By Cæcilie Liv Carlsen
There are different schools of thought in art therapy. At Artmentum, we use the methods of Expressive Arts Therapy (EXA), which offers many art forms for art therapy work. This article will give you a brief historical and theoretical introduction, but first a bit of context.
Art as therapy
The Danish healthcare system currently offers various services for victims of violence, but these services do not place much emphasis on the healing effect of involving a creative process. In our experience, creativity and art forms such as dance, storytelling, music, poetry, drama and visual arts are powerful tools for treatment and prevention that can be implemented in everyday life and the treatment room.
Art has always been linked to expressing meaning, creating community, but also providing relief in times of trauma. We find many examples of this through archaeology and anthropology, as well as art history:
- Acting to portray and understand emotions and life’s dramas, such as Greek tragedies and Shakespeare’s plays that revolve around major themes such as death, war, grief, violence and love.
- For thousands of years, murals have been a medium for making your mark on the world. A hope to be remembered, to create meaning and a people’s family history.
- Sculptures have been used to communicate our hopes and concerns to gods and the world around us. They have also been the center of community and meaning-making rituals.
- Dance was used in tribes to describe joy, hunting, ceremonies and celebrations that could empower the individual and the community.
- Poetry is used for communication and to describe the indescribable magic and beauty of everyday life
- Music was used to create moods and soothe the soul in the form of sound healing.
The philosophy behind the EXA program is characterized by a cross-media approach to the field of art therapy. This means moving across art forms to find deeper expressions and layers. For example, by dancing a poem or creating a song for a client’s painting.
Different directions in art therapy
Out of art and artistic expression have sprung different directions in art therapy. EXA is grounded in psychology, anthropology, cultural studies and performative arts.
The methodology for EXA is founded by Shaun McNiff. He is the initiator and founder of the Expressive Arts Therapies Program in 1974 at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This was done in collaboration with European researchers in the field, including scientist and artist Paolo Knill.
In 1994, Paolo Knill founded The European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Today, EXA is offered as a master’s program at the European Graduate School with affiliated institutes around the world. The philosophy behind the EXA program is characterized by a cross-media approach to the field of art therapy. This means moving across art forms to find deeper expressions and layers. For example, by dancing a poem or creating a song for a client’s painting.
The therapeutic elements of psychodrama consist of the patient gaining insight into their challenges, working through them and, not least, the catharsis experience, i.e. the emotional release of the feelings associated with those conflicts.
The 5 arts that can be used in therapy
The 5 art genres that EXA works with are dance, drama, music, visual arts and storytelling. Below we take a look at the different art forms that EXA works with:
- Dance offers a free space for creative expression, where dancers can express themselves creatively in rhythmic movements of the whole body. This is most often done to music. Dance as an art form can appear as either aesthetic ideals and forms of training or as a performing art when dancing in front of an audience. Dance therapy can reach people where words fail and is based on knowledge of the importance of physicality to human existence.
- Drama (acting) means ‘action’ in Greek. It is an art form that tells a story with the artist’s (actor’s) action, movement, mimicry, body language and sound. A drama is divided into acts, which in turn are divided into scenes.
Drama as therapy offers exercises to see yourself from the outside and others from the inside and to perform, as in a theater, your traumas and unprocessed emotions. An example of this can be found in the method of psychodrama developed by Jacob L. Moreno in the 1920s and 1930s. Psychodrama takes place in a group of clients with a therapist as the instructor. Using dramatic methods, the client in focus is given the opportunity to stage and act out their challenges. The other group members can be assigned different roles (one could be the patient’s mother, father, spouse, etc.) The therapeutic elements of psychodrama consist of the patient gaining insight into their challenges, working through them and, not least, the catharsis experience, i.e. the emotional release of the feelings associated with those conflicts. - Music was originally a collective term for all the arts that, according to Greek mythology, were under the protection of the Muses. Today, the word is used for tonal art. Music offers to connect and communicate with people through musical activities and experiences. In music therapy, music is used to create safe relationships, spark social interest and break social isolation, reduce stress, provide pain relief, strengthen identity, process emotional trauma and more, depending on the individual client’s needs.
- The visual or fine arts are the art of creating images. It creates both physical images in the form of painting, drawing and sculpture, but also inner images. Other new forms of expression that emerged in the second half of the 20th century include photography, video art and graffiti. In classical art therapy, the visual arts are very much in play. This is typically done by drawing, painting, playing or using pictures.
- Storytelling has an openness to language and opportunities to create something new. It’s a language where not only the content but also the expression draws attention, for example through rhythmic form. Poetry is made up of letters that are sometimes combined into words, sometimes not, and the tempo and rhythm between words. This means writing in an expressive way, a way of putting thoughts and feelings into words and letting your imagination and associations carry you away as you relate to different topics. Writing processes often have a therapeutic dimension: personal experiences, fears and desires are recorded and shaped in writing. Regular writing experience can lead to discoveries about unconscious inclinations and desires.
By offering all five arts as part of their therapy, therapists can provide patients with a vibrant and creative method that connects body, mind and spirit to bring about recovery, healing and change. In the use of the different art forms, EXA offers greater flexibility for those who use art therapy in their treatment.
