Expressive Arts and Somatic Therapy

The mediums available in art processes inspire many children and adults. While working with clay, painting, or tissue paper, psychological material may be unlocked, and become available to be expressed, explored and processed. Art process is an age-old way for individuals to connect to beauty and awe, and to challenge old ideas of who they are.

Play is the way in which we learn about the world. Play is a way to work through and integrate concerns, dilemmas, and trauma. It is used to celebrate the unexpected and to delve into the unknown. Through play, we are given permission to access and follow an inner sense of knowing. The permission inherent in this process is related to the permission to ‘be’ and to regain the sense of the right to exist.

Movement is vital for therapy. Running, hitting, kicking, and other movement expressions, done with awareness, support the positive expression of sometimes difficult emotions. Allowing the body to move and to increase respirations, may activate dormant material. These activities are done in service to the process of finding your own core self.

Sandplay therapy was developed by Dora Kalff and Margaret Lowenfeld. Both of these insightful women recognized that playing with small toys has been an expressive outlet for children and adults through the ages. Working with miniatures in the sand provides a medium for the outer expression of inner experience. The unconscious presents images and stories and the conscious mind receives them without judgment!