“Art can permeate the very deepest part of us, where no words exist.”

 

 

This quote by Eileen Miller illustrates the power of expressive arts to discover latent parts of ourselves and the world around us. When words are not accessible, the creative arts allow us to speak in new ways.

In order to honor this profound source of healing and expression, a plethora of expressive arts therapists partake in celebrating Creative Arts Therapies Week annually during the third week of March.

Creative Arts Therapies Week

The primary purpose of Creative Arts Therapies Week is to spread awareness about Expressive Arts Therapy modalities and the immense impact they have had on the mental health field and beyond. Since the dawn of time, humans across various cultures have turned to creative expression as a way to process, communicate, and navigate the multitude of life experiences.

Research illustrates that Expressive Arts Therapy is effective in empowering people to reach values-based goals, practice perspective-taking in relationships, and relieve symptoms related to personal health conditions like anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even physical pain.

Expressive Arts Therapy

Expressive Arts Therapy enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities of all demographics and cultures. It involves active artmaking, witnessing the creative process, applied psychological theory, and cultivating human connection through the therapeutic relationship.

Expressive Arts Therapy modalities can consist of visual art like painting or pottery, writing lyrics or poetry, music, enactment or psychodrama storytelling, movement and other somatic exercises, and even cooking or gardening. These techniques can be utilized on their own or paired with one another. Expressive Arts Therapy exercises can also be combined with other therapeutic approaches like Narrative Therapy and Internal Family Systems Therapy.

For example, you might engage in mask-making to explore emotions surrounding work stress and burnout, write a letter or engage in a dialogue with the character you’ve created representing the burnout, and then reenact the experience using movement, psychodrama, or other tools like sandtray to further deepen the process.

Expressive Arts Therapy provides a pathway of expressing outside of solely verbal communication, which can keep people stuck in their cognitive brains and lead to intellectualizing feelings instead of sitting with emotional experiences.

The creative arts incorporate symbols, metaphors, colors, shapes, movements, and vocalizations that allow for deeper processing, expressing, and healing than words and verbal language alone can offer. It can also feel safer and more accessible to externalize these experiences, especially for children, older populations, those with disabilities, and anyone who may otherwise face challenges articulating emotional experiences. In addition, trauma lives in the body; therefore, employing expressive modalities can prevent retraumatization while simultaneously aiding in the cathartic release of emotional pain and suffering through meaning making.

There are no requirements for participating in expressive arts modalities as a client. It is not about the perfection of artistic techniques and whether others would deem one’s art as “good” or not; rather, the focus is on the act of creation itself. Everyone is inherently creative as we all played through art-making as children in order to make sense of the world around us, understand ourselves better, and make meaning out of our experiences. Each person has an innate desire to create in their own unique way, and expressive arts therapists facilitate this process by offering a safe environment for the client to be witnessed holistically and compassionately without judgment while they explore their innermost thoughts, feelings, and sensations.

Expressive Arts Therapists

Expressive Arts Therapists supply a distinctive therapeutic approach through blending the science of clinical mental health expertise with the innovative artform of the creative process. They work in a variety of diverse mental health settings ranging from psychiatric hospitals and treatment centers to schools and assisted living facilities. Therapists who execute expressive arts techniques are trained and credentialed in not only psychological theory but also in the integration of the artistic modalities to help people cope with mental health challenges, life transitions, grief, relationships, trauma, and identity exploration.

Ways to Celebrate Creative Arts Therapies Week

To honor Creative Arts Therapies Week, there are a myriad of ways you can spread awareness, show your support, and highlight the spectrum of artistic and creative-based healing. You might consider hosting an event collaborating with other mental health professionals. Each day of Creative Arts Therapies Week can be focused on centering one modality of expressive arts such as “Movement Monday” or “Writing Wednesday.” If you’re not able to host, consider attending events already established through the American Art Therapy Association, Institute for Therapy through the Arts, and the National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies Associations, Inc.

Historically, these events can include creative exhibits, panel discussions, and art-making facilitation.

You can also share your own healing experiences with the creative arts through social media or within your own community. Get involved by educating your lawmakers or even writing to your local newspaper about the work expressive arts therapists do and the way that creative expression supports mental health and wellbeing. If you’re able to, volunteer with an art therapy licensure campaign where you live in order to further promote accessibility for those seeking creative approaches to healing and community care. Lastly, learn more about creative and expressive arts through the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association and Northwest Creative and Expressive Arts Institute so you can continue to advocate for more accessible and creative healing methods for all.

Key Points

● The primary purpose of Creative Arts Therapies Week is to spread awareness about Expressive Arts Therapy modalities and the immense impact they have had on the mental health field and beyond.

● Expressive Arts Therapy is effective in empowering people to reach values-based goals, practice perspective-taking in relationships, and relieve symptoms related to personal health conditions.

● Each person has an innate desire to create in their own unique way, and expressive arts therapists facilitate this process by offering a safe environment for the client to be witnessed holistically and compassionately without judgment while they explore their innermost thoughts, feelings, and sensations.

● Therapists who execute expressive arts techniques are trained and credentialed in not only psychological theory but also in the integration of the artistic modalities to help people cope with mental health challenges, life transitions, grief, relationships, trauma, and identity exploration.

● To honor Creative Arts Therapies Week, there are a myriad of ways you can spread awareness, show your support, and highlight the spectrum of artistic and creative-based healing.

By Sarah Engelskirchen-Bugler, Therapist, Writer, and Graduate of the Expressive Arts Therapy Training Program at NWCEAI