How Does Art and Theater Have the Power to Heal Trauama
I recently had the honor and privilege of attending a workshop with renowned art therapists Cathy Malchiodi and Kate Webb in San Diego, CA, entitled Trauma-Informed Art Therapy and Positive Psychology. To say I was inspired, confirmed, validated, and energized past the feel is truly an understatement.
As a licensed clinical social worker, I often have fatigued from the expressive arts as a means of helping my clients work through grief, loss, and trauma in psychotherapy. Art making, whether via collage, painting, cartoon, sculpting, dancing, making music, and drama, has the potential to help individuals heal through very traumatic circumstances. The workshop focused on the prove-based use of fine art making interventions and the intersection with neurobiology and somatic experiencing to help clients piece of work through trying life challenges.
In my xx+ years of psychotherapy practice, I take called upon art intervention with the post-obit populations: child witnesses of domestic violence, corruption survivors, hospice patients and their families, preschool children who witnessed L.A. riots, bereavement support groups, students struggling in academic settings, children of incarcerated parents, and mothers experiencing perinatal low.
Art allowed clients to transcend their emotional hurting, create a narrative through prototype of their trauma/loss, and afterwards "principal" the trauma, thereby releasing the painful retentivity from its grip in the brain. Art continues to be transformative in my practice with clients and also in my own personal life.
Notice a Therapist for Trauma / PTSD
Equally Malchiodi and Webb stated in their conference, nosotros every bit humans all experience traumas across the lifespan. These incidents can be every bit "pocket-size" as a traffic jam to as life-changing as the death of a family fellow member. All traumas, no matter how seemingly big or modest, are encoded in the brain's amygdala where they are registered every bit potential alert bells. The hippocampus then takes on the part of organizing these traumatic images, but struggles to encode them in such a way that makes sense to the cognitive (higher thinking/verbal) areas of the brain.
Fine art making taps into the lower-level (somatic/limbic) areas of the brain and also allows the customer to release trauma in a somatic (physically manifested/preverbal) manner. Some individuals are rendered speechless in moments of trauma. As researchers accept indicated, Broca'due south Area in the brain has the potential to shut downwardly verbalization of trauma, every bit an individual is in a hyper-alert land of fight or flight.
Art making accesses the somatic elements of the brain, enabling a client to express emotion which at times cannot be verbalized initially. Fine art making creates containment, condom, encouragement, validation, and an opportunity to characterize the traumatic experience in such a way that the trauma is then organized in the brain and then that the individual's somatic experiencing of the trauma is reduced.
Relaxation exercises coupled with art making bring most neat relief for many clients. Playing music that matches a resting heartbeat has been proven to induce a state of calmness in many trauma survivors. Some clients are compelled to besides engage in other forms of expression, such as drum playing and dancing. Discharging the trauma physically (exercise, music making, etc.) and through the apply of inventiveness in art allows the client to move through the experience with a sense of cocky-compassion, mastery of the trauma, and a restored sense of trust in one'south surroundings.
To summarize the workshop I attended in a small article would non lend justice to all the incredible learning experienced. Suffice it to say my education of expressive arts is ongoing, and continues to be a driving force in the work I am honored to provide along the people who come to see me for therapy. Truly, belief that the client has the power of cocky-determination and the awareness and knowledge within to interpret their ain art making is essential in nonjudgmentally supporting the customer.
Ongoing training in the cutting edge juxtaposition of fine art and scientific discipline in expressive arts and neurobiology is incredibly exciting and groundbreaking. Mindfulness and positive psychology also weave their way into the expressive arts every bit a form of healing which empowers clients to transcend trauma and loss and evolve to a place of healing and wellness.
The post-obit is a list of titles I accept found to be inspiring and helpful for psychotherapists wishing to acquire more on the path of incorporating expressive arts in their work with clients:
- Malchiodi, Cathy. (2002)The Soul's Pallete: Drawing on Art's Transformative Powers, Shambhala Publications
- Malchiodi, Cathy. (2006)The Art Therapy Sourcebook, McGraw-Hill
- Allen, Pat . (1995) Fine art is a Mode of Knowing,Shambala Publications
- McNiff, Shaun (2004). Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul, Shambhala Publications
- McNiff, Shaun (1992). Fine art as Medicine: Creating a Therapy of the Imagination, Shambhala Publications
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