Expressive Arts Therapy

Photo by John Lockwood on Unsplash Day 69 – I keep trying to pull together the reading… The Zerbe Enns, Diaz and Bryant-Davis articles I was speaking about back on day 66, seems to be speaking to me about the Rud chapter I wrote about yesterday.   Again, Rud says, In accordance with the more general definition of multitude, I propose an understanding of the psychotherapeutic encounter as a micro multitude where the increase of common power does not imply the effacement of each singular power. When we affirm that we are but interwoven, expressive knots in constant movement and transformation, we also affirm that when we face another in the therapy room, we are being mutually constituted; there is an essential, reciprocal, inevitable mutuality in the encounter which I define as radical reciprocity. We are there, being other in front of another, mutually constituting one another in that moment.   I like this idea of being “mutually constituted” in the moment with the other… bu

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash Day 67 and Day 68 – I am still reading Revisioning Person-Centered Therapy: Theory and Practice of a Radical Paradigm edited by Manu Bazzano (2018) – today, I’d like to focus on Chapter 2, by Claudio Rud, The psychotherapeutic encounter as a political act of micro multitude. Rud begins his chapter talking again about neoliberalism, and the political landscape in which many of us practice (even as he is speaking about his experience in Argentina – he still recognizes that his political milieu is shaped by the “Western” perspective).   Rud (2018) begins by telling us what he hopes to do in his chapter –   I will… try to develop an understanding of subjectivity which links person-centred therapy as a political practice that spills over onto the social field with a democratic political project that contains a similar philosophical basis of shared power , acceptance of differences , and the search for the common good that Spinoza (Negri, 2004; De

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash Day 66 – Cultural humility, self-awareness, and self-reflexivity are discussed in the Zerbe Enns, Bryant-Davis and Díaz (2021a) article entitled, Transnational Feminist Therapy: Recommendations and Illustrations. They write,   Cultural humility is informed by self-reflection, flexibility, patience with ourselves and others, tolerance for ambiguity, empathy, and awareness of power dynamics. It requires regular exploration of our co-existent points of privilege and marginalization, as well as how our points of view can be affected by implicit, nonconscious biases that may resist change. The power of Northern hegemony is often subtle, and Minority World mental health workers who have experienced higher levels of financial and social capital, as well as White privilege, may have greater difficulty, compared to their counterparts with less privilege, with the tasks of recognizing insidious biases within themselves and the discipline of psychology. (p. 21

Day 65 – I’ve been thinking a lot about vulnerability the last few days.   Vulnerability, truth, and fiction – or in this case, poetry.   As I keep saying (although I’m not sure I’ve been saying it here), making “art” is usually a process of encountering the “other” – of allowing oneself to meet and be met, even with the other within.   And of multiplicity which is always a part of life.   I couldn’t really write yesterday.   The poem, A palette of grief , from day 64 – was such an encounter for me and left me with a writing hangover.   The great thing was that I remembered that I wanted/needed there to be a way in which I “showed” and not just “told” about what it is I am trying to say.   I want to talk about the power of art to help us know ourselves as clinicians, and to meet our clients – but I also don’t want to bog down the piece of writing with my own story.     I showed my poem to a friend, and she reminded me that there are sometimes the themes that come through are me

Photo by Dan Cook on Unsplash Day 64 – What is the image that woke you up this morning?   Was there residue from your dream? Or perhaps when asked about an “image” what emerges is a sensation, of the dog’s soft fur under your palm, of her beating heart when you pick her up? Or perhaps it is a song, or a gesture, or an impulse you have to move a certain way, or smell a familiar waft—the air reminding you of that someone or someplace special?   The invitation to imagine is not always welcome.   For some, it only cracks open the door that tightly protects from past or present harm. For some it is a demand, when what is wanted is a gift or glass of water.   The invitation to play with ideas, or materials, with memories, or dreams, with images or sensations is an essential part of expressive arts therapy.        A palette of grief   For so many years it was only fear heart-pounding gut-wrenching ear-ringing fear   not just as a child   of touching and not bei

Day 63 – I’ve gone back to re-read Stephen Levine’s 2019 book, Philosophy of expressive arts therapy: Poiesis and the therapeutic imagination. Cathy Moon has written a foreword that describes the concepts that stand out to her in the book, and offers us, what seems to me, possibly one good definition of Levine’s method of expressive arts therapy:   Levine’s approach to therapeutic process is a flexible one, responding to what is emerging in the session for the client and being able to follow it—whether what is emerging is movement, sound, visuals, poetry, enactments, or multiple art forms. (p. 12)   Moon goes on to point out that current arts practices are transdisciplinary and often improvisational with a “generous” view of what is considered “art.”   She points out that discipline-specific arts therapy practitioners who resist this broad view may be missing out on something important in the exploration of what is “art.”   She also asks important questions – what is superfici

Photo by Steven Wright on Unsplash Day 62 It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death—ought to decide, indeed, to earn one’s death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible to life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. One must negotiate this as nobly as possible, for the sake of those who are coming after us.   In The fire next time James Baldwin (1962), wrote that we must “earn our death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life.” Somehow this reminds me of Debbie Allen’s commencement speech back in 2001 – she ended by encouraging us to have a lovers’ quarrel with the world!   And by extension I think of the lovers’ quarrel I have been having with expressive arts therapy for more than 40 years.     I came to the program at Lesley University as a student back in 1982 and have been confronting the conundrum of life with passion and with retreat since then.

Day 60 and 61 – Yesterday I went to the Lesley University graduation ceremony – shout out to all the graduates of the expressive therapy cohorts of 2020, 2021, and 2022!   CONGRATULATIONS!!!   I am always so moved by the faces of the graduates and by the small snippets of their stories that I have had the privilege to know.   I know that for me – the journeys to getting my masters and doctoral degrees were filled with both challenges and joys, of hard work and huge sacrifices.   It is always a triumph and for these students the challenges of completing a degree in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, under the reassertion of White supremacy, the shadow of police shootings, increasing civic divides, unprecedented economic disparities, and a global climate crisis certainly made their achievements all the more remarkable.   It was such a privilege to have one of our own dance therapy students give the student commencement speech.   Unfortunately, Kevana West was unable to deliver th

Day 59 – Mary Calkins   It was really fun to go back and read another paper I found from my 1998 history of psychology course.   The paper on Mary Calkins introduced me to the ways women’s history (White women’s history) was still being erased in clinical psychology.   It’s funny, I was just talking with someone today about how challenging writing can be, and I was reminded that all the writing I did for my doctoral program really helped me gain confidence as a writer. I’ll include the essay below.   While it’s easy to find out information about Mary Calkins now – Wikipedia was not launched until 2001 – in 1998 you had to go through stacks of books in the library to find her.   I’m glad it’s a lot easier now.   Unfortunately, it still doesn’t mean we have stopped having the story of White supremacy and the marginalization of people of color and their importance and contributions as the primary story told across a variety of disciplines.   I’m becoming more and more aware and se

  Day 58

Photo by Romain Vignes on Unsplash Day 57 – I wrote this paper back in 1998 for a class on the history of psychology.  Reading back on it I'm impressed with how much these ideas influenced my belief in knowledge as "situated" and with my understanding of the role of language in establishing power.   HISTORICAL INFLUENCES OF POSTMODERNISM ON PSYCHOLOGY   “While epistemology may seem to reside in a heady conceptual realm far removed from the clinician’s doorstep, it is of fundamental concern to the practice of therapy.   One cannot operate without epistemological assumptions, although it is possible to be unaware of them.   Our theories are founded on epistemology - whether theories of psychotherapy, or personal theories of life manifest in the choices we make on a daily basis.   When one considers, then, that epistemology informs all of our beliefs about where problems come from, how they are maintained, and what facilitates their resolution, the distinctions ex