Expressive therapy is the use of different forms of creative arts to help individuals heal their mind, soul, and body from most ailments. It is achieved through the use of their imagination and different forms of creative expressions. It may be used as a part of a treatment plan for a variety of behavioral, emotional, and mental health conditions.
Expressive therapy is the same as expressive arts therapy which incorporates different forms of arts such as drama, dance, painting, movement, music, and writing. These aids can help individuals to discover and learn self-love, through any one of these spontaneous art forms. Through these creative processes, you can also learn to understand and deal more effectively with such emotions as fear, stress, and anxiety.
The five art disciplines; drama, dance, music, visual arts, and poetry, draw on different and special strengths and help you to tap into your imagination. By doing this, you will be able to examine your body, emotions, feelings and thought process. A trained professional of art and therapy is able to assist in breaking down what a person is experiencing and what they are trying to express through their work of art. Through participating in these artistic activities, you take part in your own healing using your own imagination and psyche. It all comes from within you, as a form of creativity that is channeled outwardly instead of holding negative feelings on the inside. Expressive Therapies have emerged as the latest tools to work through troubled feelings and help you in the healing process. The good thing about this therapy is that it allows you to reach into your own subconscious mind in a much better way than other cognitive and linguistic methods.
Expressive Therapy is Self Healing
Expressive art therapy is self-healing and it is seen that their effectiveness is growing in all age groups making it one of the most adopted forms of healing for anxiety and depression. Expressive arts therapy has a therapeutic effect because it allows for a creative experience, and it highlights an individual’s capacity to transform his or her thoughts, emotions, and experiences into tangible shapes and forms.
It is a fact that artists have always known what science is just starting to discover. That the intuition of an individual has remarkable strength and power, which if used correctly can achieve great things. Creating a visual image by using an expressive art form can result in physical and emotional benefits for the creator and also the viewer. The mind, body, and spirit can find healing in the uplifting and inspirational effects of dance, music, writing; any of one of these creative forms that you choose.
The best thing about this technique is that you do not have to be a skilled artist, in fact, you don’t need the talent at all to avail the healing powers of art. Just do what your mind, body, and soul guide you to do and explore your own realms and the worlds inside you. By using expressive art therapy and the artistic techniques you can gain insight into depression, fear, anxiety, anger and even chronic illnesses such as cancer, AIDS etc.
Expressive art therapy allows you to connect with the negative, painful and the repressed, undiscovered emotions within you and channels them out non-verbally in form of drawing, dancing, poetry, painting or sculpture. Releasing these suppressed emotions through creative processes, clears the mind and the immune system, and aids the healing of emotional or physical wounds. Expressive Therapy is surely an effective technique which is gaining popularity due to its effectiveness.