Art Therapy: it doesn't force a path; it finds one

Art therapy as a healing profession emerged in the 20th century. Unlike other therapeutic styles which have terms, assumptions and practices that create distinctions between them (for instance, the practice of Jungian psychology verses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), the ideas contributing to the practice of art therapy flow from many streams of practice and thinking. In this way, art therapy is like a river. As a healing practice it does not have one definitive view of the meaning of pictures, expression and the nature of things concerning the psyche. Instead, within the current practice is an encouragement for the arts therapist to develop their own ways of working drawing on the many streams of knowledge and know-how, while working to “do no harm” to the client who is in need of care.

The streams I have incorporated in my practice are trusting that working in the ordinary, everyday, here and now (Abram, 1997), being curious about the perceptions of the lived and living body rather than forthrightly delving into the past can be a source of insight (Merleau-Ponty, 1945). This comes from the philosophical school of phenomenology that grew in prominence over the last century through the insights of the philosophers Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The focus of the phenomenologists was to look with fresh eyes at the world before interpretations, theory or narrative explanation as to what things mean (1997). This allows for a freshness of understanding the ordinary, every day living. This way of perceiving helps us to see why things are the way they are in a person’s life, rather than relying on theories from others.

I also hold a great deal of respect for the imagination of the individual, to create an image in one’s life in the here and now and so picture a better future (Moon, 2004). If you can image-ine it, you can work to actually achieve it. I also trust that what is hidden in the mind is significant and this contributes to the present moment experience, which is a psychoanalytic idea in origin (Freud, 1900). Within this stream of influence, are the Archetypes; these are what we might call universal and personified patterns of human behaviour, as described by Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung (1959) and later developed by Caroline Myss (2003) to be very useful in bringing forward the personal enactments of one’s life dramas. Working in an exploratory way with archetypes can help a person identify themself and others in a pattern of behaviour within their world. Once a person has recognised themselves in archetypal action, insight is easily generated and choices can be made in regard to how the person would prefer to be- to continue in the archetypal pattern, or not. In contrast to working in the here and now, bringing in awareness of archetypal patterns of human behaviour allows a person to see their pain, struggles and the drama is not entirely unique to them, but typical of human action belonging to our collective, and primitive past, as much as to the present moment. The archetypes can be observed broadly across the human experience, they are embedded in all of the arts: image, film, literature and the dance, regardless of race and era. These universal patterns express and repeat the nature of the human condition, endlessly over time. In this way, identifying these personality-ed patterns in ourselves in art therapy can have a awe-inspiring and settling quality as we discover we are individually participating in a much larger drama of what it means to be human; our desires for meaning, struggles for purpose and pain are, universal. What we make of these desires, struggles and pain are what give our lives meaning. This desire and struggle for personal meaning asks of us that we take personal responsibility for our choices (Sartre, 1943). To make meaning, means that we contend with our limits and strive for a life we might say is worthy of our striving and time, so we can eventually rest in peace, when the final curtains close. This need for meaning, purpose and the responsibility we all must bear is the concern of the existentialists, Jean Paul Sartre being one of the most famous. This is another philosophical movement that arose over the last century, and is called existentialism.

There are other streams of influence in my practice, that are too many to name here, but it is enough to say that arts therapy practice is like a river, that will continue to be renewed by fresh ideas and flow forward as time progresses. Art therapy is open, flexible and responsive to the world, it is not beholden to one definitive idea about the arts or how the mind works.

In a way, this is like how the creative process itself manifests; creation trickles and flows wherever the ground tilts to make a way. Nature, like art and water moves on via an invisible pull towards an end, not fully understood. Creative thought and action, as a part of art therapy, brings together a multiplicity of things to make something new, and it is in the moving and doing that what is new, becomes made. It is not in the pontificating and the talking. So, creativity, which is a central part of art therapy, is like a river, on the move. It can cleanse the past and purify the present, it can bring new life energies and sustenance to the mind, like a rainstorm to a parched land. Creative action can usher in change, preparing the soil for new life like failing raindrops which soften the hard-baked earth, just as falling tears can soften a toughened heart and mind.

Creativity and art therapy, like water, naturally flow to the lowest point, which is the place of least resistance. Instead of pushing hard with logic, strategy and trying to force solutions, art therapy and creativity function best when the mental resistences of perfectionism, self criticism is low. Mental resistance is like anti-gravity for creativity, which means it stops it in its tracks; it pools where it meets a wall. Mental resistance often shows up as the preference that art therapy flow upwards to meet our demands to not be challenged, which of course, is impossible. To use the arts for benefit, we need to free ourselves of demands of perfectionism, the urges for self criticism and learn to trust while feeling tension. A good arts therapist will give a client permission to play for play’s own sake, not for a specific end planned and agreed to in advance.

Part of the healing work of creativity and its role in art therapy is that expression itself can be a tool for catharsis; this is an ancient idea attributed to Aristotle (Britannica, 2019), who identified the witnessing of a drama on stage, allows for an emotional purging in the audience as well as the actors on stage. Catharsis, therefore is a kind of emotional cleansing, in which intense feelings are felt, recognised as belonging not only to the drama on the stage, but to one’s self, and once acknowledged, released. Letting go of emotions such as fear, pity, sadness and shame through witnessing a tragic drama on a stage, is like what happens in art therapy. Instead of watching dramas on a stage, through the creative process of making, the client identifies with the things made as expressions of their own personal drama. In this process the client learns to witness themself through the art making and via being witnessed by the therapist. This act of creative projection (Jones, 2004) of their inner dramas allows for a cleansing leading to a release of vital energy and a life renewed. It an be felt as a purification, of a spiritual kind, where new and more helpful meanings about old personal stories are made possible. It is as fellow art therapist Shawn McNiff says “art heals by accepting the pain and doing something with it” (McNIff, 2004).

Knowing in advnace that part of good art therapy is learning to accept the pain, as a beginning to heal the pain, helps us enter into the creative process with a trembling-trust. We tremble as we know uncomfortable places will be touched as sure as the ceative process will trickle dilliegently down to the hidden, lower places within. We must be courageous and cautious not block it’s path or try to turn the water of art therapy into something it is not, such as pure sunbeam, or a hot air balloon- something to momentarily warm us, bring us up and make us feel good in the moment. Instead, allowing the creative work of art therapy to flow where it will, into the hidden highways and hairline cracks in our lives to reveal the leaks, and what needs cleansing, softening and mending.

Image: photograph of a rain cloud, by Anna Worthington.

References:

Abram, D. (1997). The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a more-than-human World. Vintage Books.
Britannica. (2019). Catharsis | Criticism. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/catharsis-criticism
Freud, S. (1995). The Interpretation of Dreams. Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1900)
Jones, P. (2004). The Arts Therapies. Routledge.
Jung, C. G. (1959). The archetypes and the collective unconscious. Routledge.
McNiff, S. (2004). Art heals: How creativity cures the soul. Shambhala.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1945). Phenomenology of perception. Forgotten Books.
Moon, B. L. (2004). Art and Soul. Charles C. Thomas Publisher.
Myss, C. (2003). Archetype Cards- A 78 Card Deck and Guidebook.
Sartre, J.-P. (1943). Being and nothingness: An essay in phenomenological ontology. Routledge.