Darja
Milidragovic
Expressive Arts Therapy
How It Works
Traditionally, therapy has been verbal and focused on the left, or rational, side of the brain. However, the rational mind can only attempt to accurately translate our emotional life into words, and often fails. While it can be helpful for some and at the right time, it can also move us away from feelings, sensations and what is really going on inside us. This is where a deeper and more authentic healing can take place so that we are able to feel more connected to our true and healthy self and more empowered to change our thoughts, perceptions, behaviour, and experience of life.
The right side of the brain is the emotional brain. It is also home to our creativity and imagination, the foundations of the Expressive Arts Therapy approach. By engaging with our creativity in a personal way, therapist and client are able to observe the client's creative process, and the feelings, attitudes, impulses and patterns that come up along the way. By exploring and reflecting on these (including where they may come from or how they affect our lives and relationships), the client can learn to acknowledge what arises with acceptance and understanding. That is where healing and transformation begin.
The creative process thus provides the client with endless opportunities to notice how they engage with the different art modalities and try new and more satisfying ways. The focus is therefore on the process (a treasure chest of information about us), not on the product.
Expressive Arts Therapy also provides another language with which to express our stories and innermost feelings when they are either difficult to talk about or to fully access with our conscious mind. Through symbols, pictures, movement, and play, we are able to bypass the rational mind and express ourselves more authentically and safely. It tends to feel more safe because the art acts as a container, provides some distance from our stories and emotions, and is often playful and fun. This is especially helpful when working with trauma.
Oli pastel drawing by Darja Milidragovic
Role of the Therapist
In this approach, therapists create a comfortable, playful and non-judgemental environment for clients to express themselves freely. By modelling empathy and unconditional acceptance of the client, the therapist teaches the client to do the same for themselves. This allows clients to look at their feelings, thought patterns, habits and behaviours more honestly, to face the truth with compassion, and to explore possibilities for transformation and growth.
The therapist also encourages the client to experiment with different ways of being. As a result, the client encounters and connects with their authentic self and creates both their art and life from a place a joy, vitality and truth, and less from a place of fear, wounded-ness and hurt.
A non-directive approach by the therapist also requires the client to make their own conclusions about themselves and their problems and to find their own solutions. The most meaningful change comes from within, and it is the therapist's job to facilitate the journey inside, not try to fix the outside.