EXPRESSIVE ARTS

Since as far as history is recorded; people have been using art as extensions of the human soul to cultivate positive changes within themselves and relations with the outside world. Our experiences, whether positive or negative, develop our unique preferences and deeply connect us to people, images, and sounds, exuding a common struggle for hope.

Also, for many people, the expressive arts can be forms of communication that can "tell without actually talking." This, too, can be an enhancement to therapeutic intervention.

Visual Art

Visual art offers an outlet and a release. Produce something. Express yourself in some way. As long as you contribute rather than consume, anything you do can be a work of art. Studies indicate that creative self-expression and exposure to the arts have wide-ranging effects on not only cognitive, emotional and physical health.

Simple artistic activities like drawing, painting or sculpting clay can soothe parts of the brain to supplement healing from trauma responses. Creativity can also build resilience and a sense of safety which is essential to healing.

Dance and Movement

Dance an Movement allows a person to reclaim his or her body as an ally, verses an enemy. Thus, fostering a relationship between mind and body.  Another benefit of dance is an increased sense of vitality – an awakening and renewal of one’s life energy.

Dance is movement, and movement is essentially a process of ongoing change. Moving with one’s whole body, with and against gravity, one learns to both yield and resist, to feel one’s strength and to feel one’s vulnerability, to try on new qualities of action and behavior. This is what it means to be fully human.

Music

Music matters. Music acts as a medium for processing emotions and experiences — Songwriting provides opportunities for expression.

Music has positive physical effects. It can produce direct biological changes, such as reducing heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol levels. Also, studies suggest that exposure to prosocial lyrics increases positive thought, empathy, and helping behavior.

Finally, music is a connecting experience which is necessary in wellness and life balance.

Drama

For thousands of years drama has been used in healing rituals and has morphed with noted therapeutic values. Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance.

For many people the word drama is connected with theatre. There is a difference. Drama is a personal experience (the word comes from the Greek drao: “I do” or “struggle”) and theatre is communicating the experience to others (the word comes from the Greek theatron: “a place for seeing/showing”). It can be helpful to communicate how we are struggling, to do so in action, not just in words.