8/4/2019 Art Therapy is

1/5

Terapia prin arte expresive reprezint o abordare interdisciplinar,interactiv, artistic a consilierii i psihoterapiei.Cunoscut i sub numele de terapie expresiv, terapie expresiv intermodalsau art-terapie creativ, terapia prin arte expresive presupune valorificareaexperienei artistice n folosul sntii, vindecrii, a creterii i dezvoltrii

umane. Terapia prin arte expresive reprezint o combinaie de imagistic,simbolistic, naraiune, rit, muzic, dans, dram, poezie, micare, imaginaiesau art vizual, folosite deopotriv cu scopul de a da contur i formexperienei umane, de a reine i exprima trirea emoional i reflectiv,precum i de a amplifica i adncii nivelul personal de nelegere isemnificaie.

While expressive arts therapy is a relatively new and emerging field withinmodern therapeutic practice, it represents a reclaiming of ancient traditionsof healing and celebration.

In ancient societies (as well as in many contemporary earth based culturesand 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 dailyand monthly cycles of nature, the seasons of the year, and the movement ofcelestial bodies across the sky. Ancient peoples sang and danced anddrummed, made paintings in sand, and created objects of beauty for use indaily life. They crafted artifacts of their spiritual beliefs in order to rememberand 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 ofexperience were integral to healing practices. In the practice of expressivearts therapy, we are remembering this old knowledge and reclaiming ourinnate capacity for the creative expression of our individual and collectivehuman experience in artistic form. We are experiencing the capacity of artmaking as a way of knowing who we are as human beings in the world andfor the healing of both individuals and communities.Today we live in a time and in a culture in which the arts have beenseparated from each other,separated from crafts, and often separated from the day-to-day lives ofordinary people. In this

cultural context, musicians, dancers, writers and artists of all kinds often areseen as an elite fewwho have received highly specialized training or those who are successfuleconomically in the sale of their artistic productions. Yet the creative spirit,imagination, and the capacity to express oneself in artistic form are thebirthright of all human beings.Poet and potter, M. C. Richards (1973), who taught at the legendary BlackMountain College in

8/4/2019 Art Therapy is

2/5

the mountains of North Carolina, emphasized the centrality of the artisticexperience for humanbeings. She urged that when this capacity is sleeping, it should beawakened, and she said thatin this awakening of the artistic spirit the person will be strengthened and

helped in his or herpersonal growth. Existential psychotherapist, Rollo May (1975), said thatimagination and the arts are the fundamentals of human experience. Work inexpressive arts therapy is about the reawakening and strengthening of theartistic spirit and the human imagination.The arts therapies, too, have developed separately from each other. Eachmodality based artstherapy has developed its own rigorous formal clinical training, usually at thegraduate level, and a tradition of individual apprenticeship training andcredentialing. Fields such as art therapy, music therapy, dance/movementtherapy, poetry therapy and psychodrama have existed for some time.

Most have their own professional journals and organizations, such as theAmerican Art TherapyAssociation, the American Association of Music Therapists, the AmericanDance TherapyAssociation, the National Association for Drama Therapy and the NationalAssociation of PoetryTherapists. Each has ethical guidelines, standards of practice, andprofessional registration orcertification procedures.Expressive arts therapy, while rooted in ancient healing practices, is thenewcomer to this modern professional scene of arts-based therapies. In this

time of separation, expressive arts therapy calls for the re-integration of allthe arts into therapeutic practice and into daily life. As a therapeuticpractice, the field was begun during the mid 1970s through theinterdisciplinary 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 anintegrated way in therapy formed the foundation of what would become anew field of therapy. The establishment in the mid 1990s of the InternationalExpressive Arts Therapy Association with rigorous professional standards forregistration as a Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT) has been amajor step in defining the field.

The recent creation of the Association for Creativity in Counseling, a newdivision within theAmerican Counseling Association, brings the creative and expressive arts tothe attention of thegeneral body of counselors and other human service professionals. The workof Sam Gladding(2005) also has been significant in bringing the creative arts to the attentionof the counseling

8/4/2019 Art Therapy is

3/5

profession. In writing about the counseling process as an art in itself,Gladding points out thatthe arts are helpful in counseling because by their very nature they offer newperspectives andpossibilities and differing ways of experiencing the world.

Some of the specific arts therapies have operated within the traditionalmedical model of illnessand cure and within psychodynamic models of psychotherapy. By contrast,expressive arts therapy is grounded more in theories of existentialphenomenology, depth psychology, humanistic psychotherapy, and systemstheories. 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. KarenEstrella (2005) summarizes three theoretical perspectives that provideprominent orientations to expressive arts therapy work today. These three

include those of Paolo Knill and his associates of The European GraduateSchool in Switzerland and Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts,Shaun McNiff of Lesley University, and Natalie Rogers of the Person CenteredExpressive Therapy Institute in California.Knills intermodal theory emphasizes the inherent interdisciplinarity of thearts. He points outthat all of the arts have a sensory basis and a tradition of intermodality. Thearts exist withineach other. Each arts discipline involves multiple aspects of sensoryexperience, such as hearing,sight, touch, movement, feeling and sound. Furthermore, imagination is in

itself multi-sensoryand intermodal. Creating arts-based experiences that are low-skill/highsensitivity and usingintermodal transfer from one art form to another, the therapist is able tointegrate the propertiesof the various art forms to serve the goals of the therapeutic work. Using artsexperiences todecenter from a presenting problem, the client is then able to refocus hisor her attention, torecognize internal and external resources, to imagine new possibilities and tobring new learning

to bear on the life situation at hand. Knill places strong emphasis on the artsbased nature of thework, grounded in aesthetics and philosophical phenomenology. He believesthat art should notbe subservient to psychological theory. Knill says that art is a humanexistential, that humanscannot live without it, and that it provides soul nourishment for the humanexperience (Knill,

8/4/2019 Art Therapy is

4/5

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 aspectsof 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 soulhealing. He suggests creating artistic experiences in which images canbecome messengers of healing. Artistic images may reveal their messagesthough a process of dialogic participation with them. McNiff acknowledgesthe connection between expressive arts therapy and ancient shamanichealing practices which utilized the arts together in a ritual container forhealing (McNiff, 1992, 2005). Natalie Rogerss theory of creative connectionemphasizes the inherent interconnectedness that exists among all of thearts. Her approach is related to the Person-centered Therapy developed byher father, Carl Rogers. This approach places major emphasis on thetherapist creating a supportive environment for healing and personal growth

by means of congruence, empathy, and unconditional positive regard for theclient. Within this context of a supportive therapeutic relationship, Rogerssuggests 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 thepremise that understanding and meaning making are left to the client(Rogers, 1993).

Expressive Arts Therapy: The Appalachian ApproachThe Appalachian approach to expressive arts therapy, from which this bookarises, is a more recent addition to the emerging ideas about and practice ofexpressive arts therapy. Since the 1980's, faculty from counseling,

psychology, interdisciplinary studies, art, music, and music therapy atAppalachian State University have been involved in a collaborative processof teaching, writing, and curriculum development in expressive arts therapy.Their work has given rise to a number of articles and professionalpresentations 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 distinguishingfeatures of expressive arts therapy at Appalachian have emerged. Theseinclude an emphasis on each student and practitioner developing her or hisown personal theoretical and practical approach to the work, grounded in

relevant psychological and philosophical theory, as well as in personalexperience. A further feature of this approach is an emphasis upon theimportance of the natural world as the model for creativity, with particularemphasis upon the cyclical nature of the creative process as it occurs innature and in human life. The significance of dreamwork and imagination inexpressive arts is also an emphasis at Appalachian, with particular respectfor the resonance between the outer landscape of the world and the innerlandscape of the psyche. Finally, the Appalachian program emphasizes the

8/4/2019 Art Therapy is

5/5

importance of community building in the arts and the potential role of thearts in society. While these emphases are not exclusive to the Appalachianapproach, the combination of these features provides a unique perspectiveon the emerging work of expressive arts.