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EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY:
Creative Arts as a Therapeutic Tool

The Creative Arts Therapies (dance, art, writing, psychodrama, music) are based on the premise that the use of the arts in psychotherapy awakens a language of images, symbols, and metaphors which speak for the deepest aspect of the self.

The arts can bridge inner experience to the outer world of words. Creative arts therapies promote an interactional approach to mind/body wellness. The emphasis is on helping individuals take an active part in their healing process and to develop outlets for creative expression.

One of the keys to their effectiveness is that the arts provide a non-threatening opportunity to express feelings that are often too painful for words. The art forms provide a safe structure to uncover, contain, and assimilate the feelings that surface in therapy. Clients and therapists alike find that a therapeutic environment that supports creative activity, expressive interaction, physical vitality and spontaneity can be a growth-promoting and enlivening place to be.

When we use the creative arts in therapy, we awaken a language of images, symbols and metaphors which speak from the deepest aspects of the self. Through movement, poetry, psychodrama, ritual, artwork, creative writing and story, we can bridge the inner experience to the outer world of words, transforming unconscious knowing into conscious reality.