ART THERAPY
If you are an artist, you have likely experienced the way using your hands or senses to make decisions feels distinct from doing so in a linear, verbal manner. And, if you were ever a child, you certainly know this. Returning to this felt sense of knowing is one of the gifts of art therapy, whether you identify as an artist or not.
When trauma has altered our ability to trust ourselves, our goodness and our experience of reality, this must be repaired first with our senses and emotions.
Experiencing the pleasure of paint or the satisfaction of finding the “right” image -even if we can’t explain why-is to access our inner wisdom and to meet ourselves with deep validation. When this process happens in the presence of a loving other, our tolerance for what can be expressed expands; what may not arise alone is tolerable with access to co regulation. This is the “bottom up” method; we begin with the physical, emotional and automatic and follow it with the cognitive framing arising from these truths.
An art therapy session can look a number of ways. We will collaborate to find the right design for you.
Read more about ARTT
Kindling the Spark
Sensorimotor Art Therapy
BRainspotting
Like art making, brainspotting is a somatic, experience-based therapy that allows us to process more deeply than language alone. By locating a “spot” in your visual field, we find the access point to unprocessed experiences and unhealed traumas. Brainspotting is also a means of connecting to our felt sense of safety. In both of these ways it is a natural sibling to art therapy.