|
To
sit in a chair and analyze is heady stuff,
but
it does not help you live the power of the image.
Put
the image in your body. Does it waken a response?
Of
course: your rage, your grief, your great Buddha laugh.
Just
put the image into your body and wait.
(from "Coming
Home to Myself" by Marion Woodman and Jill Mellick, Conari Press, 2001)
In my practice, I create a space where people can feel
comfortable and interested in what can unfold from deep within. One may choose to draw the feeling or image of a body symptom,
or use clay to sculpt the prevailing mood or blockage that one is wrestling with. Every creation holds wisdom from
the unconscious and, if this information is utilized, can prove highly valuable in the therapeutic process.
Expressive Arts Therapy
(also called Creative Arts Therapy)
This approach usesse the modalities of movement/dance,
music, art, drama and poetry intentionally by a trained clinician to further the emotional, psychological, spiritual
and physical integration of an individual or group. In ancient and indigenous cultures, these modalities were part of
the everyday life of individuals and communities, and functioned naturally as healing agents. In modern usage
of these modalities in the arts therapies, the focus is more on creation and expression in service of healing body and
soul and less on manufacturing a production or performance.
I think that the image is the connector between
psyche and soma: the feeling tone in the body is producing chemistry that is picked up by the brain and made into an image...I
have people paint, or dance, in order to bring in the creative energy, which is life giving. There's got to be a force strong
enough to combat symptoms - and that's the archetypal energy. Jung said that without the archetypal healing, you're working
with band-aids. - Marion Woodman, Psyche and Soma: A Conversation with Marion Woodman, Depth Video, 2007
Touch Drawing
One form that working expressively with the arts
can take is Touch Drawing. I mention it separately here because it is a lesser-known medium than painting or drawing
with pastels, pencils, or crayons, yet can prove to be very powerful while, at the same time, being extremely
simple to do. The process of Touch Drawing was developed by Deborah Koff-Chapin and is used all over the world by
expressive arts therapists to support deep healing of all kinds. It is supports and expands self-expression
without words through the movement of hands and fingers on paper which is laid over an inked board. Underneath the paper,
finger and hand pressure creates images and symbols, which are revealed when the paper is lifted from the board. These
images have the power to reveal, surprise, express and heal. My office is equiped with everything needed for the
touch-drawing process.
Here is what a sequence of Touch Drawing might look
like:
If you would like to view a wonderful live demonstration
of Deborah Koff-Chapin doing Touch Drawing on YouTube, click here.
Sandplay
Sandplay is a non-verbal therapeutic modality
suitable for adults as well as children. Images, symbols and archetypes live and move within us. Here in the sand
tray, with hundreds of miniature figures, these images and symbols which live in our unconscious psyche can speak, forming
themselves into three-dimensional scenes, while our conscious minds can rest --- trusting the unfolding wisdom. The
sand scenes which are created do their silent work within, showing us the way. The work of sandplay happens
deep within the psyche.
The sandplay process consists of a descent
into the unconscious to the Self, followed by a re-emergence into consciousness and a re-ordering of the ego to the Self.
It is a re-alignment of consciousness to the primordial wholeness from which we come and to which we return.
- Barbara Turner, The Handbook of Sandplay Therapy,
Temenos Press, 2005
I have had excellent results working with the non-traditional
octagonal tray you see here, however I also use the standard rectangular Kalffian sandtray in my practice.
Here is what a sequence of Sandplay might look like:
If you would like to read more about Sandplay Therapy
and how it works, here is a link to an article written by the creator of this modality, Dora M. Kalff, on the website of the
Sandplay Therapists of America.
Using Image to Work with Body Symptoms
When a person has a physical or mental symptom - whether it
is diagnosed or undiagnosed, of known or unknown origin - working with images and symbols that arise from the mundus
imaginalis (the imaginal world) through art, movement, and sandplay can support and provide additional information
and direction in the healing process.
Last year, I experienced very real and painful somatic symptoms
in my lumbar spine. I worked with these symptoms using traditional allopathic medicine, as well as naturopathic and homeopathic approaches. Through
drawing and authentic movement I also engaged actively with my body in the mundus maginalis, coming to
a deeper understanding of the roots of my somatic symptoms and working with them in an effective way. This is a core
component of my practice.
Here are some of my drawings from that journey.
|
|
|
| The pain in my spine - first image |
|
|
| My Spine is a Door: pain becomes a doorway and an awakener to the light in matter - third image |
|
|
|
| Anger and fear held in my spine: compression and tension - second image |
|
| |
|
|
