For all ages. Individuals and Groups.
Expressive Arts Approach
Expressive Arts Therapy
“You don’t learn to ride a bike by talking about it”
- David Sandler
In expressive arts therapy, it’s all about the process of doing.
By talking about our life’s problems, we stay stuck in the same patterns. The expressive arts, however, give us an opportunity to leave the problem and join our sensory experience of the now to discover strengths in each persons unique process.
Through this de-stigmatizing creative process, we encounter surprise, curiosity and play that might just end up showing us real solutions that never would have been possible through a problem-focus lens.
Low Skill/High Sensitivity
The expressive arts highlight the use of our 5 senses through the use of visual, movement/dance, drama, sound and nature exploration.
The potential of diversity in materials allow for the expressive arts to be used with children and adults of all skill levels.
Builds neuroplasticity
Improves stress
Embodied practice through action-orientation
Art integrated learning
Contained and client-centered
Empowerment/strengths focused
Individual
The expressive arts serve as a grounding container to experience emotion and process change in our lives.
The action-orientation of this mind-body approach supports integration for embodied safety and connection to the present.
Health & Wellbeing Promotion
The expressive arts approach can be used for deep-dives in integrative therapy as well as serve general populations as a way to build health and wellbeing.
This diversity of depth makes the expressive arts perfect to use among co-workers or group therapy.
Helping Professionals
Mental health professionals encounter the things we just don’t have words for on the daily. The expressive arts helps give a container to those emotions and externalize the stories helping professionals carry. The release of these stories support helping professionals ability to hold space for themselves and others each day.
Research
2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Study participants [in healthcare fields] experienced less burnout and expressed a lower desire to leave their jobs. Burnout scores for anxiety, depression, PTSD and emotional exhaustion decreased by 28%, 36%, 26% and 12%, respectively, in the participants receiving the creative arts therapy intervention. These improvements remained up to one year after the conclusion of the program." Source Here
Your Brain on Art - Book
“Making art can significantly reduce stress hormone cortisol in 45 minutes.” Source here