The program emphasizes a relational, community oriented, experiential and integrated expressive arts approach to the work of therapy and healing. We offer an intensive 3 year certificate program for those who wish to immerse themselves in the practice of Expressive Arts Therapy, or for those who wish to deepen their own relationship with themselves and the arts. We also offer a 1 year foundations program for practitioners already working in the fields of health, psychology, community organizing and education who wish to integrate the expressive arts into their practice, classroom, or organization. Expressive Arts Therapy combines client-centred psychotherapy (talk therapy) with the exploration of movement, visual art, music, words, sound, story-telling and play. At the centre of the expressive arts therapeutic process there is an honouring of the client's own innate wisdom. The exploration through the arts combine with therapy to help the client access non-verbal, confusing, and often unconscious material through play with sensation and imagery. These experiences are then reflected back in the imagery, be it visual, body movement, sound, music, poetry or stories. The images are not necessarily a direct reflection or what one might expect and as such can offer insight, a well of resources, and a path towards inner wisdom. The relationship between the therapist, the client and the images helps the client begin to know her or himself more deeply. The aspect of play and shaping in the arts is helpful for reconstructing a healthy attachment experience. In the creative play along side the therapist, the client begins to rewire his or her experience of relationship, to deepen a sense of inner security, to become more embodied and present and to reshape his or her responses to life and the world around. To read an interview with Expressive Arts Therapist Fran Harwood about the use of expressive arts with trauma please visit the Trauma and Attachment Report athttp://trauma.blog.yorku.ca/2011/05/27/316/
Encouraging communities to engage in and explore the expressive arts fosters a space for learning to work together, discovering creative resources and ideas, resolving conflict, honouring rites of passage, holding suffering, and fostering play for celebrating life. The tradition and discipline of the arts has evolved over the course of human history. In all societies up to the present, the arts have played an essential role in enabling human beings to make sense of their world, to live with suffering when necessary and to be able to celebrate the joy of life. Expressive arts in community fosters a reverence for time-honoured traditions that every individual brings to a community, while also creating a space for creativity and surprise to emerge. Facilitating and creating a space that is contained by the structure of the artistic frame has the ability to help transform and sustain the health of communities large and small, and the individuals within them. For a couple of beautiful examples of expressive arts in larger communities go to the Jumblies Theatre website athttp://www.jumbliestheatre.org/jumblies.html on facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/groups/8680082911/ and Clay and Paper Theatre at:http://www.clayandpapertheatre.org/ on facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9134842207
Also check out the Expressive Arts Spring Symposium website for some lovely descriptions and videos of the expressive arts in practice.http://www.artshaping.org/program.php
