

    o To predictability

    o To interpretation

    o To the apology of cure over healing

    o To the predominance of reason

    o To comfort

    o To fixed point of views

    o To the social habit of ‘talk therapy’

    o To stagnation

    o To the absence of sensory inputs

    o To planning

    o To the known

    o To hierarchy

    o To the belief that we need to be artist in order to be creative

    o To the belief that science and arts can’t be linked